Established in 1952, Banque du Caire (BDC) has been effectively adopting a wide range of prominent Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives providing a dedicated approach that drives significant impacts on community development in various fields.
Banque du Caire’s strategy takes into consideration the social and environmental consequences of business activities, not only across the country but also up to the most innovative global standards. We guarantee that the workflow demonstrates a full dedication to implementing effective governance.
The three pillars of BDC's values
In line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Egypt's vision for 2030, BDC's strategy focuses on economic, social and environmental development. With a global vision and local impact, the CSR team based our model on three main pillars: the economic empowerment of women and youth, sustainable communities, and the environment. Each of the three pillars works in tandem to transform our communities and empower people to lift themselves out of poverty and into developed social mobility.
Our definition of success is an impact that sustains for decades and empowerment of tomorrow's young leaders.
Additionally, Banque du Caire’s 5-year strategy supports the governmental endeavours pertinent to SDG10 that strives to reduce inequality and promotes social inclusion by ESG.
As a pioneer in micro-finance, BDC fosters partnerships with local and youth-led Non-Governmental Organisations with the overall objective of creating new job opportunities for the youth by providing vocational training and adequate support to persons with disabilities while assuring gender equality in all its activities.
As for the second pillar related to sustainable cities and communities, we have a wide range of support including the transformation of selected rural villages in upper Egypt. This support means providing the inhabitants with access to clean water and sanitation, renovating schools and enhancing the curriculum, refurbishing and equipping medical centres. Women are also supported as self-sufficient earners.
As for the third pillar, we believe in leading by example. In 2020, we launched the bGreen initiative with a special focus on advocacy and awareness-raising among our clients, suppliers, staff and community, addressing numerous identified areas such as:
- Climate change
- Recycling projects in 150 schools
- Cleaning 10 beaches across the country and help clean the River Nile
- Planting roofs
- Being a green bank
The bank has been adhering to the United Nations’ Global Compact principles since 2016; supporting precautionary approaches to environmental challenges, encouraging initiatives to promote greater environmental responsibility, diffusion of environmental responsibility and eco-friendly technologies.
The BCR educational values in the community
Leveraging on our commitment to sustain the economic and educational pillars, we launched vocational training initiatives, in which we bring workers from underprivileged areas and provide them with vocational training to develop their skills. We help them sustain and expand their small businesses by opening up their sales opportunities. The training is available for both men and women, who can be the breadwinners of their families.
With the training, they can start their own projects, generating income for their families and most importantly become independent business owners. The project is planned to continue on an annual basis and expand targeting sustainable development of the less privileged areas across Egypt.
From origin to distinction
In February, we launched the bGreen initiative, engaging all of our stakeholders to follow sustainable practices in their daily businesses. Under the umbrella of bGreen, we are implementing green roofing in our headquarters as well as launching the initiative to be the first bank to plant trees in some neighbourhoods across the country.
The bank takes the necessary measures to ensure its branches are designed in line with both national and international standards by rebranding old branches. We implemented the use of LED lighting along with the renovated floors of the headquarters - replacing traditional fluorescent lighting. This helps save energy and increase air conditioners’ efficiency as it decreases the heat emissions coming from lighting. Eco-friendly plumbing systems are used in the bank’s buildings to save water and energy, provide clean water, and decrease chemical pollution. The bank’s main building is equipped with double-glazing to absorb heat before it can negatively affect the central air conditioning system. Additionally, the branches’ facades are designed with thermal control to save energy consumed by air conditioners. Highlighting our environmental conservation initiatives, the bank also designed and developed a fully eco-friendly branch in Siwa where all materials used are environmentally friendly and in line with international standards.
To highlight our focus on sustainability within our community, we provided both public and private high schools with recycling bins to reduce waste. This served as a medium to provide educational awareness for the students, where we closely monitored workshops focused on environmental challenges. This programme is constructive for students to be aware of their wastes and can help them develop better living habits at an early age.
Supporting health in the community
In line with our core values, the bank has supported the local health units to better serve residents. BDC has provided the necessary medical devices used for treating diseases widely spread in the community. The bank provides consistent technical support visits for one year for the units’ doctors, and bi-annual medical convoys to stipulate support through free medical examinations, medicines and operational surgeries when needed. We also delivered free veteran convoys with the treatment of animals in the village, who provide a big portion of income to families, in terms of both food and textiles. The bank partners with numerous hospitals, providing them with not only financial support but also psychological support where employees visit those in need on a regular basis.
Engaging the staff
As part of our CSR & Sustainability strategy is to keep employees involved by giving them a sense of contribution to their societies, we launched our internal volunteering programme, designed for 9 thousand employees. The programme targets all bank staff across Egypt, engaging employees with monthly planned activities that revolve around giving back to the community. As a promotion and motivation for more engagement and loyalty to the programme, we reward the champions with a paid oversees trek to volunteer with one of the international NGOs that we partner with. Additionally, the programme holds an annual summit at the end of each year, where all our CSR partners and volunteers are invited to recognise the champions and announce new targets and trek destinations for the following year.
Banque du Caire follows its path to achieving the ultimate goals of creating environmental, social and governance values.
