Word: hsbc
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...HSBC is more than just a bank. Sure, it's flush with $1.5 trillion in assets, and its canny deposits scooped up pre-tax profits of $21 billion last year. But it's also got a worldwide staff of 250,000, many of whom spend much of their time in the air shuttling among HSBC's 10,000 offices. And that makes the London-based megabank both a global building manager and a major travel company...
...Environmentally, that's a pretty big footprint. HSBC may not be responsible for the kind of carbon emissions of, say, Big Oil, but producing the energy sucked up by the bank and its airborne execs resulted in the emission of some 606,300 tons of CO2 in 2003. This year that figure will top 771,630 tons. Unlike its bottom line, that's not a figure the bank is proud...
...willing to let it stand. In late 2004, HSBC committed itself to becoming carbon neutral-the first major bank to do so-by January 2006. The principle is simple: the bank spends its cash on green energy projects that reduce CO2 emissions by the same amount the bank creates. "We realized we had to go above that 'business as usual' scenario," says Francis Sullivan, HSBC's adviser on the environment, speaking from the corporation's towering London HQ. The bank was already spending $7 million annually to boost the energy efficiency of its buildings but, says Sullivan, "we cannot generate...
...during the last quarter of 2005, the bank could well have met its target. For each of the approximately 187,400 tons of CO2 HSBC generated, it sent $4.43 to four projects that reduced greenhouse-gas emissions by the same amount. Among the projects: a wind farm that powers up to 45,000 homes in New Zealand and a project in Germany that reduces emissions of methane gas by converting pig and cattle manure into heat and electricity. An independent auditor will report this month on whether the bank can officially call itself carbon neutral...
...HSBC has been expanding rapidly and has assets nearly equal to Citigroup...