Initiatives Overview
Our environmental initiatives are embedded in every facet of our company, taking myriad forms geared to our corporate clients and retail customers alike. Environmental features can be seen in our lending, investments, new products and services and in our internal operations.
Lending
Bank of America believes one of the strongest ways we can help address climate change is through our lending practices and Commercial Real Estate Banking services. Applying these resources as part of our business strategy can help stimulate environmentally sound, profitable innovation leading to economic growth, new job creation and new markets.
Investments
We possess the resources, experience and capabilities to match our investments to the unique needs of each of our clients. Our focus includes strategic investments in businesses and technologies that address climate change, such as developing low-carbon technologies and alternative energy companies. We've invested, for example, in companies that can capture energy from the sun or from the rise and fall of ocean waves and convert that energy into electric power. We're also creatively using investments to help preserve forests, which are central to the fight against global climate change.
Products and Services
We are developing financial products and services for our customers who consider the environmental impact of their purchasing decisions, and who want to offset or minimize their carbon footprint. And more broadly, our move toward paperless, online banking is more convenient for our customers and unquestionably better for the environment.
Operations
Our long-standing internal efforts to institute environmentally friendly operations continue to influence our outward commitments. We've launched internal programs with aggressive targets aimed at reducing our own greenhouse gas emissions, cutting our consumption and waste, and making notable strides toward LEED® (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certifications from the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC®) in multiple buildings.
For example, one way we achieve our emissions reductions is by developing environmentally responsible real estate � advanced, environmentally sophisticated workplace designs. To that end, we have committed $1.4 billion to achieve LEED® certification from the USGBC® in all new construction of banking centers and office facilities. In addition to building one of the greenest retail banking centers ever in Southern California, we're proud to say that Bank of America Tower at One Bryant Park, in the heart of New York City, is expected to be one of the world's most environmentally responsible high-rise office towers in the world.
Environmentally advanced facilities like these not only have a positive effect on the planet, they also positively impact our associates' productivity and morale. We've engaged our associates on behalf of the environment in other ways as well. Since 2000, we've reduced paper usage per associate by 40 percent and we've set an aggressive goal to voluntarily reduce our greenhouse gas emissions across the company 9 percent by 2009. We also achieve emissions reductions through workplace innovations such as the centralized monitoring and control of energy usage in buildings throughout our portfolio.
