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Corporate Social Responsibility
News
7.11.2005 ET
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CSR News from:
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Wells Fargo & Company
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News Category:
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Wells Fargo & Company Announces 10-Point Environmental Commitment, $1 Billion Lending Target
(CSRwire) San Francisco - Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE: WFC) 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),
As the nation's leading internet bank, helped revolutionize banking
and money management leading to significant paper, energy and water
savings,
Received the State of California's highest environmental honor for
its energy conservation and energy awareness training programs in its
facilities.
Wells Fargo also has been recognized for outstanding corporate
citizenship:
Ranked among the top 10 "Best Corporate Citizens" nationwide, by
Business Ethics magazine,
Ranked among the top 10 in BusinessWeek's "Most Generous Corporate
Donors,"
Only the second company in United Way of America's history to receive
all four of its Summit Awards in the same year - for Community Leadership,
Corporate Community Investment, Employee Community Engagement and Employee
Community Investment,
The number one equity holding in KLD's Select Social Index Fund,
designed to maximize exposure to positive social and environmental factors
while controlling risk,
Included in the FTSE4Good Fund, a leading socially responsible
investment (SRI) index.
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 elsewhere internationally.
Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., is the only U.S. bank to receive the highest
possible credit rating, "Aaa," from Moody's Investors Service.
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