Sberbank : Russia holds Green Marathon on World Environment Day

On June 5, World Environment Day, Sber held its annual countrywide Green Marathon.

As many as 91,747 participants, both amateurs and professionals, from the 58 cities of Russia that held offline races joined in. Traditionally, Green Marathon also included entertainments, contests for participants of all ages, and environmental campaigns. A total of over 180 environmental campaigns were held: tree planting, clean-ups, and territory improvements.

An online run has been organized through a special mobile app for the first time in Green Marathon history. Runners competed for prizes in the distances of 4.2 km, 10 km, 21.1 km, and 42.2 km. Winners will be announced on June 8 among men (180 winning places in each of the four distances) and women (180 winning places in each of the four distances). Sber is giving the following awards: a SberPortal smart display, cups, Green Marathon medals, and one-year SberPrime subscriptions for places 1 to 3; one-year SberPrime subscriptions for places 4 to 180. The results will be available on the project's website.

Thanks to the project, Sber was able to draw attention to environmental problems and invite Russians to take a few simple steps that will help in solving them. Each participant of the Green Marathon contributed to nature preservation: Sber converted over 65,000 kilometers that the participants ran with the mobile application on June 5 into rubles to donate them to Sberbank Charitable Foundation Investment to the Future.

In the run-up to Sber's 180^th anniversary, ECA employees and volunteers planted 180,000 seedlings of pine, oak, maple, and other trees in nine regions of Russia to support the Southern Forest Stretch of Russia program, which plants trees to battle desertification in Russia's southern parts, from Rostov Region to the Republic of Buryatia.

A total of RUB 10 mn was gathered through the project. The funds will be sent to the foundation to plant 100,000 more trees in the fall of 2021. Due to the Green Marathon project, over 280,000 trees will have been planted.

Our annual sports festival for families, Green Marathon has been special this year. First, in addition to the offline race, you could compete via our mobile app. This is a new feature that allowed anyone to participate in the race in any part of Russia. Second, this year's Green Marathon contributed to the cause of nature preservation. The project started on March 27, Earth Hour Day. We supported the initiative and shut down the lights across Sber offices between 8 and 9 pm. Then, from March 27 through June 5, Russian regions hosted multiple environmental campaigns as part of Green Marathon. Ahead of its 180^th anniversary, Sber planted 180,000 seedlings in Russia's south. I would like to thank everyone and anyone who backed our idea of preserving nature for the future generations, everyone who strives to live an eco-friendly life, and minimize their carbon footprint. We have gathered over RUB 10 mn. This money will be spent on making the country greener. It's a great achievement we can be proud of.

Stanislav Kuznetsov

Deputy Chairman of the Executive Board, Sberbank