By Pius Alabi
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Unity Bank Plc has partnered three non-governmental organisations – Recycling Scheme for Women and Youth Empowerment (RESWAYE), MEDIC and KBG to organise a beach clean-up to mark the 2022 World Earth Day.
This is contained in a statement signed by the bank’s Head Corporate Communications, Mr Matthew Obiazikwor, made available to the our correspondent .
The statement said that the clean-up was part of the bank’s commitment to promoting environmental sustainability.
It said that no fewer than 200 members of staff, as well as over 100 members of RESWAYE thronged the venue of the cleaning exercise.
It noted that the exercise took place at 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 it safer and reduce ocean pollution.
The statement added that the bank carried out tree planting across the country.
The bank’s Group Head, Risk Management, Mr Chris Nwambu, was quoted as saying that the World Earth Day initiatives were part of its corporate social responsibility aimed at leading major collaborative initiatives for climate action.
Citing recent reports on ocean pollution, Nwambu said that of the over 300 million tonnes of plastic waste that end up in oceans yearly, an estimated eight million tonnes of plastic enters our oceans.
“There are 5.25 trillion pieces of plastic waste estimated to be in our oceans.
“While 70 per cent of our debris sinks into the ocean’s ecosystem, 15 per cent floats, and 15 per cent lands on our beaches,” Nwambu said.
He added that such activity as the collaboration and partnership by organisations would play a vital role in reducing the threats of ocean plastics and thereby reducing the climate risks they pose to the earth.
He said that Unity Bank would continue to be very aggressive in terms of environmental protection and sustainability commitments.
Nwambu said that in line with the bank’s agribusiness strategic focus over the past couple of years, the bank had granted access to credit to businesses in greenhouse farming and metal recycling to the tune of N3.25 billion.
“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, 31 branches of the bank are running on Hybrid Solar Solution while 70 per cent of our 416 ATMs bank-wide are powered by hybrid solar solutions with a projection to migrate an additional 15 per cent 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,” he said.
