Environmental Footprint

Key Highlights of our Progress:

• On Earth Day 2009, we launched the RBC Employee Environmental Stewardship Guidelines to all employees worldwide. The Guidelines direct RBC employees in making the most environmentally sustainable, and in many cases cost-effective, choices in the course of their everyday work activities. The guidelines are divided into six categories: electricity, water, paper, waste, recycling and travel.

Energy and greenhouse gas related initiatives:

• Opened our 100th green powered branch in Brantford, Ontario in November 2009. The 100 Canadian branches powered by Bullfrog Power use 9,800 MWh of certified emission-free power, reduced our carbon footprint by approximately 3,300 tonnes annually.
  
  
• Completed 10 branch energy audits that have informed the development of RBC Energy Plan with planned implementation in 2010.
  
  
• Launched the RBC Employee Environmental Stewardship Guidelines to all staff globally, which includes guidelines on conserving energy in the workplace and on low carbon / alternatives to travel.
  
  
• Continued a multi-year server virtualization program that has resulted in the removal and purchase avoidance of over 3,400 new physical servers from our data centres since project inception.
  
  
• Offset the carbon emissions associated with our participation in the 2010 Olympic Torch Relay, Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.
  
  
• Offset the carbon emissions associated with the production of the RBC 2009 Annual Report, Proxy Circular and Corporate Responsibility Report.
  
  
• Primary tenant in the new RBC Centre in Toronto, a new 40-storey office tower in Toronto that is certified as LEED Gold. In addition, two new Canadian branch locations have obtained LEED certification.
  
  
• Implemented new electrical, mechanical and architectural standards for our Canadian branch network through five pilot projects.
  
  
• Continued Energy Smart - an internal program developed to promote energy conservation in our branch and office building premises.
  
  
• Strong staff and building participation in Earth Hour 2009 including a total of 73 North America major office buildings reporting participation. We also had over 7,500 staff, representing over 29 countries, commit to participating in Earth Hour.
  
  
• Piloted Project Reflection, a new office design that supports environmental responsibility, which resulted in estimated annual electricity savings of 200,000 kWh at the pilot location, the equivalent of 18 Canadian homes.
  

Paper related initiatives:

• Increased the proportion of certified sustainably sourced office paper across our North American and British Isles operations to 84%, compared to 15% in 2008.
  
  
• Increased the proportion of certified sustainably sourced marketing and direct mail paper across our Canadian, RBC Bank (US) and British Isles operations to 52%, compared to 37% in 2008.
  
  
• Over 98% of all sustainably sourced paper is certified to the Forestry Stewardship Council (FSC) certification standard.
  
  
• Converted over 1.3 million accounts in Canada to electronic statements. Since 2006, over 4.7 million accounts have been converted, resulting in paper savings of approximately 980 metric tonnes.
  
  
• Initiated e-courier, a program that provides branches in Canada with the ability to submit documents electronically to central processing offices. This program considerably reduces the need for maintaining paper copies of documents and the need to transport these documents. An estimated 1.6 million pages of paper or the equivalent of over 200 trees were saved within the first three months of launching this project.

Water related initiatives

• The RBC Employee Environmental Stewardship Guidelines include staff procedures to report leaky faucets and guidelines on employee use of reusable water containers, water coolers or tap water.
  
  
• Implemented new mechanical standards for our Canadian branch network that includes standards for water fixtures, plumbing and boilers.
  
  
• Maintain internal guidelines for hosting "green" meetings including tips for conserving water and "tap water preferred" policies.

Waste and recycling related initiatives

• Initiated a Canadian recycling project intent on expanding recycling programs at properties where "free" municipal commercial recycling programs are under utilized. The program has resulted in new recycling programs at 21 locations in Canada thus far.
  
  
• Launched the RBC Employee Environmental Stewardship Guidelines to all staff globally, which includes guidelines on recycling and reducing waste in the workplace.
  
  
• The RBC Responsible Procurement Policy under implementation in 2010, includes considerations for recycling, waste and packaging minimization.
  
  
• Continued our Furniture Reuse Program that diverts furniture from landfills by finding ways to reuse or donate the furniture to charities. In 2009 this program diverted 12.6 tonnes of materials from landfill.
  
  
• Our move to the RBC Centre in Toronto in 2009 and 2010 will effect over 5,000 staff. We initiated a program to ensure that unsellable surplus furniture and office supplies are repurposed and distributed to schools, charities, health facilities and other deserving organizations before considering final disposal options.