World Environment Day is Saturday, 5 June and as the UN describes it, the event is the United Nations' main vehicle for encouraging awareness and action for the protection of the environment.

Mambu understands that we live on a shared planet with finite resources. Managing our environmental footprint was one of the first focus areas under our broader corporate responsibility efforts.

In 2019, we achieved carbon neutral status by offsetting our emissions through reforestation projects. The 2020 pandemic brought a dip to our emission figures, but as we recover, we are asking ourselves what an effective mix of emission reduction, mitigation and adaptation measures would look like for us. There will always be some unavoidable emissions, but our goal is to reduce those to a minimum so we can provide a low-carbon digital banking infrastructure to our clients and their customers. This requires a holistic assessment of all the ways in which we impact the physical environment and identifying impactful areas of intervention.

Some of these areas include:

• Culture - Two thirds of our lifetimes are spent outside of the formal working environment. This will increase even more as we come back to blended working arrangements after the pandemic. How do we relate to this time? We want to raise awareness on environmental issues among Mambuvians, and empower our staff with knowledge to set off towards more sustainable lifestyles - within and outside of the office.
• Innovation - The shock of the pandemic did not bring our business to a halt. We will pick up the better lessons from this year and reconsider how we connect across teams and engage with our clients and customers in ways that are less polluting.
• Collaboration - Much of our emission reduction potential is locked within our supply chain. Can we collaborate with our office space providers to integrate nature-based solutions to manage buildings’ heating and cooling demands? Is there ground-breaking technology we can support that will reduce emissions from data centers? We are exploring opportunities to manage our impact where we have shared control over these physical assets.
• Our platform - As disruptors of the financial services industry, we have a responsibility for stewarding this disruption. Mambu was founded on the belief that responsible financial services can play a significant role in poverty alleviation and improving lives. We are uniquely positioned in the financial ecosystem to support the alignment between capital flows and sustainable development. Building on our foundations, we will initiate a responsible lending programme to support non-profit and microfinance organizations who lift their communities, including those vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.

We're now at an inflection point, where we're accelerating the foundations we've built. Our rapid growth is pushing us to critically think about the responsibility it brings. As the famous quote goes - 'we do not inherit the earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children'. For us, this means achieving market potential while doing no harm and improving the environment and the communities that we are all part of.

To take action during World Environment Day, register for one of the many virtual and physical events planned near you.