Posted by Jamie in Green Companies, Green Leaders | 0 Comments
PNC Financial Services: Erecting Green Monoliths
Warning: strip_tags() expects parameter 1 to be string, array given in /home/propelea/public_html/wp-includes/formatting.php on line 631
PNC Financial Services is a financial services corporation that is based in the United States. With assets that totaled $101.8 billion in 2006, it is United States’ eleventh largest bank.
It started initially as the Pittsburgh Trust and Savings Company, which was founded in Pennsylvania back in 1852. Six years later, the company transferred to the corner of Wood Street and Fifth Avenue in Pittsburgh and has remained there up to this day. The company was then renamed as the Pittsburgh National Corporation after numerous mergers with other corporate entities. In 1982, the corporation melded with Provident National Corporation and renamed themselves as the PNC Financial Corporation. The corporation gained the status of being the eleventh largest bank by absorbing other businesses from 1991 to 2007. Among the most notable acquisitions of the company are:
1. Riggs National Corporation (acquired 2005)
2. Mercantile Bankshares (pending; 2007)
3. Yardville National Bancorp (pending)
4. Sterling Financial Corporation (pending)
Key People:
• Jim Rohr – Chief Executive Officer and Chairman
• Gary Saulson – Director of Corporate Real Estate
• Stuart Hoffman – Senior Vice President and Chief Economist
• James Dunigan – Executive Vice President and Chief Investment Officer, PNC Wealth Management
• Kathleen D’Appolonia – Senior Vice President and Manager of Corporate Recruiting and Employee Inclusion
• Thomas Kunz – Senior Vice President and Director of Payments and Technology
• Robert Dye – Vice President and Senior Economist
• E. William Stone – Senior Vice President and Chief Investment Strategist, PNC Wealth Management
PNC is the first company to pass the U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC) volume build program. The company currently champions the cause for eco-friendly efficient buildings. Its USGBC-certified buildings far outnumber the edifices of any other company in the planet.
The U.S. Green Building Council is a “non-profit community of leaders working to make green buildings accessible to everyone within a generation.” It has developed the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System that provides a slew of standards for eco-friendly development of structures. The system defines what a “green building” is, aims for fostering green competition, changes the way developers see the construction industry, and elevates the awareness of the masses of the benefits of eco-friendly and efficient structures.
Thy system’s criteria include:
• Sustainable sites
• Innovation and design process
• Materials and resources
• Water efficiency
• Energy and atmosphere and
• Indoor environmental quality
PNC Financial Services has not failed in any of these regards. In fact, the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office has given the trademark “Green Branch” in 2007 to the corporate entity. Says Gary Saulson, director of Corporate Real Estate for the company: “The trademark is (an) affirmation of PNC’s leadership in ‘green’ business practices during the past decade. Our commitment to significantly reduce our impact on the environment has enabled us to lower costs, increase efficiency and productivity as well as enhance the communities where our customers and employees live, work and play.”
Among its many drives for maintaining its eco-friendly standards are:
• Construction of forty eco-friendly bank branches spread across six states. Fifteen of these were simultaneously granted certification by the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) to have passed its Portfolio Program, which facilitates the integration of eco-friendly building design, processes, and construction into the business operations of it participants.
• Heavy utilization of recycled materials: More than half of each PNC structure is made from recycled materials.
• Minimization of energy and water consumption: the company has been using high-efficiency insulators and systems and has reduced water consumption by as much as 6, 200 gallons a year. It has also maximized the use of natural light, increasing space for its employees in the process.
• Reduction of waste: PNC has minimal waste output due to its re-utilization of waste from construction efforts. This has reduced waste by as much as 150 tons per building.
• Abstention of the use of ozone-harming substances: The company abstains from the use of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) refrigerants in its structures.
