The Civil Society

Of course we get involved socially, but we do more than that: we create and coalesce communities to bring about positive change. Our distinctive feature is the variety of causes we get involved in - from environmental protection to blood donation, from creating a new generation of climate leaders to reinvigorating Romania's villages, from climate change solutions to rebuilding schoolyards.

Social involvement

The spearhead of BRD Groupe Société Générale projects in terms of social involvement is ÎntreVecini. More specifically, the NGO of the same name offers those living in blocks the chance to become prosumers, i.e. small electricity producers, benefiting from reduced costs for shared electricity consumption. The ÎntreVecini project is supported by BRD Groupe Société Générale as lead partner and provides for the installation of photovoltaic panels on the block, as well as the implementation of sustainable actions, all worth €15,000 per community. The pilot project has been successfully carried out in Sector 6 of the capital, and the next step is for owners' associations in Sectors 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 to sign up to the project on the intrevecini.ro platform, where they will also find an explanatory guide on how to become prosumers on their blocks. Later, the project will be extended to other cities in Romania, in order to create at least one ÎntreVecini community in every county in the country.

Conceived as a System of Operation for Change, the ÎntreVecini project regenerates the community spirit on the block and creates urban communities in Romanian cities, transforming them into sustainable hubs. All this by creating local micro-leaders and carrying out sustainable activities in communities around the 17 Sustainable Development Goals adopted by the United Nations and the European Union. Thus, by 2027, ÎntreVecini aims, together with its partners, to involve 1,000,000 people living in blocks of flats in projects, making a significant contribution to raising living standards in every county across the country.

Environment

Of the six BRD Groupe Société Générale projects that focused on the environment in 2022, perhaps the most visible was the Climate Change Summit, the first in Romania dedicated to climate change. The event, created together with Social Innovation Solutions, an organization active in the fields of sustainability, social impact, and innovation, reached an audience of around one million people. It was the first summit in Romania dedicated to climate change and has the ambition to become the most relevant regional conference on climate change solutions, bringing together expertise from around the world and the brightest minds in Romania. As for the participation in the Climate Change Summit, it can be summarised as follows: 70 speakers from 15 countries, 462 participants in the Odeon Theatre hall and almost 500 registered online viewers from 19 countries, plus a live broadcast watched by over 766,600 people.

The event included the most ample foresight exercise on the future of Romania: Climate Scenarios for Romania 2030. The sessions focused on the impact of climate change in Romania in 2030 and brought together over 160 key representatives from public, private, civic, and academic sectors. The project had eight working groups on key topics such as green energy, sustainable agriculture, climate resilience of cities, biodiversity, finance, investment and NREP, circular economy, climate technology solutions, and climate legislation.

Another environmental project is the BRD Forest Fund initiative, which aims to finance and promote programs and actions that protect forests in Romania. We are involved with several entities of the Société Générale Group in France and Romania. The program carried out by EcoTree in France involves restoring the soil, forest lakes and populating the planted forest with honey plants and bee hives. In this way, by involving local people, the forest will also benefit the local economy. The project is important precisely because of its multiple effects on the environment, people, and the local economy.

Volunteering

The thousands of people at BRD Groupe Société Générale are a huge asset, as they are eager to get involved in supporting many causes, offering their skills, knowledge and desire to contribute, to create change and value both within the Group and in the community. ZiuaV (V for Volunteering, Value) is probably one of the largest corporate volunteering programmes. We have built a virtual marketplace for a cause and our colleagues can choose where to contribute their time, skills, money, ideas, and energy.

What's more, the bank facilitates involvement and allocates 1 day/year/employee for volunteering. Launched in 2018, the program is based on a specially created online platform, where several thousand employees have registered to access volunteering opportunities in different areas and fields of intervention: blood donation, actions in hospitals, schoolyard restoration, charitable sports actions, preparing Christmas presents for children or preparing hot meals for disadvantaged members of the community.

For example, in 2023, more than 1000 Société Générale employees in Romania participated in Move For Youth. 203 teams competed in running, walking, and cycling to turn as many kilometers as possible into funds for an important cause: environmental education for high school students in Romania, to help build a new generation of climate leaders. The volunteers' efforts helped reach the 3,000,000 km target, which means financial support for 60 charities who benefit young people. Participants from Romania ranked 3rd out of 5,050 teams.