The firm has added its weight to a sustainability campaign that involves transforming illegal firearms and waste plastic.

UBS has become the founding partner of a campaign that makes bands from recycled plastics and illegal firearms – symbolically turning the items into more benign possessions and spreading sustainability messages worldwide.

The Swiss bank is supporting #TOGETHERBAND. The campaign makes “friendship bands” of different colours, helping drive skills and livelihoods for women working as artisans in Nepal. Each purchase comes with two bands, one to wear and one to share, including on social media, to spread messages about the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, UBS said.

The initiative allies the Zurich-listed wealth management giant with sustainable accessories brand BOTTLETOP, which aims to engage people across the world in partnership with the United Nations Foundation, World Wildlife Fund, Project Everyone, Eco Age and Global Citizen.

BOTTLETOP and UBS jointly launched the #TOGETHERBAND campaign earlier this week on World Earth Day. The campaign will use creativity and culture to raise public awareness and inspire action to achieve the UN’s goals through sustainable fashion, contemporary art, music and documentary film.

The programme is an example of how banks, mindful of their image and concerns about issues such as pollution, women’s rights and poor governance, are backing such campaigns. It fits with a focus on environmental, social and governance-driven (ESG) investment which is now a hot topic in the financial services arena.

In 2018, UBS Global Wealth Management announced that it had launched the world's first fully sustainable investing cross-asset mandate portfolio for private clients, which is approaching $5 billion in invested assets.