Our Commitment

I joined HSBC more than three years ago, seconded from the global environmental charity WWF, to help assess what steps HSBC had already taken and needed to take in terms of managing its business in an environmentally responsible way. I have recently moved from WWF to become a full-time employee of HSBC. At HSBC, we recognise the crucial role that a healthy environment plays in ensuring the future stability of the communities in which we operate. This, in turn, underpins a stable economy, which provides the framework for our own success and helps our customers prosper.

We have identified three focus areas to help fulfil our environmental responsibilities. The first is to reduce our impacts on the environment, including reducing energy, paper and water use as well as producing less waste and carbon dioxide. Secondly, we need to help our 125 million customers find ways to make their contribution to a more stable, sustainable environment. This means taking measures such as setting environmental performance standards for clients in high risk sectors - for example forestry or chemicals manufacturing. Finally, we give our support to the environment in communities where we operate; a quarter of all the donations HSBC currently makes are targeted at environmental initiatives.

You will find details of some of the steps we are taking to reduce our direct impacts and help our clients to reduce theirs, our environmental philanthropy and tips for what you can do in this website. I hope you will find these interesting and useful.

Francis Sullivan
Adviser on the Environment