Global commitment to improving the environment at work and in our communities
As a large, global company, we understand the impact our operations have on the environment. But our scale also enables us to take measurable action to reduce these impacts – through our own efficiency, with new technologies, and by influencing our supply chain.
In addition, our employees have a key role to play in reducing our environmental impact, and we are empowering them to make a difference through our My Environment® program.
Learn more about our environmental operations.
Reducing our own environmental impact
In 2016, we announced a suite of new operational goals to be met by 2020, including plans to become carbon-neutral and purchase 100% renewable electricity. These goals support our continued efforts to reduce overall environmental impacts of our operations. We will work to reduce location-based greenhouse gas emissions by 50%, energy use by 40% and water use by 45% in our operations across the globe from 2010 to 2020. These new commitments build on the success of the company’s 2015 operational goals. Read our press release which provides additional details.
Operational
targets
Bank of America announced
operational goals from
2010 - 2020
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Achieve Carbon Neutrality for Scope 1 and 2 emissions
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Reduce energy by 40%
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Purchase 100% of electricity from renewable resources
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Reduce location-based GHG emissions by 50%
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Maintain LEED certification in 20% of the company's owned and leased space
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Reduce water use by 45%
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Maintain paper reduction of 30%
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Maintain an average of 10% recycled content in paper purchased
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Purchase 100% of paper from certified sources
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Reduce waste to landfill by 35% *Baseline 2011
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Dispose 100% of e-waste using certified responsible vendors
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Maintain 90% response rate to our CDP supply chain requests
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Increase the number of our CDP supply chain responding vendors who report GHG emissions to 90%
To view specific data on our progress in 2017 around our environmental operations goals, please see pages 1-3 in the ESG Performance Data PDF.
Working with our suppliers
Since 2009, we have invited suppliers to respond to the CDP supply chain questionnaire, which helps us track greenhouse gas emissions and associated risks that impact our global supply chain. In 2016, we set our first-ever goals to address greenhouse gas emissions in our supply chain with two vendor engagement goals: to maintain a response rate to CDP supply chain information requests of at least 90 percent, and for 90 percent of CDP supply chain responding vendors to disclose GHG emissions. Learn more about vendor management.
Employees and the environment, making a positive difference
We created the My Environment® employee program to drive positive environmental change by helping employees act as better environmental stewards at work, at home and in the communities where they work and live. Today this program has more than 23,000 active employee members across 30 countries. Each year we offer a variety of programs for employees to participate in, such as expert webinars and discussion courses, “take action” programs like our annual Waste Less Lunch, and many volunteer opportunities.
We also provide employees benefits to encourage their adoption of new environment-friendly technologies and behaviors. For example, we encourage employees to purchase electric vehicles by reimbursing a portion of the cost of the electric vehicle or charger, and we recently joined the U.S. Department of Energy’s “Workplace Charging Challenge” through which participating companies commit to add charging stations for electric vehicles in their parking facilities. In addition to our low-carbon vehicle reimbursement program for eligible employees, we also offer employees discounts on solar panel installation and car sharing through established partnerships.
Our employees make the difference
- Employees since 2010 have volunteered more than 330,000 hours, of which more than 46,000 hours in 2017 on environmentally focused volunteer programs through 800+ events across the globe.
- More than a thousand employees participated in Ocean Conservancy clean up events, removing millions of pounds of debris from oceans, lakes and rivers around the world
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Nearly 1,200 employees in 16 countries made the pledge to eat a waste less lunch
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Employees collected and recycled more than 260,000 plastic bags and more than 39,000 lbs. of e-waste through collection drives
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