29 April 2016 12:00 am Views - 3240
Going forward in ‘Banking Beyond Transactions’, Hatton National Bank (HNB), under its corporate social responsibility (CSR) pillar ‘Care for Nature’, funded a project to clean the garbage at the Adam’s Peak (Sri Pada).
Millions of pilgrims climb this mountain each year to worship at the peak.
The project aimed at clearing the garbage along the route to Adam’s Peak starting from Hatton, where HNB first commenced its business as Hatton Bank in 1888. Whilst celebrating the record profit of Rs.10 billion in 2015, HNB joined hands with the Young Biologists’ Association and the Leo Club of Colombo Knights to clean the garbage along the selected route starting from the top of the mountain on March 27, 2016.
The young and energetic team of 150 project participants including the staff members of HNB collected and bagged the garbage and they were assisted to carry these bags to the incineration point by many 100s of voluntary pilgrims who value nature and understood the significance of the project. The bank believes that this engagement of pilgrims in the cleaning will create a massive attitudinal change in the visitors to maintain the cleanliness of public locations.
“It is a fantastic experience. We climbed the peak along the Ratnapura route on the 26th and passed the night at the peak. We were away from the exhausted air of the city and thrilled to feel the cool breeze of nature at least for one day. The cleaning exercise together with the pilgrims has turned a new page in our lives where we actually felt how we damage our own surroundings and how team work and good attitudes can bring back the beauty of nature,” added a participant from HNB.
Renovations at the Indikatupahana rest room (Ambalama), which is the topmost rest room along the path to Adam’s Peak, was started with the financial assistance of the bank and will be completed shortly. The bank has funded this project to provide safe drinking water and sanitation facilities to the pilgrims.
The staff of HNB have taken a green pledge and the bank has taken long strides in 2016 towards enhancing sustainability by way of energy efficiency via investments in solar power, paper efficiency and environmental and social responsibility. The current project once again proved HNB’s commitment to protect the country’s natural and cultural heritage.