HSBC Go Green(wash)?
HSBC are the latest corporation to want your green.
“Why not do your bit and help the environment by Going Green with an HSBC current account?”
The Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation are currently promoting themselves in a “go green” promotion where they promise not to send you paper bills and to contact you only via email or phone wherever possible in order to save paper.
In return for you, the consumer, “doing your bit” they promise to donate £5.00 to a good cause for every new “green” current account they open. Well, in fact it’s three good causes – WWF, Earthwatch and The Climate Group.
Now this isn’t really new news as HSBC were keen to go green back in January and in March. Then they donated £2.00 for every green account opened to the same charities and contributed a total of £50,000 (split three ways) as a result of the January promotion.
We know that companies and corporations that are publicly being seen to “go green” boost their reputation, but ethics and social responsibility are also part of the deal…
HSBC have recently lost a lot of money in the US subprime mortgages crisis. Subprime lending is basically lending money to people who are less likely or able to pay the money back, therefore they are charged higher premiums for the risk involved to the lender. Is that socially responsible or ethical behaviour from the world’s 5th largest company?
The lure of going green may be enough to tempt new customers who haven’t done their homework and simply think that paperless billing & a donation to an “earth charity” is enough to go green.
The issue is far deeper than that: who do HSBC handle money for, who do they invest in, where does their money go? Shouldn’t the consumer know that there are other far greener and ethical options such as The Co-operative Bank (The only UK high street bank to have a customer-led ethical policy) or Triodos Bank?
Well you do now.
