We conduct our business in an environmentally responsible manner and are continually looking for ways in which to improve our environmental performance. This includes reducing our ecological footprint, increasing public awareness of environmental issues and having a positive influence on the environmental practices of our customers and business partners. We also contribute to broader initiatives by supporting green groups such as WWF Hong Kong, Friends of the Earth (Hong Kong), Green Power and The Conservancy Association.
We established an Environmental Committee in 2003, which implements and monitors our environmental management system. In 2005, we became the first local financial institution to gain ISO 14001 certification, and, in 2007, we became carbon neutral.
As part of our commitment to working with the business community on environmental issues, in June 2007 we launched the Hang Seng Bank Pearl River Delta Environmental Awards in partnership with the Federation of Hong Kong Industries. Designed to acknowledge and reward sound environmental practices by manufacturing companies in Hong Kong and the Pearl River Delta region, the awards attracted entries from more than 110 companies undertaking nearly 340 projects in its inaugural year.
Bank volunteers from Hong Kong, the Mainland and Macau travelled to Yunnan province to participate in constructing 200 biogas toilets that will provide renewable energy to about 1,000 villagers and save 500 tons of firewood every year, the equivalent of about 20 acres of forest. The project will also reduce annual carbon dioxide emissions by 2,500 tons.
We are also helping to promote greater environmental awareness among young people by allocating a total of HK$14 million to nine local tertiary education institutions to support their organisation of a series of environmental programmes and through our 'Green Banking Services on Campus' initiative.
We continually strive to reduce our consumption of natural resources and choose recycled or environmentally friendlier materials whenever possible. In addition to our in-house recycling schemes for paper, plastic, aluminium cans and used batteries, we make efforts to responsibly dispose of IT equipment and other office items that we can no longer use.
In 2007, we recycled more than 14,400 toner cartridges and donated over 2,400 items of serviceable IT hardware and related accessories to charitable organisations.
Following the sale of more than 8,000 pieces of old furniture from our head office, we donated the HK$200,000 proceeds to Friends of the Earth (Hong Kong) to support its 'A Green New Year for a Sustainable Future' campaign, which aimed to raise public awareness about how to celebrate Chinese New Year in an environmentally responsible manner.
We employ technology to help save resources by promoting the use of electronic transaction and communications channels.
In February 2005, we launched our e-Statement service, under which customers can switch from paper to electronic format account statements. Similar initiatives were introduced for shareholder communications documents and investment advice notices in 2006 and 2007 respectively. More than 172,000 Personal e-Banking customers and 2,700 shareholders now receive materials in electronic format, resulting in an annual saving of about 8 million sheets of paper.
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