Case Studies: Leveraging Green-e® Marketplace for Certifying Green Energy Claims, Featuring Bank of America & Bigelow Tea

CASE STUDIES
LEVERAGING GREEN-E®
MARKETPLACE FOR CERTIFYING
GREEN ENERGY CLAIMS
MICHELLE MCGINTY
PROGRAM OUTREACH MANAGER
CENTER FOR RESOURCE SOLUTIONS
BOB HENDRICK
VP Corporate Responsibility
BIGELOW TEA
BETH WYTIAZ
SVP, GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL OPERATIONS MANAGER
BANK OF AMERICA

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AGENDA
PAGE
2
© 2020 Center for Resource Solutions. All rights reserved.
• Introduction to CRS
• Introduction to Voluntary Renewable Energy and Carbon Offsets
• About Green-e® Certification
• Case Studies with Guest Speakers:
• Bob Hendrick, VP Corporate Responsibility, Bigelow Tea
• Beth Wytiaz, SVP, Global Environmental Operations Manager, Bank of
America

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Nongovernmental Organization
(NGO) creating policy and market
solutions to advance sustainable
energy since 1997.
• Expert Assistance
• Renewable energy and climate policy
• Renewable Energy Markets annual conference
• Green-e® certification for suppliers and users of
renewable energy and carbon offsets in the
voluntary market
Center for
Resource Solutions

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Introduction
VOLUNTARY RENEWABLE
ENERGY AND CARBON OFFSETS
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4

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Renewable
Energy
Certificates
(RECs)
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5
1 MWh
REC
Electricity
Grid
Tracking System
Generator
1 REC represents the
renewable attributes of 1
MWh of renewable energy
generation

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It is important to retain RECs for all
procurement methods to make RE claims
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6
Self Generation
(Lease and Own Generation)
Onsite self-generation
or lease
Offsite self-generation
or lease
Direct Purchasing
(Purchase from a Generator)
Onsite PPA
Offsite physical PPA
Virtual PPA
Direct attribute-only
purchase
Retail Purchasing
(Purchase from a Supplier or Utility)
Utility green pricing
Direct access tariff
Community renewables
Competitive green power
Unbundled certificates

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Carbon Offsets
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7
A carbon offset is a certificate representing the reduction of one metric
ton (2,205 lbs) of carbon dioxide (or equivalent) emissions
• Permanence
• Additionality
• Verified
• Enforceable
• Real
Project Types Examples
Renewable Energy
Energy Efficiency
Methane Capture
Industrial Process Emissions Reduction
Forestry and Agriculture

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Green-e®
Certification
PAGE
8

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Green-e® Citations and Endorsements
PAGE
9

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Consumer protection for
voluntary renewable
energy and carbon offset
products
• Third-party Audit of Sales and
Supply
• Ensures no double
counting or claiming
• Marketing Materials Audit
• Ensures clear consumer
disclosures
• Independent Governance
Board
Green-e® Energy Certification
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10
Green-e® Energy Certified Retail Sales by Product Type (MWh)

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Self Generation
(Lease and Own Generation)
Onsite self-generation
or lease
Offsite self-generation
or lease
Direct Purchasing
(Purchase from a Generator)
Onsite PPA
Offsite physical PPA
Virtual PPA
Direct attribute-only
purchase
Retail Purchasing
(Purchase from a Supplier or Utility)
Utility green pricing
Direct access tariff
Community renewables
Competitive green power
Unbundled certificates
Green-e® Direct

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• 15-year “New Date”
• Must be surplus to regulation
• No double counting, selling or claiming
• GHG reduction benefits must be included
• State-specific requirements and restrictions
• Vintage requirements
Supply Must Meet the Green-e® Energy Standard
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12
6 MONTHS 12 MONTHS 3 MONTHS

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Green-e® Climate Certification
for Carbon Offsets
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13
No retail oversight leaves room for:
• Bad Actors (“Boiler rooms”)
• Deception and Fraud
• Double Selling and Mistakes
Project-level certification
standards
Green-e® retail certification
standard minimizes these risks
and sets quality standards for
project-level certification
Risks
Benefits

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Find Retail Sourcing Options
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14
www.green-e.org/buy www.buycleanenergy.org

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Green-e® Marketplace for Certifying Claims
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15
Products Locations Companies
Carbon Offset Claims Coming Soon!

