No fewer than 200 members of staff, as well as over 100
members of RESWAYE thronged the venue of the cleaning exercise – the Lagos Kids
Beach Garden within the Oba Elegushi beach environs – where they picked and
removed over 100,000 plastic bottles from the beach to make the beach safer and
reduce ocean pollution.
The Bank also carried out a tree planting exercise across
the country, as the Staff of the Bank across the bank’s branches nationwide
planted at least one tree.
Speaking at the event, the Group Head, Risk Management,
Unity Bank Plc, Mr. Chris Nwambu said that the World Earth Day initiatives are
part of the Bank’s corporate social responsibility aimed at leading major
collaborative initiatives for climate action.
Citing recent reports on ocean pollution, he decried that
“of the over 300 million tons of plastic waste ends up in ocean’s yearly, an
estimated 8 million tons of plastic enters our oceans. There are 5.25 trillion
pieces of plastic waste estimated to be in our oceans. While 70% of our debris
sinks into the ocean’s ecosystem, 15% floats, and 15% lands on our beaches.”
He added that such activity as the collaboration and
partnership by organizations would play a vital role in reducing the threats of
ocean plastics and thereby reduce the climate risks they pose to the earth.
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A team of Unity Bank staff plants a tree |
He said, “But beyond supporting sustainability-related
business, the operations of the Bank have adopted sustainable practices in the
way we carry out daily activities as a matter of corporate culture. As of
today, thirty-one branches of the bank are running on Hybrid Solar Solution
while 70% of our 416 ATMs Bank-wide are powered by hybrid solar solutions with
a projection to migrate an additional 15% to hybrid solar solutions before the
end of 2022.
“The reduction of carbon emissions by the bank since
migrating branches and ATMs locations to Hybrid Solar Energy in 2018 now totals
21,631kg of Carbon Dioxide, saved monthly.”
Unity Bank has over time promoted corporate and business
philosophy that encourages low paper usage, recycling and adoption of renewable
energy through increased investment in solar-powered branches and ATMs.