Four months after the start of its project Green Banking Piraeus Bank Bulgaria reduced the use of paper by 10%. The Bank invited its clients to join its efforts to reduce the amount of the used paper and to contribute to the protection of the environment. As a result more than 5,000 of them chose to give up their printed monthly statements and use electronic banking instead. These were the results announced by Mr. Emil Angelov, Deputy CEO of Piraeus Bank Bulgaria at the first edition of Banking Management Forum, organised by Pari daily.
In the first stage of the initiative Green Banking Piraeus Bank Bulgaria achieved the planned annual targets: decrease of the used paper with 10% thus saving 3.5 tons of paper, preventing the cutting of 84 threes and waste of 147,000 litters of water.
Striving to expand its "green" activities and at the same time to turn them into profitable business practices, Piraeus Bank launched a new initiative that aims at helping companies in Southeast Europe to adapt to the climate changes. The initiative Climabiz (a combination of the words climate and business), is co-financed by the European Commission and includes the developing of a 3-year project in Greece, Bulgaria, Romania and Cyprus. Piraeus Bank will be working on the project in cooperation with WWF and face3ts, a consulting company with expertise in climate change issues.
This project addresses the big questions of our times; that is, how and to what extent is a company affected by climate change, and how it can cope with it. This evaluation is happening for the first time in Greece and it is also an innovative task within the European Union. Through Climabiz project Piraeus Bank will help overcoming climate changes by identifying the impacts and business opportunities arising from climate changes in Southeast Europe. The project also includes development of dedicated applications and e-tools to estimate both the impacts of climate change and the adaptation opportunities for companies. The Bank will raise the awareness of its employees in this field.