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Also Certify Events and Printed Materials
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16

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Benefits of Certification
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18
*NMI U.S. Sustainability Consumer Trends 2019
Brand and Reputation Benefits
• Association with a well-recognized and trusted nonprofit
• Differentiate your company/brand to sustainably minded customers and
stakeholders
Risk Reduction Benefits
• Mitigate real legal and reputational risk
• Reviews marketing claims and provides expertise to ensure clarity to
consumers
• Monitors state and federal best practices
Over 1 in 3 (35%) consumers say they recognize the Green-e® logo and 21% say
they are more likely to purchase a product with the logo

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Bigelow Tea’s Journey to Green-e®

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Bigelow Tea was founded in 1945 by Ruth Campbell
Bigelow. She created the specialty tea category when she
introduced Constant Comment ® in 1945. We remain
family owned and operated and Ruth’s Granddaughter,
Cindi Bigelow, is our president and CEO.
Bigelow Tea is the market leader in specialty tea,
selling over 2 billion teabags each year. We have the top
three selling items in the category and 5 of the top 10.

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Sustainability Beliefs
In the words of President & CEO Cindi Bigelow:
“We want to be a little better today than we were
yesterday and a little better tomorrow than we are today.”
“We want to be the best that WE can be and do the best
that WE can do”
“Be the Hummingbird”

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Bigelow Journey to Green-e ®
• We have a long history of energy conservation
• An energy consultant was retained to get us to the next
level. They advise us on potential projects, long term
strategy and the availability of funding
• We installed solar panels at our corporate facility in 2008
• Energy reduction projects are implemented annually
• All capital projects for new equipment require an energy
reduction component
• We measure our energy usage based on units produced

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Energy Reduction Results
From 2017 to 2019
• Head count increased 3%
• Tea blending increased 7%
• Teabag production increased 8%
• Electric spend was down 7.5%
• Electric spend adjusted for volume was down
over 10%
• “ What should we do with those savings?”

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What we did with the savings
• We invested our energy savings in renewable energy
credits (RECs) and certification
• Our RECs are Green-e® certified
• 90% wind and 10% solar
• We eliminated 12,000,000 pounds of Scope 2 emissions
• Our RECs are audited and certified by Green-e®
• We promote this by including the Green-e® bug on our
packaging

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Renewable Energy Credits
• We wanted to use 100% renewable energy in our
facilities, but we did not have the resources to do so
• We were skeptical about RECs
• We investigated Green-e® and became convinced it
was the way to go
• By purchasing Green-e® RECs we were encouraging
other companies to invest at a scale we were not able
to
• Green-e® Marketplace has been a great resource for
communicating our commitment to a renewable
solution

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Results
• We have eliminated our scope 2 CO2 emissions
(Electric Usage)
• Our facilities are now using 100% renewable
energy
• All of our tea is produced using 100% clean
energy

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Bank of America’s
Carbon Neutral journey
July 2020

