Earth Day: A date to think about sustainability

Heat waves, forest fires, acidifying oceans, melting glaciers and other phenomena in recent years have sparked greater awareness about preserving the planet. Events like Earth Day are a chance to continue alerting society of the urgent need to take measures to halt the devastation.

Humans’ health depends on the health of the planet. The continuous decline of ecosystems endangers living things, and humans are no exception. Protecting or restoring ecosystems are the best ways to fight climate change, stop species becoming extinct and conserve the natural resources we need for a sustainable future. To address the challenge of climate change, people, not-for-profit organizations, private companies and government agencies must act now. 

How can you protect the planet?

For decades, society has depended on natural resources to progress. With global population growing above 8 billion people, it has caused a mismatch between production capacity and satisfying humans’ consumption needs. Transforming people’s relationship with nature is critical to guaranteeing a sustainable future. Here are some ways you can help every day:

What is Santander doing for the planet?

As one of the world’s biggest banks, we’re committed to the transition to a low-carbon economy. We design our products and services to help our customers be more sustainable. We’re a global leader in financing for renewable energy. We offer retail customers, SMEs and large corporates solutions to purchase, construct and renovate energy-efficient buildings and purchase electric or hybrid vehicles.

We work with multilateral development banks to meet our customers’ borrowing and liquidity needs in the markets where we operate.  

But that’s not all. We work hard to reduce the impact of our operations on the environment. We cut and offset CO₂ emissions, minimize waste (we removed single-use plastics from our offices in 2021) and raise awareness among our employees of the planet’s burdens and needs. Since 2011, our energy efficiency and sustainability initiatives have reduced our electricity consumption by 33%, our CO₂ emissions by 71%, and our use of paper by 80%.

Events like Earth Day are a chance to shine a light on the planet’s problems. It's also a time to make individual and collective commitments to preserve ecosystems, use natural resources responsibly, and fight climate change and other disasters. Earth Day is for everyone.