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Hitting the research trail for the corporate social responsibility category for this year’s awards for excellence, Euromoney was eager to be as carbon-footprint-aware as possible, keeping printing to a minimum, taking public transport and making notes on recycled paper.
Alas, for one of the banks involved in the process, the concept seemed to go a little awry. After spending close to an hour carefully dissecting the firm’s hugely impressive CSR programme, including steps to lessen the bank’s environmental impact, our stunned researcher was presented with a hardback, glossy coffee table book containing details of the efforts to protect trees, of all the things!
Then there was the case of the bank pitching heavily for the CSR award that, when pitching for another, flew a senior banker from London to New York, just for one meeting. He came straight in from the airport with his briefcase, sat down with Euromoney for an hour, and hopped straight back into a car to the airport afterwards. Let’s hope he offset his carbon emissions.
Another CSR specialist told us: “As you can imagine, certain business groups are not as interested in CSR, so we sent all the senior managers off on a two-day retreat to try and help them understand what we are trying to do.”
Our question is: did they walk or cycle to the retreat? We somehow doubt it. Maybe it’s not just the senior bankers who don’t get this whole CSR thing.
Best bank for corporate social responsibility:
Bank of America Merrill Lynch
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Also shortlisted: |