Environmental, Social, and Governance

Environmental

Conservation and energy efficiency:

We are responsible for protecting our planet and understand that reducing our business’s carbon footprint is key to a sustainable future. We are committed to measuring and minimizing our collective impact on the environment while contributing to environmental stewardship and responsible business operations. We strive to embed environmental sustainability throughout our products, services, operations, and culture to drive efficiencies and responsible resource use while creating comfortable, safe, and healthy workplaces for our associates. As part of our corporate responsibility, we continue to focus our efforts on sustainability within our business and our community.

We are focused on sustainability and resource conservation and, as a result, seek to reduce resource consumption through efficiency initiatives in our branches and offices. We do this through company-wide recycling programs, the implementation of LED lighting in our workplaces, and working to reduce our reliance on disposable products. As we renovate or build new facilities, we try to leverage renewable sources for power and HVAC through the employment of solar panels. In 2022, we made a commitment for a $7 million investment in SOLCAP 2022-1, LLC, a fund that was formed to make solar tax equity investments in renewable solar energy projects that will provide us with tax credits and other tax benefits. We plan to continue to review these investment opportunities as they arise. We have also invested in tools and capabilities that allow our team members to work remotely as appropriate. We work hard to ensure that our lending activities do not encourage business activities that could cause irreparable damage to our reputation or the environment. As a result, we try to conduct business responsibly and actively work with shareowners to best serve our various constituents. We monitor the environmental, social, and human rights risks of our customers along with credit risks. This process involves management and Board oversight and controls such as enhanced due diligence and a reputation risk review which is overseen by our Enterprise Risk Management Committee. In general, we evaluate each credit or transaction on its individual merits, with larger deals receiving more attention and deeper analysis, including a review of environmental matters related to certain real estate loans which is overseen by our Credit Risk Oversight Committee.