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• Holding ourselves accountable
• Managing risk well
• Providing transparency
• Investing in the transition to a low-carbon economy
• Financing sustainable projects, energy efficiency,
greenhouse gas emissions
• Reducing our environmental footprint
2
Driving responsible growth for long-term sustainability
Governance
Environment
• Advancing economic mobility and social progress
• Offering responsible products and services
• Creating a supportive and inclusive workplace
Social
Our ESG leadership enables us to pursue growing business opportunities and manage risk associated with addressing the
world’s biggest environmental and social challenges. It defines how we deploy our capital and resources, informs our business
practices, and helps determine how and when we use our voice in support of our values.
Named Euromoney’s World’s
Best Bank for Diversity &
Inclusion
#2 on Fortune Magazine’s 50
Best Workplaces for Giving
Back in 2018 list
CDP Climate A List for
leadership in greenhouse gas
emissions management and
reporting
Ranked No. 1 financial services
company and No. 3 overall on
Fortune Magazine’s annual Change
the World list
Named one of America’s most
JUST Companies by Just Capital
and Forbes
In 2018, deployed $21.5
billion in capital to support
low-carbon, sustainable
business activities as part of
$125 billion Environmental
Business Commitment
Through Community
Development Banking, we
deployed more than $4.7 billion
in loans, tax credit equity
investments and other real
estate development solutions
Originated $200 million in loans as part of $1.5
billion community development financial
institutions (CDFI) portfolio; $20 million Veteran
Entrepreneur Lending Program to connect veteran
business owners with affordable capital through
participating CDFIs
Launched a $60 million Blended Finance
Catalyst Pool to support deals focused on
energy access, affordable housing, water
and sanitation access, and climate
resiliency UN Sustainable Development
Goals (SDGs)
Committed to hiring 10,000
individuals from low- and
moderate-income
neighborhoods, through our
Pathways program, over the next
five years
Held six global ESG
Committee meetings to
discuss issues central to our
ESG approach with regular
updates to our Board
Invested more than $200
million in philanthropic
capital as part of
our $2 billion 10-year giving
goal
Achieved nearly 90% of
our multi-year
commitment to hire
10,000 veterans, guards,
and reservists
Issued our fourth and
largest green bond for
$2.25 billion and issued a
$500 million social bond
— the first social bond
issued by a U.S. bank
Invested over $220 million in
1,000+ nonprofits and
provided leadership
development to 2,000+
nonprofit leaders through
Neighborhood Builders®
Employees volunteered 2 million
hours with the impact of employee
giving and matching gifts from the
bank totaling $53 million in support
to our communities

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3
How we operate
• Manage our operations efficiently to benefit the
environment.
• Achieved carbon neutrality and purchased 100%
renewable electricity in 2019
• Member of RE100 and EV100
• More than 200 Financial Centers are LEED Certified in
addition to office locations
• Recommitted and increased operational goals:
− Reduce energy usage by 40%
− Reduce location-based GHG emissions by 50%
− Reduce water use by 45%
− Reduce waste to landfill by 35%
Our business
• Drive innovative new financial solutions across all our lines
of business and deploy capital to develop solutions to
climate change and other environmental challenges.
− $125 billion in low-carbon business was fulfilled in
2019, six years ahead of schedule.
− Launched third goal, started January 2020 and will
provide an additional $300 billion by 2030 to low-
carbon, sustainable business activities.
− Since 2007, have deployed more than $158 billion to
low-carbon, sustainable business activities.
• From supporting renewable energy and low-carbon
vehicles, to a robust ESG impact investment platform for
wealth management clients.
Working with others
• Engage with partners to increase our impact.
• Partners like the UN’s Sustainable Energy for All (SE4All)
initiative and Stanford University’s Strategic Energy Alliance.
• Committed more than $24 million in environmental
philanthropy in 2019.
Our people
• Help our employees act as good environmental stewards
at work, at home and in the community through our My
Environment® program, with more than 24,000
employees participating across 30 countries.
• Provide environmental discount and reimbursement
programs – reimbursement for low-carbon vehicles,
employee discount on home charging stations, solar
panels on residential homes and car-ride sharing.
• One of the first financial institutions to join the U.S.
Department of Energy’s Workplace Charging Challenge
and EV100.
Commitment to the environment

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4
Bank of America reached carbon neutrality in 2019. As part of our Responsible Growth and Environmental, Social, Governance
framework we developed a multi-pronged strategy that leverages a variety of tactics to reach our goals in a way that is efficient,
drives innovation and maximizes positive environmental impact.
Carbon neutral strategy
To achieve carbon neutrality for scope 1 and 2 emissions the bank has:
1. Reduced energy use by 42% and location-based greenhouse gas emissions by 56% since 2010
2. Purchased 100% renewable electricity including onsite solar installations and long term agreements for new wind and solar
where we operate
3. Supported impressive carbon credit projects across the regions we operate for remaining unavoidable emissions
Kissimmee financial center with
onsite solar panels
Contracted for 80MW of new
solar with pollinator habitats in
underserved communities in
North and South Carolina*
Carbon offset program provides
income to small holders for
planting and managing trees in
Africa
*These new solar projects will more than cover the bank’s electricity usage across the two states while providing
vital pollinator habitats and greening the local grid

