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HomePersonal BankingWealth ManagementSmall BusinessCommercialCorporate & InstitutionalAbout BMO

Targets

Carbon Neutrality


*Relative to energy consumption and transportation emissions.

We achieved enterprise-wide carbon neutrality in August 2010. This milestone reflected our cumulative efforts in three areas: reduced energy consumption in our real estate facilities and for employees’ business-related travel; our investment in electricity from renewable sources; and our purchase of high-quality voluntary carbon credits to offset any remaining emissions.

Learn more about how we achieved that goal.

We maintained carbon neutrality even as our U.S. operations expanded significantly in 2011 with the acquisition of M&I Bank, which added several office facilities and 374 branches to our footprint. These additions increased our absolute carbon emissions; however, because we’ve made a multi-year commitment to purchase carbon credits, we were able to apply a surplus in offsetting the impact of our larger physical presence.

Emissions Reduction

We are committed to reducing the impact we have on the environment. The largest contributing factor to that impact – approximately 90% – is the real estate space we occupy. Business transportation by our employees and the fleet of vehicles we own account for most of the balance.

In 2010 we successfully met our target of reducing absolute carbon emissions by 5% versus 2007 baseline levels. In fact, we exceeded that goal – absolute emissions were reduced by 8%, equivalent to just over 13,000 tonnes of emissions.

In 2012 BMO set a new target: to reduce absolute enterprise carbon emissions by 10% by the end of fiscal 2016.

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How will we achieve this new target?

We’ll use the same formula we used to achieve our 2010 goal:

Step 1: Reduce and limit emissions from transportation and energy usage.

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Step 1: We have a number of activities underway that focus on reducing energy consumption and carbon emissions. These include energy retrofits and recommissioning or reducing real estate facilities where we have consolidation or alternate workplace strategies in place. We are also reducing emissions from employee transportation for business purposes using technology such as teleconferencing and videoconferencing.

Step 2: Purchase electricity from renewable energy sources.

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Step 2: We are committed to investing in the use of renewable electricity for our facilities, and the renewable energy certificates we’ve purchased will reduce our emissions.

Step 3: Buy carbon credits to offset remaining emissions.

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Step 3: In 2009 we invested $10 million ($2 million each year for five years) in the Greening Canada Fund, a voluntary carbon emissions reduction fund aimed exclusively at large Canadian corporations. The fund purchases and delivers carbon offset credits across Canada for its investors. This commitment will take us through to 2013 and will be evaluated as part of the measurement process.

Paper

We will announce our paper reduction target in 2012.

Water

As a financial institution occupying office buildings and retail branches, our use of water is limited primarily to kitchens and washrooms. Establishing a baseline for water consumption across our enterprise has been challenging mainly due to the availability of reliable data. We continue to focus on establishing a reliable baseline before committing to reduction targets.

Waste

Establishing a baseline for waste (landfill and recycling) has proved to be a challenge across the wide variety of facilities that we occupy, mainly due to the availability of reliable data. While we are making progress at some larger facilities and have established baselines and targets, we have not yet announced an enterprise-wide target.

Measurement and Accountability

We will measure progress against our target annually, and report to BMO’s Sustainability Council.

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