“We can do a lot individually, but we can do much more collectively and as a society to make a powerful contribution to meeting the Sustainable Development Goals.” With this message, Luis Carlos Sarmiento Gutiérrez, president of Grupo Aval, yesterday reinforced the commitment that the organization under his direction has not only with these objectives but also with the UN Principles for Responsible Banking.
“At Grupo Aval we create conscious progress with all of Colombia,” said the director, who said, the others, that it is a commitment not just now, but something that has been with them for several years through, even, responsible investments.
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The objective, said Sarmiento Gutiérrez, has always been to impact the lives of millions of people, protecting the environment and biodiversity and demonstrating that it is possible to do so under the precepts of sustainability. Something that they have not done alone throughout these years, but have done so with the commitment of their more than 75,000 collaborators, 30,000 suppliers, more than 30 million customers of their different subsidiaries and 60 percent of the companies that They have trusted the conglomerate.
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Within this purpose, said organization announced the new purpose that, as one of the most relevant brands in the country’s financial sector, has been set, through the message: “At Grupo Aval, we form a group with the entire country”with which they seek to create awareness in Colombia that a change in the face of these sustainability purposes must begin from within.
That change in which there is not only the group, but all its entities (the banks of Bogotá, of the West, AV Villas, Popular, the AFP Porvenir, the dale! wallet, Corficolombiana and ADL Lab Digital), include its transformation and structural evolution, through the adoption of policies, strategies, alliances and investments that contribute in an effective and real way to the fulfillment of the Sustainable Development Goals and the Principles of Responsible Banking of the UN, which according to their directives, allows them to live in a more empathetic society with other people, who embrace and celebrate inclusion, equity and diversity; and that it has an active role in biodiversity conservation and climate action.
Part of that commitment is in the financing of projects and initiatives that comply with these precepts. Only the green portfolio of Banco de Bogotá exceeds 2 trillion of these and to date it is six times more than that registered three years ago.
* Grupo Aval is part of the business group that controls EL TIEMPO Casa Editorial.
