Ambitions
- In July 2020, Citi launched its 2025 Sustainable Progress Strategy with the ambition of being the world’s leading bank in driving the transition to a low-carbon economy. The strategy is threefold: (1) increase Citi’s financing of low-carbon solutions; (2) measure and manage the climate risk and impact of its client portfolio; and (3) further reduce the environmental footprint of its 7,000 facilities around the world.
- Citi was the first major U.S. bank to endorse the Principles for Responsible Banking, a set of principles aimed at developing a more sustainable banking system, which were developed by a core group of banks and the U.N. Environment Finance Initiative.
- In 2017, Citi committed to power all its facilities with renewable electricity by 2020. As of 2019, Citi contracted 86% and is on track to meet the 100% goal by the end of 2020.
- Citi is on target to meet its 2020 environmental footprint goals and has set bold new goals for the next five years, including a 45% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, a 40% reduction in energy consumption, a 30% reduction in water consumption, a 25% of water consumed from reclaimed/reused sources, a 50% reduction in total waste, a 50% of waste diverted from landfill, and a 40% of floor area to operate at the highest level of sustainability.
Investments
- As of 2019, Citi had completed its $100 Billion Environmental Finance Goal four years ahead of schedule with a total of $164 billion in environmental solutions, which helped avoid an estimated 11.8 million metric tons of CO2 emissions and supported 198,000 jobs.
- As part of Citi’s new 2025 Sustainable Progress Strategy, it established a new five-year $250 Billion Environmental Finance Goal. For the transaction to be counted toward the new goal, it must meet one or more established criteria: renewable energy, clean technology, water quality and conservation, sustainable transportation, green buildings, energy efficiency, circular economy, and sustainable agriculture and land use.
- Citi was an early supporter of the G20 Financial Stability Board’s Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) and its recommendations on voluntary climate disclosures. It was the first major U.S. bank to publish a robust climate disclosure report in 2018 about the bank’s implementation of the TFCD recommendations, including the results of its climate scenario analysis pilot. The bank will publish its second TCFD report in late 2020 overviewing its implementation process to date.
- In July 2020, the bank announced it was joining the Partnership for Carbon Accounting Financials (PCAF), a global initiative to create a global carbon accounting standard for emissions associated with lending portfolios and a framework through which financial institutions will measure and disclose those emissions.
- Citi’s most recent policy developments further iterated on its existing approach to the coal and oil and gas sectors. The company announced its plan to phase out financing of thermal coal mining companies by 2030 with interim targets and enhanced existing prohibitions on project-related financing of coal-fired power plants, coal mines, and Arctic oil and gas exploration and development.
- In early 2020, Citi launched a $150M Impact Investing Fund, which will make equity investments in social enterprises and companies that focus on various positive impacts on society, including both physical and social infrastructure, access to financial services, workforce development, and sustainability.
Innovation
- In 2019, Citi launched an inaugural €1B green bond fund. A year later in May 2020, the bank issued its inaugural USD $1.5B green bond, which further improved the bank’s commitment to environmental finance and the green bond market. This 2019 Green Bond Report provides more detail.
- Citi has routinely been leading the establishment of industry standards that drive the entire financial sector forward. The company helped co-create the Equator Principles (2003), the Green Bond Principles (2014), and the Poseidon Principles (2019), which are leading industry standards for driving sustainable financial practices.
- Citi is at the forefront of the financial sector in terms of sustainability and corporate citizenship. It was named No. 2 best corporate citizen and No.1 in the financial sector by 3BL Media in June 2020, No. 7 on America’s most responsible companies by Newsweek in 2020, and the world’s best bank for corporate responsibility by Euromoney in 2018. In October 2020, it was also named to the Top 50 of JUST Capital’s/Forbes JUST 100 - America’s Most JUST Companies.
For more information, please visit citi.com/sustainability.
