I have been gaining interest in impact investing lately and came across this article talking about what TD bank has been doing on sustainability. Nicole Vadori, the associate vice president and head of environmental at TD bank group, said her job primarily focuses on finding ways to help reduce the bank’s carbon footprint, mitigating climate risk in its investment activities, and helping to drive business initiatives that can create positive environmental and social impacts. I think it is a great idea to work on both the bank itself in terms of carbon footprint and environmentally friendly investments. At the end of the day, customers and investors are the holders of that pool of money, and as they start becoming more aware of a company’s ESG and impact on sustainability, it is essential for TD to connect them with all the responsible projects.
TD became carbon neutral in 2010 through the process of reducing the footprint of thousands of branches in the U.S. and Canada, plus their corporate offices, data centres, and employee travel. Moreover, more than 200 of their branches are now LEED certified, and over 140 branches in the U.S. have solar panels to produce electricity. The last step in going carbon neutral was to offset the remainder of our energy consumption. Last but not least, since 2015, TD has met its 100% renewable electricity goal, meaning 100% of the electricity it uses in operations is from renewable resources.
However, I think the most powerful thing that a bank can do to promote sustainability is to invest in environmentally or socially responsible projects and businesses. I am glad that TD has developed a framework to which its employees refer when they review different loans and kinds of ventures. In terms of a green bond, the bank usually looks at three different areas: low-carbon energy generation, energy efficiency and management, and green infrastructure and sustainable land use. Nevertheless, it is slow for the real low-carbon economy to take place because all these clean solutions funded by the investment need time to be built and implemented.
Apart from all the great environmentally responsible initiatives that TD has taken on, I am also curious about what it has done on the social aspect. There are three areas in the triple bottom line: social, environmental and financial, and I think a bank like TD should not neglect the social area while maintaining its effort in environmental sustainability.
Reference:
Fund, E. D. (2018, December 14). Why TD Executives Are Banking On Sustainability. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/edfenergyexchange/2018/12/14/why-td-executives-are-banking-on-sustainability/#1da444514bae
