Grow your business green

“Businesses have a large carbon footprint and should be thinking about sustainability,” according to Green Cities Accord (GCA) Director of Sales and Strategy Alex Ablamunets.
Ablamunets suggested that a company supporting sustainability not only benefits the environment – it’s also a smart business investment. He said there are many perks to organizations considering their carbon footprint.
First, being energy efficient gives businesses “competitive advantage” and allows them more favorable financial terms when looking for financing options.
“There’s kind of a misconception that sustainability has to cost a lot of money – it does not have to,” Ablamunets said.
He also explained that many consumers want to support businesses that prioritize environmentalism. When given the choice between two companies, he suggested customers might be more likely to support the business that is working toward a greater goal.
GCA is based in Minneapolis and aims to bring communities to both decrease their overall carbon footprint and cancel out what is produced by investing in carbon offsets, also known as carbon credits. As part of its Carbon Offset Program, the organization creates these credits by planting trees in Minneapolis and St. Paul areas. After 25 years in the ground, the trees are certified into carbon credits by the local carbon registry City Forest Credits.
Since trees reduce the amount of carbon in the air, financially supporting their cultivation counteracts one’s carbon footprint. When measuring overall environmental impact, these carbon credits will subtract from total emissions. According to Ablamunets, the goal is for a company to get as close to net zero-emissions as possible.

Sunrise models goals after others’
Sunrise Banks is a local supporter of GCA. The St. Paul-based corporation’s mission is to be a “socially responsible community bank.” Recently, they hosted an event with GCA where Ablamunets and Sunrise Banks VP of Strategic Lending Laura Wildenborg educated local business professionals on both organizations’ efforts toward climate resilience.
Net-zero banking is how Sunrise Banks commits to environmental advocacy. Eleven of the largest banks in the U.S. lend an average of 19.4% – and as high as 30% – of their portfolio to carbon-intensive sectors propelling climate change, according to a Project Drawdown publication titled “Saving (for) the planet: The climate power of personal banking.” In contrast, when participating in a net-zero loan or deposit through Sunrise Banks, the money will be put into funding endeavors that either avoid or reduce greenhouse gas emissions entirely.
Wildenborg points to the Paris Climate Agreement as a central component to Sunrise Banks’ framework. She added that this agreement provided a common goal to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, which would help limit the global temperature rise to a maximum of 2 degrees Celsius. “If [the global temperature] goes over that, we would have a lot more severe consequences from climate change,” Wildenborg said.
The foundation of Sunrise Banks’ environmental support is built on models already in place, specifically within European countries. Wildenborg explained there are more greenhouse gas regulations on businesses overseas than in the United States. Since these countries have more accessible emission reports, Sunrise Banks has options to model their own environmental goals after those institutions.
“We don’t have to create the wheel,” Wildenborg said. “We can go out and find these best practices and follow them, and it’s specifically designed for financial institutions.”

Spreading news on corporate sustainability
Ablamunets believes a lack of education on sustainability within businesses is a barrier to corporations becoming more environmentally conscious. “Businesses are new to the world of corporate sustainability,” he said. “Every organization has a marketing department, a finance department, an HR department – most organizations, even today, do not have a sustainability department.”
Because corporate sustainability is new, organizations don’t have the necessary knowledge or skills to become more environmentally conscious, so they would have to make their own intentional decisions around reducing environmental footprints. But he said within businesses, there is a natural resistance to change.
“Sustainability requires pivoting in a lot of ways,” Ablamunets said. “Businesses tend to stick to what’s working and not rock the boat too much.”

GCA builds models of its own
European businesses aren’t the only environmental models being used among organizations in America. People at GCA are talking about taking the Twin Cities Carbon Offsetting Program to other cities like Rochester and Duluth, according to Ablamunets.
He and Wildenborg agree that making sustainability goals are important to climate advocacy. “A very common goal is to reduce emissions by 50 percent by 2030,” said Wildenborg.
Ablamunets also said employees notice even small changes in routine, so no matter how small the impact, any goal can influence employee perspectives of climate resilience.
GCA and Sunrise Banks have data and resources available on their websites greencitiesaccord.org and sunrisebanks.com.