KBC employees committed to environmental and climate protection
and aim to plant an aggregate 42 000 trees
Tuesday, May 14, 2019 — ‘Team Blue goes green' is the challenge that Johan Thijs, KBC Group CEO, is putting to Team Blue, a group-wide initiative within KBC to strengthen the ties and promote cooperation among all of KBC’s staff in the various countries where KBC is active. The theme ‘KBC saves the planet’ was chosen by an overwhelming majority of KBC employees.
KBC staff have been challenged to set up as many activities as possible between 20 May and 30 June that have a positive impact on the climate and environment. The actions focus on three themes that are closely related to KBC's sustainability policy, namely reducing CO2 emissions, contributing to the circular economy and cleaning up waste.
In return, KBC will plant a tree for each employee who participates in an activity. The ultimate goal is to involve all 42 000 KBC employees in the initiative, so that in the autumn, 42 000 trees can be planted in the various core countries where KBC is active.
Johan Thijs, CEO of KBC Group explains: ‘Climate change is a real challenge for the financial sector too and is undeniably an important theme in a financial company’s risk management. Dealing with climate change is therefore very important as regards protecting the future of our society and achieving further sustainable economic development. Our employees are also concerned about the climate and the environment and want to make a positive contribution in this area. By taking on this challenge, we want to act together to create greater awareness of this issue and to increase our impact on the climate and the environment in the positive sense. We will make this impact tangible through specific actions that allow us to measure the reduction in CO2 emissions, the number of devices recycled, and the weight of waste collected.
I’m confident that after the four previous successful Team Blue initiatives, our employees will again take up the challenge and ensure that we will be able to plant Team Blue forests in our various core countries.’
“Team Blue goes green”
Increasing the positive impact on the climate and the environment and creating more awareness is the challenge facing more than 42 000 Team Blue members.
From 20 May to 30 June 2019, KBC employees can take part – along with colleagues, family, friends and customers – in organised or self-organised activities that have a positive impact on the environment and the climate. The three themes covered by the challenge are aimed at reducing CO2 emissions (20 May-2 June); contributing to the circular economy (3 June-16 June); and collecting waste (16 June-30 June).
Every KBC employee involved in an activity 'earns' a tree. All the trees will be planted in the autumn in each of the core countries where KBC is present (Belgium, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria and Ireland). This will be done in collaboration with a number of local organisations, including Natuurpunt, National Forest of Slovakia and Sázíme Stromy .
With every Team Blue challenge, the bar is raised a bit higher
In recent years, KBC employees have successfully taken on various challenges.
For the first challenge, our staff had to take 1 000 selfies; 3 258 were taken in total.
The next challenge entailed staff decking out their workplace or office in the Team's blue colour scheme during the 2017 Christmas period. Throughout the KBC group, KBC employees ensured that 650 bank branches and insurance agencies and dozens of areas at the head offices would be suffused in a bright blue glow.
For the third challenge, KBC organised the world's largest online quiz on 31 May 2018. With 1 129 simultaneous participants in six countries, the world record for participating in an online quiz was broken under the watchful eye of Guinness World Records. 7 695 employees applied to take part in the quiz.
The fourth challenge, Aim for the moon (and back), enabled Team Blue to exercise together to cover 770 867 kilometres, so that 500 000 euros could be donated to various charities.