Wells Fargo Announces
10-Point Environmental Commitment
July 13, 2005 — By ENN
San Francisco — Wells Fargo & Company
today announced a 10-point Environmental Commitment to more effectively
integrate environmental responsibility into its business practices and
procedures.
“We want to be a leader in this important area of corporate citizenship
especially in processes and procedures for considering environmental
issues in our commercial and business practices,” said Mary Wenzel, the
Company’s vice president of environmental affairs. “This commitment to
ourselves and our stakeholders shows we’re serious. We want to make sure
Wells Fargo and our more than 80 businesses and 151,000 team members are
committed to being environmentally responsible stewards in every
community in which we do business.”
Wells Fargo’s 10-Point Environmental Commitment:
1. The Company will provide $1+ billion in lending, investments, and
other financial commitments over the next five years to
environmentally-beneficial business opportunities including sustainable
forestry, renewable energy, water resource management, waste management,
energy efficiency, and “green” home construction and development. The
Company will solicit input from customers, industry groups and
environmental groups during the process.
2. To ensure the Company’s environmental decision-making is thoughtful
and thorough, it will adopt by year-end 2005 new environmental due
diligence procedures and practices for middle-market and large corporate
customers in environmentally-sensitive industries. The Company will
solicit input from customers, industry groups and environmental groups
during the process.
3. The Company will adopt the Equator Principles, based on World Bank
and International Finance Corporation guidelines to improve
environmental and social risk management in project financing. The
Company believes the Principles are an important framework for guiding
large project developments in environmentally-sensitive areas.
4. As the nation’s leading retail home mortgage originator, the Company
will seek to expand opportunities for customers to qualify for
energy-efficient mortgage products and will look for partnerships and
other opportunities to encourage the construction and development of
green homes designed to conserve energy and water, promote indoor air
quality, and minimize environmental impacts.
5. The Company will increase efforts to conserve resources in its
operations including company-wide recycling and purchasing programs. The
Company will also collect data on energy and greenhouse gas emissions
from all the facilities it owns and, where possible, those facilities it
leases, to track and help minimize the effect on the environment from
its operations.
6. Senior managers will support and sponsor the Company’s environmental
commitment and explore business development opportunities.
7. In addition to the Company’s newly-created Environmental Affairs
Advisory Council – made up of senior managers from across the Company –
Wells Fargo will create an external Environmental Advisory Board to
guide the Company’s efforts, including customers in the energy and
forestry industries, and environmental experts from academia and
non-profit organizations.
8. The Company will increase corporate contributions of financial, human
and social capital to selected environmental non-profit groups in the
communities in which it does business and hold itself accountable
annually for measurable progress.
9. The Company will incorporate environmental commitments into the
Company’s Vision and Values and welcome the ideas of team members in the
process.
10. The Company will communicate annually its achievements in meeting
these commitments.
“Wells Fargo alone is ultimately responsible and accountable for its
ethical behavior, business practices, lending decisions, risk
management, and profitability,” said Wenzel. “The Company cannot
compromise its credit policy and credit decision-making – including
decisions on which companies or industry sectors it decides to do
business with. As always, all our customer relationships are
confidential.” Among Wells Fargo’s recent environmental progress:
--$64 million in financing for developing green buildings (designed to
conserve energy and water, promote indoor air quality, and minimize
environmental impacts) in Idaho and Oregon
--$600+ million in 2004 for the acquisition and redevelopment of
“brownfields” (abandoned or underused industrial or commercial
properties where redevelopment is complicated by actual or perceived
environmental contamination)
--Received the State of California’s highest environmental honor for its
energy conservation and energy awareness training programs in its
facilities.
Wells Fargo & Company is a diversified financial services company with
$436 billion in assets, providing banking, insurance, investments,
mortgage and consumer finance to more than 6,000 stores and the internet
(wellsfargo.com) across North America and internationally.
Source: Wells Fargo |