SUSTAINABILITY OFFICERS:

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Feature Company: The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. (NYSE: PNC)

Sustainability Coordinator/Representative: Benson Gabler, Manager of Corporate Sustainability

Employees: 56,000

Individuals impacted: Approximately 5 million consumer and small business customers

Notable sustainability projects:

Recognizing the importance of wise investments, The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. (NYSE: PNC) strives to integrate our day-to-day business practices with environmental responsibility. Our nationally recognized green commitment has enabled us to lower costs, increase efficiency and productivity as well as enhance the communities where people live, work and play. We frame our commitment in three categories: building green, being green, and banking green.

Building Green:
In the late 1990s, PNC built its first facility according to the US Green Building Council’s (USGBC) Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED®) certification. With its early adoption of green building practices, PNC has achieved the following milestones:

• LEED Leadership: PNC has more newly constructed green buildings certified by the USGBC than any company on Earth (68).
• PNC Firstside Center: At nearly 650,000 square feet, it opened in 2000 as the nation’s largest corporate green building.
• PNC Global Investment Servicing Headquarters: The financial services industry’s first Gold level certified green building – and first in Delaware.
• Green Branch® Locations: Starting in 2002, PNC became the first major U.S. bank to apply green building standards to all newly constructed or renovated retail offices with the first prototype to be awarded LEED Silver volume certification by the USGBC.
• Three PNC Plaza: One of the nation’s largest green, mixed-use buildings, which features office space, hotel, condos and retail, as well as a public park outside.
• PNC Place: 12-story building near the White House designed to achieve PNC’s first LEED Platinum certification. Opening in 2010.
• Green Wall: In 2009, PNC unveiled North America’s largest living Green Wall--a 2,380-square-foot, soil-based wall that features a variety of regional plants grown into living art on the south-facing wall of One PNC Plaza.

Being Green:
Over the past decade, PNC has implemented innovative sustainability practices and projects throughout its office environment and in its communities, such as:
 

• Waste Management: PNC works to reduce the amount of trash it sends to landfills. For example, PNC shreds and recycles all internal paper documents, remanufactures and recycles old electronic equipment, and deconstructs existing buildings on sites of all new major construction. PNC is also testing a food waste composting program at Firstside Center.
• Housekeeping: PNC includes a Green Housekeeping policy in all janitorial vendor contracts, which requires the use of Green Seal certified products.
• Dining Services: PNC has implemented sustainability practices in our 17 dining locations, such as using only compostable containers and cutlery.
• Supply Chain: PNC has taken action to green its procurement practices.  For instance, we switched Styrofoam with compostable coffee cups, purchase only Energy Star certified laptops, computers and multi-functional devices (MFDs), and use printing companies that are certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC).

Banking Green:
PNC strives to help its customers with their own green goals through online banking and paperless transactions, as well as financing projects that promote sustainability, such as:

• Virtual Wallet: Virtual Wallet is an award-winning, high definition view of your money. This online solution is an easy and naturally intuitive way of managing, moving and saving your money. This product, along with PNC’s other online banking tools, allows customers to save trips to the bank, gas and paper waste.
• Free ATM: PNC helps reduce wasted gas to find a free ATM.  In 2006, PNC became the first major bank to offer its customers access to free ATMs worldwide. As a feature of performance checking accounts, PNC rebates both fees charged for using another provider's cash machine -- the ATM fee previously charged by PNC plus the surcharge levied by the machine's owner.
• Green Lending: In 2008, PNC launched its Small Business Green Lending program which provides 50% off initiation fees and 0.5% rate reduction for $500,000 (or less) energy efficiency project loans.
• Renewable Energy: PNC’s Equipment Leasing group is one of the leading providers of renewable energy financing solutions, especially for solar. In 2009, the group financed major deals for Arizona State University and many others.
• PNC has 68 LEED certified sites (approx. 1 million sq ft)
• We have approx. 1 million sq ft more of green space either under construction or awaiting LEED certification
• Since 2002, PNC has constructed 79 Green Branch® locations (66 of which have already achieved LEED certification). These branches produce 34% energy and 29% water savings than a comparable branch. Water usage in these branches is reduced by 4000 gallons per year.

Please visit our website, www.pnc.com/green, for more information.

Pittsburgh's Sustainability Officers: Connecting regionally to contribute globally