In its latest Environmental, Social and Governance Report released in April, M&T Bank details progress toward its goal of operating solely on renewable power by 2030. The Buffalo-based bank operates more than 1,000 branches in 12 eastern states. WAMC's Jim Levulis spoke with Erin Komorowski, who leads M&T’s ESG Office, about efforts to utilize solar, hydro and wind power to meet its goal.
Komorowski: We’re assuming that we might use a combo of all three. We’re currently working internally and building our roadmap for what kind of solutions we want to look at including some rooftop solar, some virtual power purchasing agreements, and potentially some wind and hydro. With our footprint, including Albany and some of the wonderful hydro projects around Albany, I think that's definitely being thought of in our roadmap.
Levulis: And then in the roadmap, M&T Bank is also committed to make its operations across 12 Eastern states that it operates in carbon neutral by 2035. What's the plan to accomplish that? Does that involve some energy use reductions, etc?
Komorowski: Yes Jim, to reach carbon neutrality by 2035, our interim goal of going to 100% renewable energy will be a really big impact. More than half of our current emissions come from our scope tour electricity use. And then we've been exploring how we decrease more and more of our energy use for our scope 1 emissions as well. So exploring electrification and other technologies that would help us reach that carbon neutrality goal.
Levulis: So in the future, if I'm going to an M&T Bank branch, I'm a customer, would I see things like solar panels on the buildings, that sort of thing?
Komorowski: You'll definitely see solar panels on some of our buildings. We're exploring a range of options depending on how our buildings are set up to most effectively convert to 100% renewable energy.
Levulis: And I understand that the bank also has a goal of overall investing $1 billion in renewable energy projects over the next five years. You mentioned some of the types of projects. But would these include, you know, investing in individual companies that are looking to shift to renewable power via say solar panels on their buildings, or, you know what these also be government run projects that this $1 billion would go toward?
Komorowski: The $1 billion that we talked about in our ESG report of renewable energy is focused on our tax credit equity investments. We're also doing additional lending and product exploration in terms of helping our customers to transition. So looking for solar solutions for our small business and consumer customers, and looking for additional opportunities to help our customers transition as well as working with private companies on their transition plans.
Levulis: And does M&T Bank have investments in the fossil fuel industry?
Komorowski: In the 2021 ESG report, we've explored and created transparency around our exposure to sensitive industries within the climate and environmental space. And so we disclose within the report on page 32, what our exposures look like, which is $557 million, which is less than 1% of our outstanding commercial balances.
Levulis: And with that being such a small percentage, as you mentioned there, is M&T Bank considering divesting from the fossil fuel industry all together?
Komorowski: That's a great question. And I'd like to take a broader perspective. One of our guiding principles in our ESG work is how we help our customers and communities transition into a low carbon future. And so one of our intentions is to continue to serve our whole communities and help them transition rather than having exclusionary principles.
Levulis: And then so we've been talking a lot about the ESG report. Will subsequent ESG reports sort of track progress towards these goals, the renewable energy or renewable power goals, the carbon neutrality goals? Is that something that you know M&T customers can expect to see, a tracking of the progress here?
Komorowski: Definitely, our continued reporting will include updating our goals, our progress towards our goals, as well as potentially some additional intermediary goals. We are very focused on how we create transparency in these areas and are the evolution from our first ESG report to this year's ESG report had significant gains in terms of transparency and we intend to continue down that same path.
