UOB HeartbeatCaring for the Environment

Raising Awareness for the Environment

UOB launched several initiatives to cultivate awareness of environmental protection among the young. Our green efforts also extended to employee volunteerism activities, encouraging colleagues and children beneficiaries to reduce, to reuse and to recycle. We also eliminated single-use plastics where possible and replaced them with environmentally-friendly alternatives.
Learning through eco-excursions

Learning through eco-excursions

As part of our UOB Heartbeat CSR programme, we organised a series of eco-excursions to create awareness on the importance of environmental sustainability among students in Singapore. Held during the school holidays and adhering to safe distancing measures, the activities took the students on an experiential nature learning journey from the comfort of their classrooms.

Through guided tours and with the help of UOB employee volunteers, we engaged close to 200 students from disadvantaged backgrounds in learning about local fauna and flora in 2022. Since the programme’s launch in 2019, it has evolved to include hands-on workshops for children to experience and learn about biodiversity conservation, food sustainability and renewable energy - all of which are pertinent to today’s global drive on sustainability.

Championing Environmental Causes

/Supporting a circular economy

Supporting a circular economy

In 2022, we gave more than 10,000 pieces of retiring brand apparel from across the region a new lease of life, either by way of upcycling or recycling. In Singapore, the uniforms were repurposed into useful lifestyle items such as small pouches and laptop bags and sold internally to UOB colleagues, with proceeds donated to children in need at ARC Children’s Centre. Alfya Atelier, a social enterprise was engaged to oversee the design and production of the items, in doing so creating job opportunities for persons-in-need such as single mothers, or persons with special needs. In Thailand, uniforms were turned into eco-friendly art installations, with surplus raw fabric donated to the Office of Social Development's Bangkok Metropolitan Administrator (BMA) Vocational Training Schools for 800 disadvantaged students’ use in sewing and fashion courses.

/Turning waste into wonder

Turning waste into wonder

As part of our ‘Waste to Wonder’ sustainability programme in Thailand, we turned 4,070kg of paper and used red packets into three recyclable cardboard furniture sets comprising of tables and stools to Wattrisamakkee School for student’s use. The upcycling process was also shared with the students to promote environmental awareness amongst them, and encourage critical and creative thinking in their everyday lives to live sustainably.

/Going green and doing good

Going green and doing good

This year, as part of our ‘Do Good Do Green’ programme in China, we repurposed 8,000 used plastic bottles to create T-shirts and reusable tote bags for our 2022 UOB Heartbeat Run/Walk event – our annual flagship fundraising and volunteerism programme. In doing so, we turned waste that was destined for the landfills into something useful and meaningful.

Championing Environmental Causes