I just received the following from Bank of America…
I am writing in response to your recent email to Brian Moynihan, CEO of Bank
of America, expressing concern about the bank's paper usage.
At Bank of America, we understand our responsibility as a leading financial
institution to work to tackle critical environmental issues facing our
customers and communities. That's why in 2007 we established a 10-year, $20
billion initiative to address global climate change through lending,
investing, products and our own operations.
As part of that commitment, we recognize the need to balance the demands we
place on forests with the fact that paper continues to be a heavily utilized
communications medium for our customers. We have reduced direct mail
volumes by more than a third over the past two years, and we continue to
provide customers with the ability to opt out of receiving marketing
materials from the bank.
Since the advent of our online services 15 years ago, we have seen a steady
increase in customer adoption of paperless communications. We are working
with customers to dramatically reduce overall paper consumption through
online banking and bill pay, e-statements, deposit image ATMs, and other
innovative products. In fact, we encourage all forms of e-delivery - it not
only reduces paper usage but it cuts cost to the bank and provides customers
more ways to protect their privacy. Customer response has been positive - in
the past year we saw a 38% increase in the number of account-related
communications suppressed through digital delivery.
Equally important to paper usage is how we obtain the paper we do use.
Over two decades, we have proactively worked with other institutions to set
industry standards for the responsible procurement of paper and other forest
products - serving as a founding member of the Recycle Paper Coalition. We
have a rigorous paper procurement policy that addresses both source
reduction and recycling, and in order to reduce demand on forests, minimizes
consumption of "virgin-wood" paper products.
Forest certification is one of the most effective tools available to promote
sustainable forestry practices. Bank of America requires its forest
products suppliers to document the sustainability of their fiber sources and
obtain third-party certification in accordance with credible, independent
and widely accepted standards. In addition to the Forest Stewardship
Council, we believe the Sustainable Forest Initiative, the Canadian
Standards Association and other organizations provide such standards.
Importantly, our ultimate goal is to create a market for certified forest
fiber, accelerating this process by procuring forest products whose fiber is
third-party certified.
We recognize that as consumer habits change, so will the ways in which we
communicate with them. There will always be room for improvement, but we
believe we are making good progress.
I encourage you to visit www.bankofamerica.com/environment to learn more
about Bank of America's efforts to address climate change, and the specific
policies and practices cited in this letter.
Sincerely,
Alex Liftman
Environmental Executive
Bank of America
I responded with my concerns regarding the unavailability of e-statements, etc. in the State of Washington. I'll post their response, if any.
