Policies that protect the environment
RBC’s Environmental Policy guides every activity that can influence the environment, including our lending and investment decisions. Environmental risk management is integral to our lending practices, and we have a comprehensive set of environmental policies and sector-specific procedures designed to assess the social and environmental costs of any deal or project.

RBC was the first Canadian bank to adopt the Equator Principles in 2003, agreeing to voluntary guidelines for assessing large-scale project finance deals against social and environmental impacts. This led to the introduction in 2004 of RBC’s new Policy on Social and Environmental Review in Project Finance, which includes all elements of the Equator Principles, plus specific procedures for lenders and risk managers. In 2004, we applied the policy in the assessment of a number of resource sector projects in Canada and in developing countries. As with all RBC credit policies, compliance is audited on a periodic basis by RBC’s Internal Audit Services.

Leadership on climate change
RBC was among 50 global companies named to the Climate Leadership Index in May 2004 by the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), an initiative sponsored by 95 of the world’s largest institutional investors. It assesses how companies manage climate change issues, measure and reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and quantify competitive and financial costs and benefits.

We were cited by the CDP this year for collaborating with the International Emissions Trading Association to help develop the framework for a Canadian market for trading GHG emissions under the Kyoto Protocol.

As a first step in our strategy to eventually incorporate carbon risk into our risk assessment process, in 2004, RBC launched Climate Change Central – an online employee resource with information on climate change and how the Kyoto Protocol is likely to affect our clients and us.

RBC runs a US$50 million alternative energy technology venture fund overseen by RBC Capital Partners. In 2004, RBC Technology Ventures, Inc., announced that it would take the position of lead investor in the GEF Clean Technology Fund, L.P. It is a new private equity investment fund that will seek to identify and finance companies that create technologies that enable traditional industrial companies to reduce energy consumption, material waste, discharge of pollutants, safety or public health hazards and other environmental consequences.

We recognize the opportunity in alternative energy resources, and already finance more than 25 wind farms in Canada, the U.S., the U.K. and Italy. In February 2004, RBC Capital Markets was the key advisor in closing a deal for a 400-megawatt wind farm portfolio for Zephyr Investments Ltd. and Beaufort Wind Ltd. in the U.K., deemed the renewable energy deal of the year by Project Finance International.

In 2004, RBC switched to electronic pay statements for Canadian employees, eliminating the printing of nearly two million statements and envelopes, and saving nearly 16 tonnes of paper annually. Employees who prefer paper pay statements may still opt for that form of delivery. Ada Bragado, Steve Wong, Loretta Peragine and fellow team members in Toronto developed and executed a seamless transition to the electronic statements.

Conservation in the workplace
RBC’s real estate and operations groups make conservation a day-to-day concern by finding ways for us to run our premises more efficiently.

Big gains can come from something as tiny as a light bulb: in 2004 RBC saved nearly 1.8 million kilowatt-hours of energy just by switching lighting in 142 office and branch locations to more energy-efficient systems. This is equivalent to the amount of energy it takes to power 150 households for one year.

In 2004, RBC purchased 640 megawatt-hours of Green Power from BC Hydro. In terms of emissions avoided, this purchase is equivalent to taking 64 passenger cars off the road for a year.

Through the energy-efficient lighting and Green Power programs alone, RBC will reduce GHG emissions by at least 600 tonnes this year.

New construction standards now require the installation of occupancy sensors in new branches and in major renovations, to switch lights off automatically when no one is around. We also changed our corporate standards for room temperature settings in all of our offices. This slight modification will have a beneficial impact on energy use across all our premises.

When we renovate, we try to reuse material. This year more than 52 tonnes of carpet tile were reused, rather than landfilled, thanks to a program started in 2002.

In 2005, we plan to reduce the number of printers in our workplaces by 60 per cent by introducing shared, networked devices capable of many functions. The new units are Energy Star compliant, and are expected to reduce energy consumption.

Thanks to a staff suggestion, RBC was also able to reduce dramatically the number of inkjet cartridges used in automated banking machines last year. By simply printing less information for internal use, we’ve used 31,000 fewer cartridges.

Conservation in the community

• RBC is represented on the advisory panel of the Canadian Brownfields Network, launched in March 2004. Its goal is to accelerate redevelopment and urban revitalization across Canada and promote Brownfields redevelopment to meet the challenges of sustainable community planning.
• RBC has pledged $500,000 over five years to support the Nature Conservancy of Canada’s Campaign for Conservation, which aims to protect habitats for species at ecologically important sites.
• Our $50,000 donation to the Wonder of Wetlands Educational Partnership with Ducks Unlimited Canada in 2004 allowed over 1,700 children in Saskatoon to learn about wildlife and wetlands conservation through class field trips and resource materials for teachers.

A place on the benchmarks

• For the fifth consecutive year, RBC was named to the Dow Jones Sustainability Index, recognizing the world’s financial, social and environmental corporate leaders.
• RBC is listed on the FTSE4Good Global Index, designed to track the performance of companies that meet globally recognized corporate responsibility standards.
• RBC is included on the Jantzi Social Index, a stock index of 60 Canadian companies that pass a set of social and environmental screens.

Industry-wide collaboration
RBC is committed to working with colleagues in the international financial services industry to properly manage our environmental risks and minimize the impact of our operations on the environment. We are a member of:

• the Canadian Bankers Association Environmental Issues Advisory Group;
• the Environmental Bankers Association;
• the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Finance Initiative.

We are also a signatory to the:

• Equator Principles;
• International Chamber of Commerce Business Charter for Sustainable Development;
• UNEP Statement by Financial Institutions on the Environment & Sustainable Development.

For more information, visit rbc.com/environment