GHG Emissions, Commercial, Solar - June 5, 2019
Bank of America aims for targets with solar at 60+ locations
Bank of America announced the expansion of its environmental operations efforts to include the installation of solar panels across multiple locations through its Onsite Solar Initiative. The addition of solar power at a variety of the bank's facilities - including financial centers, ATMs, office locations and other operational buildings - is expected to generate more than 25 MW of renewable electricity that will directly power the bank’s operations with clean energy. These actions will move the bank closer to meeting its targets of carbon neutrality and purchasing 100% renewable electricity by the end of 2020, as well as its goals to reduce location-based GHG emissions by 50% and energy use by 40% in the same timeframe.
“Low-carbon energy programs like this demonstrate how Bank of America is working to meet our goal to use 100% renewable electricity by adding new solar sources and energy options to our operational footprint,” says Tom Scrivener, Global Real Estate and Enterprise Initiatives executive at Bank of America, in a statement. “The Onsite Solar Initiative is a critical component that will directly offset the bank’s energy use and lower energy costs, resulting in an estimated savings of $50 million over 25 years.”
Six financial centers (in California, Florida and Pennsylvania) and two office locations (in Nevada and North Carolina) are already benefiting from the energy savings and low-carbon enhancement through the bank’s onsite solar installations. This year, the bank plans to install solar panels at 15 financial centers and on 10 ATMs. Over the next three years, the company is expected to add more than 60 solar installations across its operations.
The company’s total sourcing of renewable electricity in 2018 was 1.8 million megawatt hours (MWh), amounting to 91 percent of its global energy use – the equivalent of powering 153,000 homes for one year. As part of the bank’s broader financial commitment, the company has deployed more than $126 billion over the past 12 years in support of environmental business efforts and recently announced it will mobilize an additional $300 billion in capital starting next year to support more sustainable business activities. This is its third environmental business commitment as part of its broader Environmental Business Initiative. The bank will meet its current goal of $125 billion by the end of 2019, six years ahead of schedule.
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