Emperatriz Mayorga from El Salvador completed the Climate Champion Field Programme at the Latin America Regional Climate Centre. Read more about her experiences.

In Emperatriz’ own words, “we only have one planet in which we human beings can exist – if we want to survive – we must look after it''.

To help do this, since she returned from her time at the Regional Climate Centre, Emperatriz’ work has involved Leading on a recycling programme for the Bank’s facilities in El Salvador; which also involved liaising with the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources.

She has also developed a leaflet on recycling programs for schools and making this information available to 500 public schools across the country and organised a screening of Al Gore’s movie "An Inconvenient Truth" for colleagues in HSBC El Salvador .

And last but not least, Emperiatriz has encouraged more than 50 volunteers to initiate environmental projects in their offices and communities. These included reforestation projects and the initiation of clean-up programmes for areas of national importance, working in cooperation with national authorities and NGO’s.

Emperatriz’ day job is in HSBCs Risk Department, where she evaluates the sustainability risks associated with lending decisions. Her arrival in the risk department marked the beginning of incorporating environmental and social criteria into the way HSBC manages credit and risk in El Salvador. Emperatriz’ role allows her to get to know clients and work with them to develop solutions to environmental and social problems. This is what she likes most about her work; the interaction with people from all different industries who are looking for ways to increase sustainability and profitability.

Emperatriz’ experience on the Climate Champion Field Programme gave her access to the knowledge she was craving on climate change. It also gave her the ideas and tools she needed to set up climate change-related projects. What’s more, she has found implementing these climate change projects with the help of her colleagues across the business extremely rewarding.