UNESCO World Heritage Sites are deemed to have special cultural or physical significance; because they are valuable, they should be protected. Some financial-services firms are ensuring that the loans they make will not impede but promote sustainable economic development around the world, especially on WHSs. Standard Chartered is one such company that places its responsibility to protect these precious sites above indiscriminately seeking new business as part of its brand promise to be Here for good.
World Wildlife Fund (WWF)
World Heritage Sites ultimately belong to all of us, so it is in everyone’s interest to sustain them. Banks have an important part to play toward protecting the most valuable but also vulnerable places on the planet, ensuring that their investments are employed with the twin goals of promoting economic growth—through, for example, energy projects—but also of safeguarding the natural resources affected.
Do not be caught off guard, risks come in all forms and shapes. Progressive market players are beginning to consider environmental risks in earnest. More needs to be done, though, to equip bank managers to effectively factor into their decision-making the interests of the world’s most critical, often endangered, natural capital, such as that of UNESCO World Heritage Sites—committing to do what they can to preserve living legacies for future generations.