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30%
Reducing emissions across operations
5
Over the decade we have implemented strategies to reduce emissions from our facilities that have led us to surpass our current location-based
emission reduction goal of 50%. Reaching this goal has included reducing facility space and implementing energy efficiency projects. In addition, we
have benefited from the decarbonization of local and regional electricity grids where we operate.
The chart below shows the proportion each component is contributing to the 50% location-based emission reduction goal:
471,000 tCO2
e
189,000 tCO2
e
283,000 tCO2
e
Space reduction: since 2010 we have reduced facility
space by 50m square feet
50%
20%
30%
Energy efficiency: we have reduced emissions by
implementing projects like LED lighting retrofits,
modular data halls and upgrading HVAC/Chillers
Grid emission reductions: emissions have been
reduced as a result of coal plants closing and
the switch to more natural gas and renewables
50%
20%
Energy efficiency
Grid emission
reductions

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Guided by our Responsible Growth and ESG strategy,
we will support verified carbon offset projects across
the globe that drive innovation and maximize
environmental and social impacts aligned with the
SDGs.
Carbon credits: purchasing strategy
6
*Offsets will be certified by Gold Standard, VCS, CAR, ACR, or CDM and sourced from specific projects with vintages no more than five years old
**A global research organization that identified, reviewed, and analyzed the most viable solutions to climate change and ranked the top 80
Guiding Principles:
• Purchase impactful, cost-effective and, to mitigate risk, third-party verified carbon credits*
• Propel sustainable, science-based solutions to drive leadership and accelerate a low-carbon future
• Prioritize projects connected to multiple SDGs and Project Drawdown**
• Ensure environmental and social safeguards for long term viability through enhanced due diligence
• Support projects that will resonate with clients, employees and shareholders
• Engage partners that align with our Vendor Code of Conduct expectations

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7%
4%
30%
56%
3%
Anticipated* renewable purchasing components
7
Renewable electricity purchasing strategy
To purchase 100% of our electricity from renewable sources we will leverage a variety of mechanisms that allow us to
maximize impact and drive innovation. All while prioritizing opportunities that add new renewable electricity to the
grid in a cost-efficient manner
*Our current renewable purchasing is transitioning from buying short-term RECs from existing renewables to the model you see above
**Physical PPA is an agreement for the long-term purchase of renewable electricity and RECs from a specific new renewable source in regions where we operate
Onsite solar: Installing at 60+ owned sites
Tax equity owned offsite: entering long-term agreements to
purchase RECs from large wind projects BofA financed through
tax equity providing us an ownership position
Physical power purchase agreements (PPAs)**: executing
contracts for new renewable electricity and RECs to cover load
in regions where possible
Long-term RECs: entering multi-year agreements to purchase
RECs that support bringing new renewables into underserved
communities
International RECs: purchasing RECs to fill in gaps across
countries

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• Where available, Green-e certified RECs will be purchased
• Where Green-e certification is not available, the
standards set out in Green-e will be followed to the
extent practical
• Acceptable technologies are those recognized
by Green-e, including wind, solar photovoltaic
(PV), run-of-river hydro1 and geothermal
• Avoid biomass, which has non-zero GHG
emissions and other air pollutant emissions
• Where available, market-matched RECs/GOs will be
purchased
– The US is a single market for RECs; Europe is also a
single market, with the European GO system
– No regional preferences within the US or Europe
• Where market-matched RECs are not available, we will
approach REC purchases on a country-by-country basis
– In some cases, US or EU RECs/GOs will be purchased
for other countries, depending on the situation,
location and availability
• Projects from which RECs are purchased will
ideally be less than 5 years old, to support
newer projects. The maximum allowable age is
15 years, consistent with the Green-e
standard.
• Consider incremental funding options, which
use a portion of the REC/GO purchase to fund
new renewable electricity projects. In this
scenario, project age is a less significant issue
Certification Technology
Geography
Support for New Renewables
14 July 2020
Bank of America 8
Bank of America REC, REGO, and GO Purchasing Standards
1 Bank of America has a preference for hydro projects to carry a certification such as from the Low Impact Hydropower Institute

