Serving Our Community Responsibly
We strive to make a positive contribution to the communities we serve through charitable partnerships, and to provide our employees with opportunities to support social and environmental causes that are important to them.
Our Sustainability Policy, together with the Bank’s internal Community Investment Guidelines, sets out the Group’s strategy and objectives with regard to social contributions. Through our foundations and volunteer teams, we deliver meaningful programmes to beneficiaries in Hong Kong, Chinese Mainland, and other markets under our three focus areas of education, social welfare, and the environment.
Hong Kong
In 2009, The Bank of East Asia established the Bank of East Asia Charitable Foundation (BEA Foundation) to reaffirm its commitment to the community on the occasion of its 90th Anniversary. Since its establishment, the BEA Foundation has partnered with major non-governmental organisations to develop programmes that promote personal development through the acquisition of skills, supporting mental health, empowering youths through education, and alleviating the hardships of Hong Kong’s most vulnerable.
Beyond Environmental Arts Festival (BEA Festival)
Partnering with the Hong Kong Youth Arts Foundation, the Beyond Environmental Arts Festival (BEA Festival) was launched in 2022 to raise public awareness of environmental protection through visual and performing arts. Each year, a series of fun and free activities is offered to the public to promote sustainability to the next generation.
Golden Adventures
The BEA Foundation, together with ”la Caixa” Banking Foundation, has supported and funded the “Palliative Care for the Elderly” (the Programme) organised by The Salvation Army Hong Kong and Macau Territory for over 10 years, in supporting older adults in end-of-life care and promoting the wellbeing of Hong Kong’s ageing population.
By introducing a new model of elderly services for the community, we have been promoting local awareness of end-of-life planning and care needs of retirees and seniors to the elderly care sector as well as the Hong Kong community as a whole and providing insights to the HKSAR Government policies on palliative and end-of-life care. Currently, the Programme has successfully achieved its mission to promote palliative care as an end-of-life pathway in Hong Kong with the legislative amendment on 3rd June, 2024 facilitating the choice of dying in place for terminally ill patients in residential care homes in Hong Kong.
In 2023, we entered into the fifth phase of the Programme with the theme “Golden Adventures”, while we are continuing to support palliative care for the elderly, we also drive volunteer participation and the provision of holistic care for the elderly, whilst encouraging retirees and elders to proactively plan for their future health and financial needs, interests, and goals as they embark on their second half of life. “Golden Adventures” is in line with the “United Nations Decade of Healthy Ageing 2021 - 2030” initiative, led by The World Health Organization.
Encouraging Corporate Volunteering
First launched in 2022, the “Join Hands, Reach Further!” volunteer campaign encourages BEA staff members, and their families and friends to come together to contribute to society by reaching out to those in need through volunteering. Throughout the year, we organise a variety of community service activities towards the areas of education, social welfare, and the environment. To learn more about how we have brought positivity to our society, please watch the following video:
Chinese Mainland
In Chinese Mainland, our community investment initiatives are carried out through the Shanghai Soong Ching Ling Foundation – BEA Charity Fund, and the Shanghai Charity Foundation – BEA Charity Fund. For more details of the Charity Funds, please refer to https://charity.hkbea.com.cn/.
Enriching Rural School Children's Lives
Launched in 2009, the “Firefly Project” (the Project) aims to improve educational opportunities for underprivileged children living in rural areas on Chinese Mainland. Since the Project’s founding, Firefly Centres equipped with computers and other learning tools have been established in more than 110 schools in 28 provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions.
In 2023, the “Firefly Project” was revamped as “Green Firefly” with an aim of promoting education and, at the same time, environmental protection and emissions reduction. Green Firefly Centres have been built and equipped with green and smart features, including smart devices and solar power system. As part of the Project, we also donated Green Firefly backpacks containing stationery to students and provided online training to teachers and principals of rural schools to enhance their professional skills.
Meanwhile BEA China joins hands with One Planet Foundation and Shanghai Soong Ching Ling Foundation to launch biodiversity collaboration, becoming the first strategic partner of “The Earth Nature School Project”. In 2023 (Phase I), this project delivered courses on biodiversity conservation in 10 rural schools, 157 nature lessons were completed, 506 rural students directly benefited, with a total of 8,036 person-times.
BEA China also joins hand with Alipay - Ant Forest (支付宝蚂蚁森林) and SEE Foundation (Founded by Society of Entrepreneurs and Ecology) to launch the "Green Firefly" Public Welfare Forest to promote low-carbon living and environmental protection. The project plans to plant no less than 27,000 oil pines during 2023 and 2026, which will sequester at least 2,000 tonnes of carbon as they grow, contributing to the goal of carbon neutrality.
For BEA China’s CSR updates, please refer to https://eng.hkbea.com.cn/BeaInformation/Sustainability/BCC/.
