The Environmental Business Initiative Target has been increased by the Bank of America
At the beginning of April, the Bank of America has announced that they are increasing the goal of mobilizing as much as $1 trillion by 2030 in their EBI (Environmental Business Initiative). This has been done to ensure the acceleration of the planned transition to a sustainable and low-carbon economy. It is a part of a broader financial goal of $1.5 trillion that serves the purposes of spanning business activities, ensuring the environmental transition, and for the purposes of socially inclusive development.
Anne Finucane, who is the Vice Chairman of the Bank of America, and leads their ESG (environmental, social, and governance) and public policies, as well as their sustainable finance efforts, is sure that the private sector is ready to drive the transition. In her opinion, the goals could only be met by working together to provide capital raising, lending, investment services, and advisory. The development of financial solutions, and introducing the innovations are in fact the key factors to ensuring the smooth (and accelerated) transition to a sustainable economy and promoting socially responsible banking for everyone (learn more on https://www.joinatmos.com/blog/ethical-banking-in-the-usa-understanding-socially-responsible-banking or similar sites).
Bank of America’s $1.5 trillion target is actually consistent with the UN SDGs goals (the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals) and is supposed to spur national and global transformative change. Beyond their climate-related finance, the sustainable goal is focusing on scaling the capital in order to advance the development of the community, as well as inclusive development, healthcare, affordable housing, and education. Other pressing issues that have been included in the plans are gender and racial equality.
Tom Montag, who is Finucane’s co-Chairman of Sustainable Markets Committee, and the Chief Operating Officer in Bank of America, claims that their institution will stand alongside their clients to ensure the community-driven transition to sustainable markets activity, lending, and investing. The Bank’s goal is to mobilize players from the whole financial system to make sure the flow of capital will be increased.
What is the Environmental Business Initiative?
The announcement increases the 2019 commitment made by Bank of America. It was initially set at $300 billion for sustainable and low-carbon business initiatives. So the increase to $1 trillion could be treated as a huge ($700 billion) step forward of the initiative. This commitment means more resources available for the transition in all the sectors. The plans include:
- the increased energy efficiency,
- a shift towards renewable energy,
- resource efficiency,
- sustainable transportation,
- sustainable agriculture and water,
- better forestry,
- improved pollution control.
The Initiative has been launched in 2007, and since then the Bank of America has deployed as much as $200 billion to ensure the realization of its goals. They announced that they will be met by 2050 when the company achieves the Net-Zero.
The Bank of America’s policies
The Bank of America is motivating its actions by serving the common purpose, as well as they strive to make lives better. The responsible growth is obtained by ESG leadership (environmental, social and governance) which is embedded in all 8 of the bank’s lines of business. It also represents their help in fueling the global economy and building credibility and trust.
The company’s goals have been well formulated by Montag and Finucane’s department, which collaborates across different lines of business and tries to develop solutions that support the SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) presented by the United Nations. The Bank of America is of course very transparent when it comes to its ESG, net-zero, inclusivity, and other policies. They are issuing an annual report which summarizes their strives. All the needed information could be found there, or in the Proxy Statement issued in 2021.
To read a more in-depth analysis of the Bank of America ESG projects and actions, visit a comprehensive Disruption Banking piece. To access the article, use the link: https://disruptionbanking.com/2021/04/08/bank-of-america-increases-environmental-business-initiative-target-to-1-trillion-by-2030/.
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