Sustainability is a subject for most brands nowadays. But Santander believes that we must do more than just talk about it in a distant, abstract way.

As a financial institution, Santander feels it has an opportunity to join the government in promoting change that not only helps the environment, but does so proving that sustainability can be achieved together with – not opposed to – economical development in our cities.

Renewable energy is a great way to do so. Not only it helps the planet but can be a better economic choice than our current energy sources. Brazil has the perfect climate to benefit from solar energy, for instance. But most people think that it’s too expensive, distant from their realities. Santander is responsible for 45% of leasings for installation and development of renewable energy in the country. And needed to show Brazilians that clean energy is accessible for everyone.

In partnership with the São Paulo state government, we turned an entire train station into an eco-friendly one.

Large scale OOH media spaces became solar panels that generate enough power for the entire station; a groundbreaking water treatment system that purifies over 150K liters every month; more than 1.5km of green areas, that help purify the air and reduce the odor from the polluted river right next to the platform; and a space where people could learn about all of those innovations and about how they could get Santander credit to purchase and install solar panels in their own homes.

The first sustainable station in the country, but not the last: the blueprint of the project was made available for any brand that wanted to replicate it in other stations around Brazil.

In addition to that, we supported the State Government in its greatest investment ever to clean the river.

72% of people in Brazil want to have solar panels at home. But 54% believe that only rich people can afford it.

To show people that practically anyone can be sustainable, we chose to bring it closer to them, turning one of the busiest train stations in the country (with an average of 77,000 users every day), into a self-sustainable station, the first of its kind.

In an innovative way, the station kept working as a huge OOH media spot for Santander, since it is located in one of the most important avenues of the city, Marginal Pinheiros.

We showcased it to the whole country, with a national TV campaign flight announcing the station and the lowest credit rate in the country for purchasing and installing solar panels, offered by Santander.

The Station Platform was launched in a ceremony with the presence of the media and São Paulo’s highest authority, governor João Doria, who highlighted the originality of the initiative.

We also prepared a social media strategy which featured many of the biggest tourism influencers on Instagram in Brazil, turning the station into a must see for those who come to the city.

In addition to that, OOH media spots in the station, facing Marginal Pinheiros – one of the busiest avenues in Latin America – caught the eye of the millions of cars passing in traffic every day. A national TV campaign flight presenting the station and the credit for solar panels completed the media strategy.

In the first month following the launch, Santander had a 217% growth in credit grants for solar panels, compared with the whole year of 2020. A result of roughly 100 million dollars in credit granted to help people take solar panels into their own homes.

In addition, the platform is the first, but no longer the only sustainable train station in Brazil. One of our fiercest competitors, Bradesco Bank, used our project to make the Cidade Jardim station sustainable as well.

We also had a lot of exposure and earned media, featured in the cover of Estadão, one of the biggest newspapers in the country; a 2 minute long piece on GloboTV, the most watched TV station. And mentions by CNN, MSN and other media vehicles.