Standard Chartered Bank has joined the EWS-WWF’s corporate membership programme as part of its efforts to support the national fight against climate change.

The bank held its first edutainment event together to teach children about the environment and how to combat climate change as part of the ‘Heroes of the UAE’ campaign.

Through interactive games and activities, over sixty children learned about the causes of climate change and top tips to conserve energy.

By adopting simple steps to be less wasteful of the country’s natural resources, the ‘Heroes’-themed event turned the youngsters into climate saving superheroes.

Shayne Nelson, regional chief executive, Standard Chartered Mena said, 'Climate change is one of the most serious threats facing the planet, and as a business, we take our responsibility towards protecting the environment very seriously.'

'Through this partnership, we seek to promote the country’s environmental stewardship and engage our employees to be cautious of their actions on the environment to help reduce our carbon footprint.'

Tanzeed Alam, climate change and sustainability manager, EWS-WWF said, 'We welcome Standard Chartered Bank to our corporate membership programme and applaud their participation in the ‘Heroes’ campaign by bringing education and awareness of climate change issues to employees and their families on World Environment Day.'

'I feel the children and their parents learned a lot from the games and activities today and I also urge every single person in the UAE to make a difference by joining heroesoftheuae.ae.'

In the lead up to World Environment Day, Standard Chartered Bank launched a 'Go Paperless' campaign offering customers and staff the opportunity to receive paperless bank statements.

With over 2,000 staff successfully adopting the new measure, 15,000 envelopes and 27,000 sheets of paper per month are now being saved, sparing an estimated 300 trees per year.

Other recent initiatives the Bank has been involved in include clean-up and waste collection drives organised by the Environment Agency – Abu Dhabi (EAD), Emirates Environmental Group (EEG), and WWF’s Earth Hour movement.

The Bank’s environmental commitment is underpinned by its pledge at the Clinton Global Initiative to finance $8-10 billion of renewable and clean energy projects by 2012, Nelson added.-TradeArabia News Service