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Environmental sustainability

Environmental Sustainability

Our commitment to environmental sustainability

Bank of America is committed to improving the environment in how we approach our global business strategy, work with partners, make our operations more sustainable, support our employees, manage risks and govern our activities.

Since 2007, our Environmental Business Initiative has mobilized more than $158 billion in financing to low-carbon and sustainable business activities across the globe. Our multi-year financing commitment provides financial capital, along with significant intellectual capital, to develop solutions to climate change and other environmental challenges. It focuses on low-carbon energy, energy efficiency, and sustainable transportation, in addition to addressing other important areas like water conservation, land use and waste.

We also are making our operations more sustainable – including achieving carbon neutrality and procuring 100% renewable electricity in 2019, a year ahead of schedule. We offer programs and benefits that help employees become better environmental stewards.

Importantly, we are committed to managing environmental and social risk, as well as providing industry-leading disclosures on our progress. For details, read our Environmental and Social Risk Policy Framework, newly released Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures Report, and ESG Data Performance Summary, which aligns to G4 guidelines under the Global Reporting Initiative standards.

Global commitment to improving the environment at work and in our communities

Our commitment to environmental sustainability

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, employee reimbursement programs and environmentally focused volunteer events.

Learn more about our environmental operations goals and work.

Reducing our own environmental impact

We met our carbon neutrality goal a year ahead of schedule. The goal was accomplished by reducing Scope 1 and 2 emissions from our facilities, purchasing 100% renewable electricity and buying carbon credits for remaining unavoidable emissions.

As part of our long-term commitment to lessen the environmental impact of our operations, we have completed the following activities:

  • Reduced Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by more than 50% in facilities since 2010.
  • Met our 100% renewable electricity goal by:

- Installing on-site solar at many of our facilities, including office locations, financial centers, and on ATMs.
- Completing multiple long-term renewable agreements which will add new wind and solar electricity to the grid.
- Purchasing Renewable Energy Credits (RECs).

  • Purchased a limited amount of carbon credits from four nonprofit projects located in impoverished areas across the U.S., South America, Africa, and Asia, which are helping to preserve biodiversity and drive reforestation, while furthering economic mobility for the local populations.


We aim to meet our remaining environmental operations goals, which include reducing location-based energy use by 40% and water use by 45% in our operations across the globe from 2010 to 2020. Read our press release which provides additional details. We are members of RE100 and EV100 and we were one of the first financial institutions to join the U.S. Department of Energy's Workplace Charging Challenge.

Bull eye Icon for Operational Targets

Operational

targets

Bank of America announced
operational goals from
2010 - 2020

  • World icon

    Achieved Carbon Neutrality for Scope 1 & 2 emissions

  • flame icon

    Reduce energy by 40%

  • bulb icon

    Purchase 100% of electricity from renewable resources

  • Map Pin Icon

    Reduce location-based GHG emissions by 50%

  • Buildings icon

    Maintain LEED certification in 20% of the company's owned and leased space and manage 19 million square feet of LEED Certified office space across the globe

  • Water Icon

    Reduce water use by 45%

  • Recycle Icon

    Maintain an average of 10% recycled content in paper purchased

  • Certified paper Icon

    Purchase 100% of paper from certified sources

  • Trash Icon

    Reduce waste to landfill by 35% *Baseline 2011

  • Responsible Vendors Icon

    Dispose 100% of e-waste using certified responsible vendors

  • CDP supply chain requests Icon

    Maintain 90% response rate to our CDP supply chain requests

  • CDP supply chain responding vendors Icon

    Increase the number of our CDP supply chain responding vendors who report GHG emissions to 90%

To view progress on our goals, please see our ESG Performance Data Summary PDF.

Working with our suppliers

Since 2009, we have invited suppliers to respond to the CDP supply chain questionnaire, which helps us track climate change impacts and associated risks related to our global supply chain. We are addressing 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.

In 2019, we requested disclosures from 191 suppliers and achieved a response rate of 92 percent with 83 percent of the responding suppliers reporting GHG emissions. We are proud to report that in 2019, 65 percent of our responding suppliers are making additional commitments by setting GHG emissions reduction goals or renewable energy procurement goals. Each year, we provide individualized feedback regarding each supplier’s level of transparency and performance. This has facilitated an ongoing dialogue with our suppliers, which promotes collaboration and drives positive environmental change. In 2019, 36 suppliers proposed ways to work together on environmental projects.

In 2019 Bank of America was named to the CDP Supplier Engagement Leaderboard for successfully engaging with suppliers on climate change. According to the CDP, we’re amongst the top 3% of companies surveyed for engagement with our suppliers to reduce their impact on the environment.

Learn more about vendor management.

CDP surveyed 4800+ companies. Top 160 achieved supplier engagement leaderboard.

Employees and the environment, making a positive difference

Our My Environment® employee program drives 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 nearly 25,000 active employee members across more than 30 countries. Each year we offer a variety of programs for employees to participate in, such as expert webinars and discussion courses, My Environment® employee engagement challenges and many volunteer opportunities working locally with environmentally focused nonprofits.


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 were one of the first financial institutions to join 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. We have installed more than 100 charging stations at work locations with more planned. 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.

my environment employee program
My Environment® participants helping local communities.

Our employees make the difference

  • Employees since 2010 have volunteered more than 450,000 hours, of which more than 75,000 hours were recorded in 2019 on environmentally focused volunteer programs.
  • In 2019, more than 2,300 employees and 1,400 employees participated in the Recycle Now and Food: Don't Waste It My Environment® employee engagement challenges, respectively.
  • More than a thousand employees participated in Ocean Conservancy clean up events, including International Coastal Clean Up, removing millions of pounds of debris from oceans, lakes and rivers around the world.
  • Employees collected and recycled more than 500,000 plastic bags and approximately 40,000 lbs. of e-waste through collection drives.