Wells Fargo joins growing green crowd - East Bay Business Times:

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Wells Fargo's effort to elevate environmentak awareness has landed a San Ramon womahn a job and drawn guarded praise from someenvironmental activists. "Thisd was an area the compan had not focused on and there was growing interesgt from our stakeholders regardingenvironmental issues," said Mary who Wells Fargo hiredd to oversee its environmentalp program. Following the lead of other major includingand , Wells Fargo, the nation's fifth largest banking company, with $425 billion in created the position of vice president for environmental affairs. In February, Wells Fargo hired Wenzel, who previously workefd for the inSan Francisco, to lead its environmental awareness activities.
"Hiring a persob is great because at least therse is a personwith 'environment' in their job but it's only one piece," said Michelle program manager for the green investments projec at . "The key to creating the position is not just creatinvthe position, it's creating a comprehensive environmental managementg system. That's what a group like Friends of the Earth really lookxs at when we try to understanda bank's environmentalp commitment." When it announced Wenzel'e hiring, Wells Fargo also announced the creatio of an environmental affairs committee.
The group held its first meeting last month and formed three subcommittees to draft an environmentalvalueds statement, to look at the company's environmental practices internally and to review commercial including lending policies. "We are goinbg to take a look at our lending practices and see if an environmentalo policyis warranted," said Wenzel, who chairs the The moves at Wells Fargo are part of a trend amongh large American and European banks to adopt policies to promotse environmental sensitivity among their corporate clients. The San Francisco-basedx has led the chargse against U.S. banks through its Global Finance Campaign.
Last the group waged a "barbecue the banks" campaigh on the streets of San Francisco to call attention to its campaign againstWells Fargo. "I don't think thesd issues were even on their radar screen until we brought them totheir attention, both througn corporate negotiations and some fun summertime activisnm that combined barbecues and the banks," said Ilyse who heads the Rainforest Actiohn Network's Global Finance Initiative. Wenzel said one part of her job is to unifhthe bank's internal environmental activities. The company has, for reduced energy consumption in recent years in its an accomplishment that might get more publicity now that she ison board.
The focus amony activists, however, is pushing for changes in lendingb policies that can have global such as fighting deforestatiobn andglobal warming. The environmental awareness efforft gained momentum in the summerof 2003, when Dutch giant ABN AMRO, London-based Barclays PLC and Germany'sa WestLB Group led a group of 10 financial institutionsx in creating the Equator Principles. To date, 23 companies and two public financial entities in Europe have signe the accord designed to mitigate potential environmental and socialk risks associated with financing projects such as dams and oil pipelinexs insensitive ecosystems.
The report card on the Equatotr Principles hasbeen mixed, according an umbrella group of global environmental organizations monitoring the environmenta l and social impacts of financialp companies. Members include the RainforestActionj Network, Friends of the Earth and the Internationa Rivers Network. Chan-Fishel moved her offic this month to San Francisco from where she had worked from the offices of the InternationaloRivers Network, which has pressured banks to consider environmentakl and social implications of dam financing. Hogue said more than two dozenm European financial companies have adoptedconservation policies, pavinv the way for U.S. banks such as Wells J.P.
Morgan has said it will unveil its environmental policgin April. "They have it because a lot of these blueprints have been Hogue said. Early in Citigroup led the way amongmajor U.S. banking companiesa by hiring a conservation czar and adopting an environmentakl policy to help ensure loans did not go to projects contributing to rain forest destruction or global Last spring, Bank of Americw announced a set of policies aimex at protecting the environment. The Charlotte, N.C.-basesd company said it would not provide funding for resource extractionfrom old-growth tropical rain forestw or for logging operationsw in intact forests.
Conservation and human rights activists praisedf Citigroup CEO Charles Prince in March after he declared thatRimbunanb Hijau, a Malaysian logging company and Citigroup would have to comply with the bank's policieds to protect the environment. The logging company has been accused of illegall y harvesting rain forest timber and of human rightsw abuses among its workers in Papua New Hogue said environmental awareness is spreading throughout the lendinfg process at leading banks suchas Citigroup. Citigroup and othersw have employees in their credit risk departmentsd and project finance departments to ensure the environmentapl standards areadhered to.
"One of the significant things that these leadinv corporations understand is that you have to mainstream thesre principles throughout your business Hogue said.