Sustainable Banks

Noise abounds in every industry regarding sustainability and green initiatives, and banking is not to be left behind in the race for environmental policies aimed at a public that is quick expecting it as part of day-to-day business procedure. But which banks are just jumping on the green bandwagon and which banks are changing their infrastructure or have built a bank around environmental and humanitarian stewardship?

• Bank of America has funded environmentally devastating mining in Appalachia.


• Citigroup, Morgan Stanley (Discover Card) and Merrill Lynch funded new coal-fired power plants in Texas.


• Canadian banks including BMO, CIBC, RBC, Scotiabank and Toronto-Dominion fund oil, gas and forest clear-cutting.


• Citigroup, Merill Lynch and Morgan Stanley funded the Three Gorges Dam which is considered on of China’s most environmentally damaging projects, and “…Sets records for number of people displaced (more than 1.2 million), number of cities and towns flooded (13 cities, 140 towns, 1,350 villages), and length of reservoir (more than 600 kilometers). [1] [2]

A recent article by Marina Shifrin from MyBankTracker.com tells us that Bank of America, Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo all are playing the green game and announcing they will no longer support the environmentally damaging causes they’ve supported in the past. While I believe this to be true, I am also a skeptic and believe that big business is first and foremost concerned with making money, otherwise, it wouldn’t be a business.

Banks Doing Good:

New Resource Bank out of San Francisco is a “Planet smart banking [that]…works for people, planet and profit in everything we do.” New Resource Bank has, “LEED Gold-rated headquarters, ongoing initiatives to reduce our resource consumption, community contributions and programs that educate and engage customers.” They also have an entire page called, “how we’re sustainable”, and a blog touting the sustainable businesses they’ve helped support. They are located in San Francisco and that is currently their only branch, but they do have a reimbursement policy for ATM withdrawals up to five per month, domestically and internationally.

BNP Paribas, which calls itself, “The Bank for a Changing World”, has well-marked corporate responsibility and sustainable development pages. They are in the process of building, “a new Corporate Philanthropy program whose aim will be to support research projects on climate change.” They have a blog, “for employees, partners and websurfers to share goodwill initiatives.” They are the parent corporation of First Hawaiian Bank and Bank of the West. “Founded in 1874, San Francisco-headquartered Bank of the West is one of the largest banks based in the West and among the largest commercial banks in the U.S. Bank of the West is the nation’s third largest agricultural lender and the number one indirect financing lender to nearly 4,000 auto and RV/marine dealers throughout the U.S.”

People’s United Bank is primarily an east-coast bank, although I typed in my zip code here in California and could have continued to open an account from here. People’s seems to focus on local humanitarian causes focusing on children, art in schools, children with disabilities and homeless shelters, donating significant amounts each year to various institutions.

If none of these banks appeals to you, or has service in your area, the best way to know where you’re putting your money is to research your local banks and call them up or go in and talk to them about where they’re investing your money. Be sure and know who owns the banks you might think are local. For instance, out here on the Peninsula, I thought that First Republic was a small, privately owned bank. Not so, they were owned by Merill Lynch. And if, like me, you don’t read financial news when you live outside of the country, you might not know that in 2008 Bank of America acquired Merill Lynch.

I happened to luck out and open my first US checking account in a decade at Bank of the West, though my choice was based purely on the fact that I opened up my first ever checking account there when I was 12. It’s good to know there are other options out there, and if the interest of Big Banking in sustainability maneuvers is any indication, there will be more socially and environmentally responsible banks from which to choose in the not-to-distant future.

– Jocelyn Broyles © 2011

[1] InternationalRivers.org

[2] “Responsible Credit Cards ” Published May/June 2008 on GreenAmerica.org

Source by Jocelyn Broyles

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Sustainable Banks