OREANDA-NEWS. March 26, 2010. Coherently with its commitment to sustainable development, on Saturday March 27th, UniCredit will take part in the worldwide event sponsored by WWF, by switching off lights in some of its major buildings in Europe.

UniCredit Group will take part in Earth Hour, the worldwide event sponsored by WWF, to be held next Saturday, March 27th, with the aim of making people, institutions and companies aware of climate change issues.

At 8.30 p.m. CET, lights will be switched off for 60 minutes in several European UniCredit Group buildings in order to show, through a symbolic action, the Group’s commitment to climate protection and to highlight the need of reducing greenhouse gases emissions. UniCredit Group has promoted the Earth Hour message through its internal communication tools, inviting its 166,000 employees to join the initiative.

The Group will take part in the WWF event coherently with its commitment on climate change, which has translated into several actions over the past years. Those actions include the use of energy efficiency measures and renewable sources in its branches and main buildings, as well as the participation in such programs as UNEP FI (United Nation Environment Program Finance Initiative), a global partnership between UNEP and the financial sector aiming to evaluate the impact of environmental and social issues on the financial performance.

Through its presence in the WWF event, the Group chooses to give “symbolic evidence” of its awareness that financial groups have a responsibility in tackling the main environmental issues and sustainable development.

On Saturday 27th, Earth Hour will encompass 25 time zones (starting at 8.30 p.m. CET), switching off lights of cities, monuments, institutions, firms and homes all over the world. It will involve this year a record of more than 2,700 cities in 120 countries, aiming to involve one billion people to call on world policy makers to preserve the planet against the global climate change.