Even as the Copenhegen summit is going on trying to find a solution to check climate change, domestic banks are promoting green concepts in many ways in their day-to-day business.
Many banks including the country?s largest bank State Bank of India, Punjab National Bank, Central Bank of India and IndusInd Bank are promoting green concepts by providing soft and easy loans for the same and even adopting eco-friendly steps at their own levels.
Also going green has not only helped them spreading the message of clean environment, but also aided them in cost reduction.
Private sector bank IndusInd Bank has also taken initiatives to reduce its carbon footprint.
IndusInd Bank on Friday inaugurated Mumbai?s first solar-powered ATM as part of its green office project campaign ?Hum aur Hariyali?. It also unveiled a ?Green Office Manual?A Guide to Sustainable Practices?, prepared in association with the Centre for Environmental Research and Education (CERE).
IndusInd Bank has a comprehensive plan to reduce its carbon footprint. Some of the initiatives being undertaken under this plan are solar-powered ATMs, thin computing, e-archiving, e-learning, e-waste management, paperless fax, energy conservation, CNG cars and also supporting finance programs with incentives to go green.
The goal of the green banking initiative is to promote sustainable business practices to offset the effects of climate change through energy and resource conservation, while protecting the environment for future generations, said Ramesh Sobti, CEO &MD, IndusInd Bank.
Second-largest state-owned lender, PNB has also taken quite a few initiatives. The bank has stopped issuance of circulars in papers . Rather, it is making all its guidelines and circulars available to its staff working across 5,000-odd branches through its internal site. Moreover, the bank has replaced its generators with dual generators which work on sunshine. The same technique has been used by the bank for running some of its ATMs in rural areas too. ?These initiatives helped my bank reduce its capital expenditure and at the same time slashing operational expenses, said RIS Sidhu, chief general manager of the bank.
Though a non-starter on front so far, the Central Bank of India has taken a few initiatives. It has distributed 30 of its old PCs to Spastic society of India for free. It was to avoid dumping of old computers, which pollute environment.