Energy and Emissions
Banks play a pivotal role in minimizing the impacts of climate change. Our ability to effectively honor this responsibility depends on how we measure our contributions to society, not only through the financial support we provide to various industries, but also in the sustainability of our operations. Capturing these metrics deepens our understanding of our impact, via both risks and opportunities, while simultaneously enabling us to develop ambitious but practical sustainability goals we can share with the public.
By continuing to gather data, we can evaluate our progress against these goals on an ongoing basis and also deepen our internal risk management and strategic efforts. We provide some of these key metrics, and the goals they inform, to solidify our accountability and demonstrate our desire for openness and transparency. Part of our approach to ensuring this transparency is through disclosure, such as our 2020 TCFD Report and our 2021 CDP Climate Change Questionnaire Response.
Value Chain Emissions
We calculate Scope 3 emissions and currently report using the Greenhouse Gas Protocol’s Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Accounting and Reporting Standard. Pursuant to this methodology, we disclose our Scope 3 GHG emissions in a number of categories relevant to our business in our response to CDP’s annual Climate Change Questionnaire. We submit our response to CDP and also provide our responses as a stand-alone disclosure to complement our other ESG reporting.
Scope 1: Direct emissions from owned or controlled sources
Scope 2: Indirect emissions from the generation of purchased electricity
Scope 3: Other indirect emissions sources across the value chain
As our practices in recording these metrics have developed, we have also incorporated our Scope 3 emissions metrics for business travel into this ESG report each year. This chart demonstrates not only how our efforts have improved over time, but also how our business travel-related emissions have declined since 2018. Due to COVID-19, travel dropped significantly in 2020; as our associates return to the workplace, we will rely on the efficiency efforts we already had in place prior to the onset of COVID-19.
Scope 3 Emissions
(as of December 31, 2020)
|
2020 |
2019 |
2018 |
2017* |
2016* |
2008* |
Total Business Travel
(metric tons CO2e) |
2020: 2,440 |
2019: 8,444 |
2018: 9,095 |
2017*: n/a |
2016*: n/a |
2008*: n/a |
| Air Travel |
2020: 631 |
2019: 2,765 |
2018: 2,898 |
2017*: 2,920 |
2016*: 2,589 |
2008*: n/a |
| Car Travel—Rental Vehicle |
2020: 800 |
2019: 2,802 |
2018: 2,890** |
2017*: n/a |
2016*: n/a |
2008*: n/a |
| Car Travel—Personal Vehicle |
2020: 1,009 |
2019: 2,876 |
2018: 3,308 |
2017*: 4,032 |
2016*: 4,214 |
2008*: 4,811 |
| Per Associate*** |
2020: 0.13 |
2019: 0.43 |
2018: 0.46 |
2017: n/a |
2016: n/a |
2008: n/a |
Identifying and Capitalizing on Growth Opportunities
We are constantly seeking ways to strengthen our understanding of how we indirectly impact the environment through the activities that take place across our value chain. Over the past few years, we have begun disclosing metrics that are important to that understanding, such as our sustainable lending and investing activity and our work to reduce transportation emissions related to our business. This report also evidences exposure of our lending portfolio to areas we deem to be “high-risk” from an environmental perspective.
While we are proud of these efforts, we know there is more work to be done. Beyond the risk exposure in our portfolio, it is important to delve deeper into the analysis by directly investigating and quantifying the emissions arising from our portfolio. For that reason, we plan to initiate the process of evaluating and measuring our Scope 3 emissions specific to our portfolio, which will help us assess our long-term alignment with the Paris Agreement and the transition to a net-zero carbon economy. An important initial step will be to evaluate the variety of methodologies available for measuring these emissions, including those developed by the Partnership for Carbon Accounting Financials (PCAF), and determining which one is best suited for our portfolio and business. We also plan to develop a working definition of “sustainable finance” to help advance consistent nomenclature in our conversations around this topic. We look forward to sharing our progress as this work develops.
Regions’ Operational Footprint
We are committed to operating our business responsibly, understanding that doing so will help us create long-term, sustainable value for our stakeholders and society. This commitment, and how we plan to act on it, is articulated in our Environmental Sustainability Policy Statement, which was initially approved by management in 2018 and is now overseen by the Board’s NCG Committee. The Policy Statement contains a number of pledges that, as this report demonstrates, we have since made considerable progress to effectuate.
Namely, the Policy Statement highlights our commitments to:
- Understand our environmental risks and opportunities.
- Incorporate ESG considerations throughout our operations.
- Reduce emissions and energy use.
- Assist in the transition to a low-carbon economy.
- Conserve resources and reduce waste.
- Promote awareness and engagement.
- Report transparently.
2023 Targets for Reducing
Environmental Footprint
| Target Area |
Breadth |
Unit of Measurement |
Reduction Target
(against 2015 baseline) |
Progress
through 2020 |
| Target Area: Gross Scope 1 and Scope 2 Greenhouse Gas Emissions (Location-Based) |
Breadth: Real estate where Regions is responsible for paying utilities and maintains operational control |
Unit of Measurement: Metric tons CO2e |
Reduction Target (against 2015 baseline): 30% |
Progress through 2020: 41% |
| Target Area: Energy Use |
Breadth: Electricity and natural gas usage in metered space |
Unit of Measurement: MWh |
Reduction Target (against 2015 baseline): 30% |
Progress through 2020: 26% |
We have escalated many existing initiatives while developing new approaches to work toward our 2023 goals, including:
- Energy-efficient lighting and automatic controls.
- HVAC and mechanical efficiency upgrades and improvements.
- Building intelligence and remote controls.
- High-performance building envelope upgrades.
- Education and awareness for continuous improvement of control processes.
- Real estate portfolio optimization.
- Renewable energy.
Continuing Momentum
As we approached our existing 2023 carbon emissions reduction goals, we focused on the development of a new goal facilitating long-term alignment with the Paris Agreement. As a financial institution, we recognize the need to quantify and report on the emissions related to investment and lending activity under Scope 3. While this work is being done, our new goal will focus on the operations that exercise direct control over Scope 1 and Scope 2. This goal was informed by guidance from the Science Based Targets initiative and is more ambitious than the Well Below 2°C model. We chose 2019 as the base year because of the abnormalities in the usage of our facilities in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
2030 Goal:
Reduce gross Scope 1 and Scope 2 location-based carbon emissions by 50% by year-end 2030, using 2019 as our base year.
We have also adapted our existing action plan to accommodate our new goal. Specifically, we have targeted two priorities in helping us reach our new goal: first, energy use reduction, which includes building automation systems, energy efficient equipment, and more sustainable branches; and second, portfolio optimization, which focuses on competitive real estate portfolio sizing. We look forward to reporting on our progress regarding this new goal in conjunction with our existing 2023 energy use reduction goal.
At the end of 2020, Regions operated more than 1,300 banking offices and more than 2,000 ATMs across 15 states. Since developing our Environmental Sustainability Policy Statement, we have seen our operational impact decline across our footprint. We also have looked increasingly toward investments in energy efficiency technology and other areas that maintain this downward trajectory in GHG emissions and energy use. Our assessment of performance in these areas, as well as analyzing related trends, utilizes the Greenhouse Gas Protocol to calculate the emissions associated with our energy and fuel consumption. To continue improving our transparency and the quality of our data, we have recently completed a third-party verification of our 2020 GHG inventory. This 2020 GHG Inventory Assurance & Verification Statement is available in our ESG Resource Center, as well as at ir.regions.com/governance.