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Bank of America provided necessary funding to support the first of its kind
wind/solar hybrid project in Minnesota (MN). We contracted to purchase the
Renewable Energy Credits (RECs) long term.
Project features:
• Generates roughly 7,800MWh annually (5.6MW)
• Serves the Lake Region Electric Coop
• Partners are Juhl Energy and 3 degrees
• Uses GE’s Wind Integrated Solar Energy (WiSE) technology platform to
integrate solar panels through the wind turbine’s converter.
• Utilizes solar to provide peak summer energy and wind through winter
months
Benefits:
• More than covers our load in MN
• Important role in making new project come online
• Stimulates innovation in renewables
• Brings new renewables to an underserved community driving social equity
• Lowers utility bills for co-op members
• Easy to execute contract structure
Profile: Lake Region, Minnesota
14 July 2020
Bank of America 9

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Profile: Kissimmee, FL Community financial center
10
In December of 2017 we installed onsite solar
at the Kissimmee, Florida Community financial
Center
• The center is in a Low to Moderate Income
(LMI) community
• The center sits on a highly trafficked road
that is part of the city's reinvestment
corridor
• We used a diverse owned solar provider to
install the panels
• Incorporated the effort into the planned
renovations for the site
System details
• 42.2 kW system or 151 solar panels
• Estimated to generate 56,700 kWh (30%)
energy annually
• Energy cost savings are estimated to be
$7,088 annually

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Green-e is a program run by the nonprofit, Center for Resource Solutions (CRS) and is the
leading third-party energy product verification and labeling program for renewable energy
buyers in the U.S. and Canada. The program provides certification for Renewable Energy
Certificates (RECs), carbon offsets, Direct Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) and businesses
and products.
As a standard the bank only purchases Green-e certified RECs in the U.S. and Canada. As we
reach the 100% renewable goal we feel there is value in utilizing the Green-e marketplace
program for our U.S. operations.
Green-e Marketplace
• Marketing Claims can be validated and certified at either the corporate or on-product level
• Reduces risk as Green-e provides expertise in marketing to ensure clarity to consumers and
mitigate real legal and reputational risk
• Provides consumer credibility because CRS is viewed as a credible and trusted certifying
body
• Differentiates us amongst competitors as no other financial institution has earned this
certification
• Associates us and this claim with a well recognized brand. Over 1 in 3 Americans recognize
the Green-e logo. It appears on over 700 products as well as thousands of electricity
product marketing materials.
We are the first “retailer” to commit to this program
Green-e marketplace program
14 July 2020
Bank of America 11

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www.resource-solutions.org
MICHELLE MCGINTY
PROGRAM OUTREACH MANAGER
[email protected]
BOB HENDRICK
VP Corporate Responsibility
BIGELOW TEA
BETH WYTIAZ
SVP, GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL
OPERATIONS MANAGER
BANK OF AMERICA

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Case Studies: Leveraging Green-e® Marketplace for Certifying Green Energy Claims, Featuring Bank of America & Bigelow Tea

Case Studies: Leveraging Green-e® Marketplace for Certifying Green Energy Claims, Featuring Bank of America & Bigelow Tea

Center for Resource Solutions
PRO

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Case Studies: Leveraging Green-e® Marketplace for Certifying Green Energy Claims, Featuring Bank of America & Bigelow Tea

Case Studies: Leveraging Green-e® Marketplace for Certifying Green Energy Claims, Featuring Bank of America & Bigelow Tea

Center for Resource Solutions PRO

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