Our Achievements
Bank of America has achieved many significant environmental milestones. In the future, we’ll continue to use our expertise, capital and influence to drive change.
Key Environmental Leadership Milestones
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- 2004 First GHG Goal
- 2007 $20 Billion Commitment
- 2007 Hybrid Vehicle Program
- 2010 Bank of America Tower at One Bryant Park
- 2011 New GHG and LEED Goals
- 2011 Financed World's Largest Distributed Solar Project
- 2012 U.S. Employee Solar Discount
- 2013 $50 Billion Commitment
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First GHG Goal 2004
In 2004, Bank of America committed to reduce its total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 9 percent by the end of 2009. The Bank achieved reductions of 18 percent, double its goal, by improving the energy efficiency of its new office construction, retrofitting existing structures and reducing its office space.
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$20 Billion Commitment 2007
Bank of America’s 10-year, $20 billion environmental business initiative is a catalyst for accelerating low-carbon activities across the markets we serve. Our strategy is to put our capital, expertise and employees to work on behalf of clients and customers across the business continuum. By year-end 2011, we had delivered more than $17 billion toward our $20 billion goal.
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Hybrid Vehicle Program 2007
The Bank’s hybrid vehicle reimbursement program, launched in 2007, reimburses U.S. employees $3,000 when they purchase a new hybrid vehicle. To date, more than 4,500 employees have traded in conventionally powered vehicles for hybrids. In 2010, the bank expanded the program to include highway-capable electric vehicles and compressed natural gas vehicles.
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Bank of America Tower at One Bryant Park 2010
Host to the Bank's New York corporate offices and extensive trading facilities, the Bank of America Tower at One Bryant Park is the first high-rise commercial office building in the U.S. to ever attain LEED® Platinum certification, the highest LEED green building rating. The tower utilizes incorporates a combination of high-performance environmental technologies, materials and operational procedures to enhance the health and productivity of its tenants, reduce waste and promote environmental sustainability. It also features the new Stephen Sondheim Theatre - with the restored façade of its predecessor The Henry Miller Theatre, the first venue on Broadway to achieve LEED Gold certification.
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New GHG & LEED Goals 2011
In May 2011, we announced an ambitious new goal to reduce our absolute greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 15 percent between 2011 and 2015. This goal spans all of the company’s global operations in more than 40 countries and builds on our previous GHG reduction of 18 percent between 2004 and 2009, which had focused only on legacy Bank of America operations in the U.S.
Factoring in the addition of Countrywide and Merrill Lynch, the new target represents an overall global reduction in aggregate GHG emissions of nearly one-third from the 2004 baseline. This is equal to annual emissions of more than 700,000 metric tons of CO2-equivalents. To put it another way, it is the equivalent of eliminating the annual GHG emissions from more than 124,000 passenger vehicles.
To further advance our GHG reduction goals, we also announced that 20 percent of our corporate real estate portfolio will be certified under the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED® (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) rating system by 2015. Currently 11 percent of the company’s workplace portfolio, 13.2 million square feet, is LEED® certified. Shortly after the announcement, our main building in Boston at 100 Federal Street earned a LEED Existing Building Operations and Maintenance Silver Certification with a score of 45 out of 45 points.
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Financed World’s Largest Distributed Solar Project 2011
Bank of America Merrill Lynch structured and drove a landmark deal to finance the largest distributed rooftop solar generation project in the world. Bank of America Merrill Lynch organized a team of innovative thinkers and seasoned experts to work with client ProLogis and investor NRG Energy on the $2.6 billion transaction, which involves a conditional commitment from the Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office to support $1.4 billion of the debt.
The project will create the equivalent of more than 10,000 full-year jobs across 28 states at distribution facilities owned and/or operated by ProLogis. Once fully funded and completed, these installations are expected to provide up to 733 megawatts (MW) of distributed solar energy, which is enough clean, renewable energy to power approximately 100,000 homes.
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U.S. Employee Solar Discount 2012
Under a relationship brokered by the Bank, U.S. employees were offered a substantial discount on the purchase of photovoltaic (PV) systems to provide electricity and/or solar water heating for their homes.
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$50 Billion Commitment 2013
Bank of America's new 10-year, $50 billion environmental business goal will help address climate change, reduce demands on natural resources and advance lower- carbon economic solutions. The new goal, effective Jan. 1, 2013, follows the anticipated completion of the company's current 10-year, $20 billion environmental business initiative.
"Environmental business delivers value to our clients, return for our shareholders, and helps strengthen the economy," said Bank of America Chief Executive Officer Brian Moynihan. "We met our prior goal in about half the time we set for ourselves, so more than doubling our target is ambitious but achievable."
The new environmental business initiative will consist primarily of lending, equipment finance, capital markets and advisory activity, carbon finance, and advice and investment solutions for clients.
