{"id":632,"date":"2008-07-09T14:04:57","date_gmt":"2008-07-09T13:04:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/?p=632"},"modified":"2021-01-04T13:20:01","modified_gmt":"2021-01-04T12:20:01","slug":"squirrels-of-sustainability","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/squirrels-of-sustainability\/","title":{"rendered":"Squirrels of Sustainability"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>I\u2019ve got a bit of a height thing. When I’m more than eight feet above the ground I start to feel all a bit funny inside, as though I shouldn\u2019t really be there.<\/p>\n

This means I have several \u201cchallenge your boundaries\u201d moments each year as I run up and down ladders to clean windows, repair shed roofs, lop encroaching branches off the council\u2019s trees, and so on.<\/p>\n

Yet whenever I return to terra firma, nothing serious has ever happened and quite what got the emotions all worked up remains a mystery.<\/p>\n

Languages provide another \u201cladder moment\u201d and my knee-jerk reaction is to reach for the nearest online translation website. This is especially shameful if the language is French as I have a reasonable if rusty grasp of it.<\/p>\n

So I was relieved to find myself quite happily ploughing through a French website, almost oblivious to the fact it was a different language.<\/p>\n

The resulting understanding of a brand new certification scheme for financial products was well worth pushing my boundaries a little further.<\/p>\n

Going Beyond Commitments<\/strong>
\nThe story begins in 2005, when Friends of the Earth (FoE) analysed the environmental practices of several French banking institutions.<\/p>\n

One of those cited as lacking credibility was Caisse d’Epargne whose logo, incidentally, is an idealised squirrel. The bank took the criticisms seriously and made a commitment to improve its practices.<\/p>\n

Two years later it launched the B\u00e9n\u00e9fices Futur (Future Benefits) framework for a sustainable future. This in turn has led to many initiatives, including the opening of the first French bank accessible to deaf and hard of hearing.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Caisse d’Epargne
Financial Certification Scheme<\/a><\/div>\n

At the same time it entered into collaboration with a number of bodies, including FoE, WWF and the French environment agency, to produce a certification system for financial products.<\/p>\n

This summer that certification system was launched. And boy, is it good!<\/p>\n

Fast Moving Financial Goods<\/strong>
\nThe scheme rates savings products in three categories, displaying the results in a schematic similar to that used for the energy efficiency of Fast Moving White Goods (i.e. fridges, freezers, washing machines, etc).<\/p>\n

The three categories are broadly defined as follows:<\/p>\n

\n