By Mariel Gousios
Source: bizjournals
One fact that has been quoted often is 100 companies make up 70% of the world’s carbon emissions. This fact can often discourage the individual since it makes it seem like the efforts done by one person are insignificant. However, there is a simple switch that almost anyone can do that can help significantly. Anyone who deposits money in a bank can reduce the amount of funding companies contributing to global warming get. The key is to switch from keeping money in a bank that gives fossil fuel companies money to one that does not.
Many of Buffalo’s most deposited banks are guilty of this. Two popular banks within Buffalo, M&T Bank and Key Bank, help fund multiple oil and gas companies. In particular, Key Bank has lending commitments to 50 oil and gas clients that total $1.7 billion. M&T Bank, Key Bank, and Bank of America all lend National Fuel Gas millions of dollars. Those three lend over $190 million combined. All of this contributes to the current climate change disaster. Unfortunately, most large private-sector banks are similarly guilty.
One of the highest polluting companies that Bank of America contributed to is ExxonMobil, the fifth-worst company in terms of carbon emissions. In addition to Bank of America, Verizon and Progressive lent a large amount of money to ExxonMobil last March. However, some banks do not lend money to oil and gas companies and instead give to sustainable, community building ones.
The most significant indicator that a bank is sustainable and considers the environment is the B-corp certification. Being B-Corp certified means that they are CDFI certified and committed to social and environmental values. Some of these banks include Aspiration (an online bank), Spring Bank, Amalgamated Bank, and Sunrise Bank. Unfortunately, B-certified banks are usually not widespread and therefore are not available in every state, let alone every city. Most of them are in California or New York City, with very few being near Western New York. With the increasing numbers of banks getting B-certified, however, it should become a more accessible option to find a bank aligning with one’s morals and environmental concerns. In the meantime, simply switching from a bank that lends millions to fossil fuel companies to one that lends less is an incredible improvement.
