BNP Paribas is one of the leading financial institutions in the EU and the world. Since 2022, it has used the Pirika for Businesses and Organizations visualization page. It uses Pirika widely, not only in Japan but across APAC (the Asia-Pacific region).

BNP Paribas has set a goal of "one million hours of volunteering a year across the group," and the whole company is active in volunteering. We spoke with Yusuke Imamura of BNP Paribas about where this passion comes from, why they expanded to APAC, and why it matters for companies to take on social issues.

1. Since 2020, a bold global goal: one million hours of volunteering a year across the group

First, how did BNP Paribas come across Pirika?

In 2020, we started the "1 Million Hours 2 Help" program. The aim is for the group's about 200,000 employees to spend one million hours a year volunteering. We found Pirika while preparing many kinds of volunteering so that more employees could take part.

How did this company-wide push for every employee to take part in CSR activities begin?

BNP Paribas has its head office in Paris, France. People in Europe, and France in particular, care a lot about environmental and social issues. As a leading French financial institution, BNP Paribas has also put effort into ESG and CSR. We did volunteering before, but I think "1 Million Hours 2 Help" is what made us much more active.

Of all the ways to give back, why did you focus on litter picking?

BNP Paribas has four CSR pillars: Economy, Our People, Community and Environment. We were looking for something we could do under Environment. We had joined river cleanups with the NPO Arakawa Clean-aid Forum, so we were interested in litter picking. Then COVID-19 made it impossible to meet and clean up together. That led us to start using the Pirika App in 2021.

I heard you give paid leave for volunteering.

BNP Paribas has "CSR leave," one paid day a year for volunteering. Before COVID-19, most volunteering was in person, so the rules for CSR leave were clear. After COVID-19, we needed some discussion on how to count online litter picking with Pirika as volunteer time. In the end, in Japan we set a rule: "60 posts on Pirika earns a half day of paid leave." Then we invited employees to take part.

How did employees react?

In fact, not many people took part. Perhaps the idea of "pick up litter on your own and share it in the app" did not fully catch on.

But we did build a group of core Pirika fans. We ran cleanup volunteering with Pirika as a ranking by number of posts, and some employees posted a surprising amount. Others already picked up litter on their own, and now that Pirika makes it visible, they keep going and say, "It's even more fun!"

I also feel Pirika is supported by core fans like these. We at Pirika do not use any fake accounts to send "thank yous" to posts. Users send "thank yous" and comments on their own, and we are truly grateful.

2. After starting the visualization page in Japan, expanding to APAC

You then expanded to APAC (the Asia-Pacific region). How did you decide to do that?

In fact, I already thought in 2021 that we could roll it out across APAC. Picking up litter is not unique to Japan, and I felt everyone should do it. So I wondered if we could do it across APAC. But people asked questions like "What features does the Pirika App have?" and "How is it different from similar apps in other countries?" Some offices, such as Hong Kong, were not keen at first.

So we started in Japan first. We built core fans in Japan and shared their stories in articles on our intranet, to raise awareness inside the company. As a result, this year we rolled it out in 7 APAC regions: Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Hong Kong and Japan. We had never done the exact same volunteering across all of APAC before. I am very happy that Japan was able to lead and call for it.

It's interesting to see posts with local character from many countries!

I think it would be interesting to see on the dashboard how the types of litter picked up differ by country. I joined a meeting of global CSR staff that happened to be on Earth Day, and an interview with Kojima of Pirika was featured on the Apple App Store. When I talked about Pirika, several employees from Belgium and other countries installed it on the spot and said it looked fun. If it goes well in APAC, we would like to expand it globally next year.

3. Why companies take on social issues: helping employees see problems as their own. BNP Paribas raises awareness to promote litter picking

More companies are working on environmental issues, and many are pushing hard on goals like carbon neutrality. But there is less pressure to pick up litter. As a pioneer in this area, why does BNP Paribas think it matters for companies to take part in the litter problem?

This is not only about litter picking. I think there are three steps for a company and its employees to take part in making society better.

First, the company shows that it supports CSR and volunteering. It is very important to set up systems and send a message from the top to all employees. At BNP Paribas, that means CSR leave and "1 Million Hours 2 Help."

Second, raising awareness inside the company. On environmental issues, BNP Paribas partnered with film director Craig Leeson as a sustainability partner and showed his film "A Plastic Ocean" to employees. After employees learned how plastic harms the environment, we worked to remove single-use plastics from our offices.

Last, each employee sees social issues as their own. People do not act unless they truly understand why an activity matters. We held lunchtime events with outside speakers on social issues. We aimed to help employees see that these issues are not happening somewhere far away, but around them, so they take them personally and move on to volunteering.

From mid-June, in-person volunteering became possible again. So we are now planning events where we gather, pick up litter together and post on Pirika.

Recently a colleague told me a memorable story. We published a ranking of how much litter people picked up over six months, from June to November 2021. An employee who was always near the top said, "It's best to pick up litter by hand, wearing gloves." Even though we gave litter tongs as prizes to top-ranked people (laughs). The No. 1 person often picks up litter on the way to and from work (10 to 20 km), and the No. 3 person seems to pick it up on walks after work. I would like to hear from top users at other companies that use Pirika, too.

What are your goals for litter picking with the visualization page, and for environmental issues as a whole?

We want to show on the visualization page what kind of litter is found and picked up in each country, to motivate employees. We also want to take this online litter-picking volunteering, which started in Japan, global with the visualization page, and get closer to "1 Million Hours 2 Help." Combining environmental work with online tools is hard, but Pirika makes it possible, and that helps us a lot.

BNP Paribas visualization page: here

More about Pirika for Businesses and Organizations: here