Newsweek Green Rankings 2012: Financials

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In recent years, the Financial industry has made notable improvements in managing its direct environmental footprint through energy-efficiency initiatives and reductions in waste and water consumption. An emerging trend among large Financial companies is to set quantitative commitments for financing sustainable projects and activities, such as “green mortgages” or loans for home energy improvements. Companies leading in this area are setting “sustainable financing” targets over a 10-year period, and are exceeding their own commitments. However, a lack of transparency remains a challenge in the industry. Roughly half of the Financial companies covered do not disclose environmental policies and standards, environmental programs, or environmental management systems. This is particularly concerning as the industry is widely criticized for lending to and/or investing in companies or projects with negative environmental impacts.

Key Industry Impacts

• The investment holdings of Financial companies are often the dominant source of their total environmental footprint.

• Water, greenhouse-gas emissions, and general waste together account for more than 83 percent of the sector’s total environmental footprint.

• Approximately 22 percent of the total environmental impact of ranked companies comes from this sector.

Critical Issue Profile: Lending to “Dirty” Industries

While Financial companies are increasing their involvement in sustainability-related services and projects, their relationships with companies engaged in environmentally sensitive activities overshadow commitments to mitigate climate change. Companies implicated in financing “dirty” industries such as coal projects, hydropower dams, palm oil, and nuclear power face the greatest risk of “greenwashing” accusations, especially without meaningful disclosure. Many companies insist that these activities are balanced by financing high-impact sustainable projects such as renewable energy. However, there is little available evidence to prove this argument. Financial firms can demonstrate a genuine commitment to mitigating the sector’s environmental impact through increased transparency on sustainability-related lending, combined with a decrease in lending to environmentally sensitive industries.

Industry Ranking: How U.S. Financial Companies Stack Up

Industry Rank	Company	Overall Rank	Industry Sector	Impact	Management	Disclosure	Green Score	2011 Green Score
1	Hartford Financial Services Grp.	14	Financials	77.7	70.0	63.8	72.8	71.7
2	Citigroup	17	Financials	68.2	75.9	79.0	72.7	69.5
3	American Express	24	Financials	82.8	62.8	55.2	71.1	69.4
4	Bank of America	27	Financials	63.6	72.3	87.4	69.9	65.6
5	Unum Group	34	Financials	84.6	54.3	65.7	69.1	62.4
6	Allstate	52	Financials	80.7	55.0	59.7	67.0	66.1
7	ACE	59	Financials	87.1	49.8	47.2	66.3	64.1
8	U.S. Bancorp	61	Financials	83.3	49.7	63.5	66.2	64.0
9	Travelers	68	Financials	86.9	44.5	61.2	65.2	63.5
10	Aflac	69	Financials	87.3	46.8	48.8	65.2	63.1
11	Capital One Financial	80	Financials	81.1	49.4	50.3	63.8	56.6
12	JPMorgan Chase	110	Financials	51.1	70.7	64.3	61.2	54.6
13	Progressive	114	Financials	85.4	39.2	50.0	61.0	57.1
14	Discover Financial Services	123	Financials	82.9	50.3	1.7	60.1	54.4
15	Wells Fargo	124	Financials	58.8	57.5	77.5	60.1	57.7
16	Willis	131	Financials	83.0	49.2	0.0	59.5	58.0
17	Aon	150	Financials	83.0	42.0	20.8	58.3	57.0
18	MetLife	166	Financials	62.6	58.5	29.2	57.4	61.0
19	Assurant	169	Financials	87.0	39.3	4.2	57.3	57.2
20	American International Group	178	Financials	77.7	37.6	50.7	56.9	54.7
21	XL Group	180	Financials	87.4	34.9	16.7	56.7	56.5
22	Genworth Financial	183	Financials	78.1	43.5	19.2	56.7	56.8
23	Chubb	189	Financials	82.3	39.2	16.7	56.3	57.1
24	Marsh & McLennan	196	Financials	81.0	38.7	20.8	56.0	55.7
25	Goldman Sachs Group	219	Financials	40.7	66.0	65.4	54.6	54.4
26	Fidelity National Financial	220	Financials	87.4	33.8	0.0	54.5	54.3
27	W.R. Berkley	221	Financials	87.4	33.8	0.0	54.5	N/A
28	Prudential Financial	223	Financials	52.7	54.4	61.8	54.4	52.4
29	TD AMERITRADE	233	Financials	83.9	35.4	0.0	53.7	51.8
30	SLM	245	Financials	82.9	35.4	0.0	53.2	53.0
31	BNY Mellon	275	Financials	28.7	70.3	71.7	51.7	43.5
32	State Street	280	Financials	5.3	88.9	91.1	51.5	48.5
33	Morgan Stanley	286	Financials	41.7	60.3	55.0	51.4	46.3
34	Lincoln National	306	Financials	65.6	38.6	33.2	50.2	N/A
35	PNC Financial Services Group	308	Financials	50.8	46.2	64.7	50.1	49.7
36	Principal Financial Group	356	Financials	45.8	50.5	44.6	47.8	49.2
37	Northern Trust	357	Financials	12.2	75.5	83.1	47.8	38.8
38	Fifth Third Bancorp	367	Financials	66.1	34.5	18.3	47.1	46.8
39	Comerica	372	Financials	40.7	49.2	65.6	47.0	N/A
40	Huntington Bancshares	413	Financials	63.4	31.7	16.7	44.5	44.3
41	SunTrust Banks	416	Financials	60.3	34.5	16.7	44.3	44.2
42	BB&T	424	Financials	62.7	34.1	0.0	43.6	45.5
43	Regions Financial	433	Financials	60.9	32.9	4.2	42.7	44.5
44	KeyCorp	441	Financials	37.3	40.3	67.1	41.6	33.1
45	Franklin Resources	455	Financials	26.7	48.6	60.8	40.0	34.5
46	M&T Bank	458	Financials	51.0	36.3	4.2	39.7	38.7
47	Loews	459	Financials	53.2	34.9	0.4	39.7	39.4
48	Charles Schwab	469	Financials	38.2	38.6	33.0	37.8	33.2
49	Berkshire Hathaway	472	Financials	50.8	32.1	0.0	37.3	38.1
50	Ameriprise Financial	488	Financials	27.3	41.3	0.0	30.9	30.3
51	Invesco	495	Financials	6.2	47.6	16.7	25.9	23.2
52	T. Rowe Price Group	497	Financials	0.0	45.5	47.8	25.0	19.9
53	BlackRock	500	Financials	0.0	46.7	4.2	21.4	20.7

Green Rankings 2012: Financials

Companies in this sector include banks, diversified financial services, and insurance companies.

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