Environmental Management System (EMS)
Bank of America employs an EMS that is well recognized as best-in-class for financial services and service-sector companies in general. Our EMS helps Global Workplace Environmental Risk to identify, manage and mitigate environmental risk and improve environmental performance across our corporate real estate portfolio. The foundation of the EMS is the bank’s stringent environmental policy that ensures a commitment to:
- Compliance with applicable environmental laws and regulations
- Pollution prevention and environmentally sustainable practices
- Continuous improvement in all areas of environmental management
Our EMS includes detailed protocols that comprehensively address compliance across all environmental media. The EMS covers all key areas including roles and responsibilities, training, inspections, inventory procedures, formal targets, documentation, measurement, complaint response and emergency procedures.
A core component of the EMS is an online tool for bank employees and partners. This tool provides the unique ability to understand and manage environmental compliance across the bank’s significant real estate footprint—roughly 8,500 buildings and 110 million square feet.
It includes:
- A centralized repository for environmental compliance and sustainability data for the entire real estate portfolio
- Real-time, remote data access
- Tracking of required actions and updates and a calendar
- Automatic e-mail notification of required actions
- Easy-to-read dashboard reporting
Greenhouse Gas Reductions
We have an ambitious goal to reduce our absolute greenhouse gas emissions by 15% between 2011 and 2015. This goal spans all of our global operations in more than 40 countries and builds on our previous GHG reduction of 18% from 2004-2009.
Our new target represents an overall global reduction in aggregate GHG emissions of more than 30% from our 2004 baseline. This is equal to eliminating the annual GHG emissions from more than 124,000 passenger vehicles.
In December 2011, we became the first corporate building owner and manager to earn pre-certification in the recently launched version of the LEED Volume Program for Operations and Maintenance. This prototype establishes a set of standards for verifying actual achievement and performance levels at each LEED for Existing Buildings project site. Pre-certification will streamline the LEED certification process for the bank, saving both time and money.
To further advance our GHG reduction goals, we announced that 20% of our corporate real estate portfolio will be certified under the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED® (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) rating system by 2015. As of the third quarter of 2012, 16% of Bank of America’s workplace portfolio (18.5 million square feet) is comprised of LEED-certified space.
In December 2011, Bank of America became the first corporate building owner and manager to earn pre-certification in the recently launched version of the LEED Volume Program for Operations and Maintenance. This prototype establishes a set of standards for verifying actual achievement and performance levels at each LEED-for-Existing-Buildings project site. Pre-certification will streamline the LEED certification process for the bank, saving both time and money.
Other Environmental Goals
In 2012, Bank of America also announced new operational goals it plans to achieve by 2015:
- 25 percent reduction in energy consumption from 2004 – equal to eliminating 1.2 million megawatt hours of annual energy use from our portfolio.
- 20 percent reduction in paper consumption (2010 baseline). Paper used by the bank will average 20 percent post-consumer recycled content and will be sourced entirely from certified forests.
- 20 percent reduction in global water consumption (2010 baseline).
- 70 percent diversion of global waste from landfill. All electronic waste streams will be disposed of using certified, responsible vendors.
- 30 percent aggregate reduction in global GHG emissions (2004 baseline).
- 20 percent LEED certification within our corporate workplace portfolio.
Supply Chain Management
We work diligently to engage and partner with our supply base to drive transparency and carbon disclosure. In June 2010, we held our first global supply chain conference on sustainability, “Partnering for a Sustainable Future.” This two-day event was attended by our employees and approximately 400 representatives from 100 suppliers. Attendees heard from a variety of experts, provided feedback to the bank on sustainable supply chain efforts, and were strongly encouraged to participate in the CDP (Carbon Disclosure Project) Supply Chain Survey.
We continued to focus on supply chain sustainability in 2012. A letter from our senior leadership was sent to more than 160 of our largest and most impactful suppliers to emphasize the importance of carbon disclosure and request participation in the 2012 CDP survey. We are actively increasing the number of suppliers that participate in CDP (we increased from 74 responders in 2010 to 144 in 2012) and improving the performance of these suppliers year-over-year. We maintained our status as a “trendsetter” with an 88% response rate.
In 2011, following on the success of the supply chain conference in 2010, Bank of America held three regional Carbon Reduction Workshops. These workshops were co-hosted with three top disclosure companies from our CDP supply base. The workshops provided best practice tips to assist companies in reducing their carbon impact. The workshops also provided an opportunity for BAC to recognize three companies exceeding in sustainability. Additionally, we worked to drive improvement among other suppliers through one-on-one coaching and webinars. Bank of America’s suppliers had an average disclosure score of 58 in 2011, which compares favorably to the global supplier average disclosure of 47. Bank of America’s respondents also outpaced the average global supplier performance score of 29 with an average score of 38.
In addition to engaging our supply base via CDP, we have integrated environmental sustainability criteria into our supplier sourcing processes. Sourcing managers are provided with sample sustainability questions and scoring criteria for RFPs and RFIs.
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