Engagement is a buzzword in the business : they are summed to engage more with their customers (on social networks, in the course of purchase) and their employees as well (to avoid the turnover and attract the best talent). In parallel, the social and environmental responsibility (CSR) has become a true issue of attractiveness to investors, well in excess of the sustainable development report that the groups in the CAC 40 produced by obligation.
The banks, as financers of the economy, large projects sometimes questionable consequences of potentially harmful, are in the front line on all of these topics, with the energy group. They are regularly the subject of attacks and injunctions of NGOS and civil society, on the climate, activity in tax havens, in the form of happenings, like those of the reapers of chairs for example. Bad publicity, both external and internal, to which the banks would go well.
It is, without doubt, for all these reasons, BNP Paribas, the first bank in france and the euro area by its balance sheet, has decided to ” take a new direction in the consideration of societal and environmental issues at all stages of its operational decisions “. The bank of the rue d’antin announcement in a press release on Monday evening the creation of a directorate of the Commitment of the company on the 1st of September next.
“The challenges facing society and the environment today requires that our group is contributing even more actively to a growth that is sustainable for people and the planet. We are determined to give us the means to implement this commitment at all levels of the group, ” explains Jean-Laurent Bonnafé, director general of the banking group, in a press release.
Read also > Why BlackRock, the giant of Wall Street, increase the tone on diversity and climate
Environment, inclusion, diversity
This new direction will work with all the business of the bank, and all features “in order to define and implement the company’s commitment” in several key areas : economic development, the environment and the energy transition, social inclusion, and the valorization of the territories, the diversity and promoting the respect of human Rights.
“As a large company, present in 74 countries and playing a major role in the financing of the economy of several of them, its commitments are of crucial importance for the enjoyment of future generations” underlines the bank’s bicentenary.
BNP Paribas already had his head CSR, Laurence Pessez, since 2010 : it will join this new branch, as well as the G100, a group of 100 executives. The bank makes a tribute to the work she has done :
“Under his leadership, the bank has integrated the ranking “Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations in the World” by Corporate Knights, and has become by 2017 the first european bank to its performance in the area of responsibility according to the agency of extra-financial rating Vigeo-Eiris. “
The direction of the Commitment of the company will be entrusted to Antoine Sire, who knows very well the house to have managed the communication for 16 years (1997 to 2013). He will be deputy to the current director of communications, Bertrand Cizeau : the bank wants to visibly greater awareness of its initiatives on all these subjects in which major international investors, in the image of the world leader of the BlackRock asset management, are particularly sensitive. Antoine Sire, who had left the bank to write a book on the cinema and had joined the Havas agency, will work with the head of diversity and inclusion HR, Barbara Levéel.
