FCMB Marks World Environment Day with Committed-to-Green  Campaign - Tuesday, June 2, 2009

As part of activities marking this year’s World Environment Day (WED), First City Monument Bank Plc (FCMB) on Friday (June 5, 2009) joined millions of people worldwide in the global movement on sustaining the environment. This is as the bank through its Committed to Green Campaign tagged FCMB C-to-G Campaign engaged host communities in Apapa and Victoria Island on an environmental sustainability awareness campaign.
The WED theme for 2009 chosen by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) is "Your Planet Needs You! Unite to Combat Climate Change." World Environment Day, commemorated each year on 5 June, is one of the principal vehicles through which the United Nations stimulates worldwide awareness of the environment and enhances political attention and action.
Staff educated the communities on environmental sanitation and embarked on physical cleaning of Sanusi Fafunwa Street in Victoria Island, Burma and Ware House Roads in Apapa, and Apapa Local Government Secretariat.
According to FCMB’s Chief Operating Officer, Anurag Saxena, the day’s activity was in furtherance of the bank’s environmental sanitation campaign, the FCMB Green Commitment. The campaign was recently launched in Lagos by the State Governor, Babatunde Fashola.  
“This journey, as part of our Corporate Social Responsibility is to do our little part to ensure environmental sustainability.  We are focusing on sensitization and education on sanitation and waste management through a plan to educate our staff and members of the community on environment friendly habits within the areas where we operate and conduct our business”.
 “We are aware that climate change is the defining issue of our generation and it threatens to erode human freedoms and limit our choice. It calls into question, the enlightenment principle that human progress will make the future look better than the past. In Nigeria, early warning signs are visible, increased exposure to drought, intense land degradation, eroding floods, environmental stress, failing agriculture, diminished opportunities for employment, diseases and dire consequences for our businesses. We are all familiar with the saying that health is wealth; a cleaner environment means better business,” Anurag also said.
He expressed the bank’s willingness to partner with well meaning state and local governments to lead by example in transforming the environment. “By so doing”, she noted, “our business improves and hopefully others will follow. Starting, with Lagos and step by step we will make our contribution towards getting Nigerian cities “green” again”.