Santander will turn off the lights at manned buildings and branches and remotely at all others.
It runs several initiatives to help counter environmental ruin and to preserve and restore ecosystems in the countries where it operates.
In Spain, employees and their relatives volunteer to reforest woodlands, clean up beaches and riverbanks, and hang nest boxes for birds through Santander Natura.
Madrid, 25 March 2022.
Banco Santander will tomorrow join the World Wildlife Fund’s (WWF) global Earth Hour movement, with a symbolic blackout of its buildings in Brazil, Chile, Germany, Mexico, Poland, Portugal, Spain and the UK from 8:30 pm to 9:30 pm (CET).
This year, Santander is echoing the WWF’s warning of critical times that call for greater ambition and urgent action to halt and reverse the loss of nature by 2030. Under the banner Kilómteros por el Planeta (“Kilometres for the planet”), it’s asking individuals and organizations to combine enough steps to cover the Earth’s 40,000 km diameter. The challenge represents “the most important race of our lives” and requires changes in production and consumption to make the planet more sustainable.
Santander is encouraging its employees to join in this initiative on environmental conservation, one of the pillars of its Responsible Banking strategy.
Environmental oath
Santander is working tirelessly in its core markets to make sure its operations have the least possible impact on the environment and to lead the transition towards a low-carbon economy, accompanying its customers along the way. It also pledged to contribute to the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement to combat climate change.
Santander, which is a world leader in renewable energy financing, will align its power generation portfolio to the Paris Agreement by 2030, end financial services to customers if more than 10% of their revenue depends on coal, and eliminate its exposure to coal mining.
Carbon-neutral in its own operations, the bank has made such other climate change and environmental pledges as sourcing its entire electricity supply from renewable sources in its core markets by 2025.