ABA-Green Finance: These Banks Make Sustainability Their Mission.
ENPNewswire-September 22, 2021--ABA-Green Finance: These Banks Make Sustainability Their Mission
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Release date- 21092021 - Many financial institutions are incorporating sustainability initiatives within their mission statements and marketing materials.
A small but growing group is going further. Sustainability is foundational to their purpose and informs all aspects of their operations and marketing.
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'It's baked into their mission, vision and values,' says David Reiling, board chair of the Global Alliance for Banking on Values, a network of banks and banking cooperatives using finance to deliver sustainable economic, social and environmental development.
'It's not like we do our business over here, and then do these other things over there,' adds Reiling, who is also CEO of the $1.6 billion Sunrise Banks in Minneapolis. Along with avoiding activities they believe are harmful, these banks finance projects, such as solar installations, that can have a positive environmental impact. Member banks also work to reduce their own environmental impact.
A mission of sustainability can pay off on the bottom line. A 2020 GABV report, 'Real Economy-Real Returns: The Business Case for Values-based Banking,' found that values-based banks, or those that consider people, planet and prosperity in their missions, enjoyed higher rates of return on assets and return on equity than global systemically important banks over the five-year period ending in 2018.
The leaders of these financial institutions also say their organizations have a responsibility to play an active role in combatting climate change and fostering sustainability. 'We believe banks should nourish communities and not extract from them,' says Lynn Marie Auzenne, chief marketing officer with Beneficial State Bank, a bank that describes itself as having a triple bottom line: 'people, planet, prosperity.'
Regulations are prompting change, as well. New Zealand requires all banks to report on climate, Auzenne says. In 2020, the European Central Bank published its final guide on climate and related risks for banks.
To be sure, no single bank can solve every environmental or social challenge. Instead, community and regional banks need to come together and educate consumers, Auzenne says...
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