Giedrė Blazgienė: Sustainability Is a Key Concept of the Future World

Sustainability is a key concept of the future world. It obliges us to take care about present needs without impairing the capacity of the future generations to satisfy their needs. Sustainability is among the key values of Mano Bank; it is upheld and integrated into the daily activities. We perceive sustainability as a direct aid to our environment and as granting of opportunities for our clients to move to renewable energy, hence, providing them with the opportunity to increase their competitiveness and resistance to economic recessions. We take care of the surrounding environment: employees, communities, as we support their welfare initiatives. Moreover, we believe that sustainability also covers the long-term future approach to firm governance. In addition to direct banking products, such as lending, we can foresee our bigger input – to support directly the activities that help to preserve nature.

We have been supporting the Ancient Woods Foundation for the second year in a row, thus, contributing to preservation of old woods and biodiversity. We encourage the employees to choose public transport for commuting to work, we are covering such transportation costs, and we are also supporting the sport initiatives of our employees, and we are going to continue to do this in the future. We also have own electric car charging stations. In 2023, the tennis arena in Klaipeda was named after Mano bank – we encourage healthier lifestyle in the community by supporting wellness projects.

When Russia invaded Ukraine and started the war, the economic situation changed, especially within the sustainability context. Independence in energy sector is of vital importance, thus, when we provide financing to business, we consider the following goals as priority:

• to help the companies to move to renewable energy;
• to grant more powers to the companies that are developing renewable energy, especially solar and wind, by providing financing to them;
• to help the companies to make the components necessary to diversify supply chains and to safeguard independent supply from one country.

We are providing financing to business according to the European Commission’s programme InvestEU, the objective of which is to promote investments into sustainability projects, innovations and creation of workplaces in the entire EU. Although interest rates are high, still the need to increase productivity, to move to renewable energy sources, and to develop segments of small and medium-sized business is evident. So, in such a way, we contribute to the growth of the Lithuanian economy and at the same time we create conditions for the bank to grow sustainably of its loan portfolio. We make all the efforts to reinforce accessibility (in the area of payments), sustainability (in the lending area) and resistance (in our efficiency, governance and cyber security), and we endeavour at being a reliable partner for our clients, so that they could achieve their goals and so that we could create a better world together.

Read more about sustainability at Mano Bank (in Lithuanian).