Focus on biodiversity

This week sees the start of the European Sustainable Development Week offering Groupe BPCE an opportunity to heighten awareness among its employees and to mobilize them from September 18 to October 8 around a major issue: biodiversity.

Why talk about biodiversity?

The way ecosystems work, the diversity of our food, the ingredients used in medicines… biodiversity is omnipresent. Without it, the planet Earth could lose its equilibrium. And yet, never before have the threats facing biodiversity been so severe. The French are acutely aware of the need to protect biodiversity and consider it the 3rd most important environmental issue*. In the next few months, the world’s different countries will be called upon to set new goals for protecting the natural environment, notably at the World Summit on Biodiversity and the World Conservation Congress. The question of biodiversity will therefore come under close scrutiny in the same way as the climate.

What can we do?
A grassroots commitment 

Groupe BPCE and its companies are locally based players committed to environmental issues and working to preserve biodiversity through three main areas of action: their financing and investment activities, their local commitments as responsible corporate citizens, and their corporate philanthropy and sponsorship initiatives.
 
By way of example, Natixis has joined the Act4nature initiative, the Banques Populaires and the Caisses d’Epargne are increasingly providing financing for organic and responsible agriculture, and Crédit Coopératif supports France Nature Environnement, the French federation of nature and environmental protection associations. 

* Source: CGDD/SDES, Environment platform of the monthly “Camme” survey of the economic outlook of French households conducted by INSEE in November 2019