Innovation

Environmental Sustainability

CCB promotes their e-banking services to support environmental protection. For example, CCB started to switch from paper statements to e-statements in 2009 and adopted mobile phone banking and Wechat banking to meet customers’ needs. CCB also joined the Earth Hour and turns off the electricity for an hour each day. They have also joined Earth Partner events. CCB encourages employees to maintain low carbon emissions in daily operations. The company keeps office temperature around 25.5 degrees and uses video conferencing to reduce business travel. These environmental protections support SDGs 12 and 13: responsible consumption and production and climate action.

Social and Community Development

CCB contributes to society and the community. First, CCB was the first bank to establish individual online self-service loans to maximize the coverage of loan applicants and express loan service, personal loans for entrepreneurship, small and micro enterprises loans, and student loans. These inclusive financial services to support SDG 9.

Second, CCB started to partner with charities, such as The Boys’ and Girls’ Clubs Association of Hong Kong, which conducted a collection of simulated banking activities and provides an opportunity for primary and secondary school students to increase their knowledge of banking and finance early in life. Moreover, CCB targets poverty alleviation, encourages employee volunteering, and donates to the public welfare and charity work to improve education and medical service. One such example is the company's partnership with Lifeline Express. These charity works support SDG 4, quality education.

Third, CCB supports SDG 8, Decent Work and Economic Growth and SDG 5, Gender Equality. The company had about 360,000 staff as of 2017. Female staff account for 54% of the total. Additionally, CCB emphases employee physical health. One of the signature events is the Healthy Workforce Week, which provides healthy boxed lunches for staff and fitness classes durring the week. Furthermore, CCB covers social insurance for employees, provides staff education and training, operates Care Project , and provide a special relief fund for staff suffering from illness

Inspiration

“We are trying to make more contribution to the society. We are engaged in quite a lot of social campaigns in Hong Kong, one of the most meaningful campaigns is the Charity Run/Walk every year, partnering with Lifeline Express since 2011. This is the most satisfying community activity for myself, CCB will strive to engage in this meaningful function continuously.” Mr. Wong, the Senior Vice President of CCB said. The Lifeline Express is a charity that supports and funds an ophthalmology hospital train in rural China, which provides free cataract operations to low-income patients. This campaign supports SDG 3, good health and well-being.

Overall impact

CBD's online banking system serves 240 million clients, which has significantly reduced paper waste. The company's low carbon operations also reduced energy consumption and carbon emission. As a result, CCB effectively controls the energy conservation and emission reduction.

For social and community development, the inclusive financial services can promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation. Partnering with charities and donating to education and medical care can help to alleviate poverty and enhance quality education and learning opportunities for more children in need. Moreover, employee gender equality, employee health project, training and education, and Care project can increase employee satisfaction and result in more productive and innovative work performance.

CCB is devoted to achieving their long-term goals of social benefit, ecological benefit and the transformation into a green bank.

Business benefit

The main business benefit is the competitive advantage in the financial industry. CCB is listed on the Hong Kong Hang Seng Sustainable Development Company Index. Customers feel more comfortable putting their money or invest in a more sustainable bank. More customers means more revenue. A secondary benefit for CCB is the new market in mobile banking due to the rapid growth of technology in internet security and mobile application. Yet another benefit is the increase retention and employee wellbeing because of CCB employee benefit policies.

Social and environmental benefit

CCB's social responsibilities and related party transactions committee emphasizes society, the environment, and employee sustainability development. CCB extended the limitation of the small business loans, which supported economic development and maintained the value chain in the market. Charity work, such as education and medical aid are critical components of social responsibility. Education and medical service are some fundamental needs and rights. CCB believes knowledge changes fate. In this way, the multinational corporation gives back to society.

Interview

Ivan Wong, Senior Vice President