Reducing the Corporate Footprint

Citi in Australia is committed to reducing its corporate footprint through improved management of its real estate portfolio, procurement processes and energy use. Recently, this has included:

Reducing energy use by 5% in 2007 by Citi Asia Pacific
Reviewing all materials used in fit out and construction within Citi offices to determine impact on the environment.
Conducting of an Australian Building Greenhouse Rating of Park Street to provide advice on how we can increase our rating and further reduce our environmental impact.
Moving to soft copy creation, storage and distribution documents that were previously paper-based.

Support for Corporate Clients and Opportunities for Individual Customers

Citi offers climate-friendly products and services. Examples include;

A structured product for clients of Citigold which provides investors with exposure to a basket of 6 global shares picked from S&P Infrastructure, Water and Clean Energy thematic indices
Paperless statements for clients in Citibank and the Private Bank. "Welcome Packs", product terms and conditions and product disclosure statements are also offered by email and online
Advice and finance to companies in alternative energies, such as solar, wind, hydro and geothermal
Development and adoption of the Equator Principles, providing policies and guidelines for managing social and environmental issues related to project financing around the world.
Structuring spot and forward transactions in Kyoto Clean Development Mechanism Certified emission Reductions and Joint implementation Emission Reduction Units.

Providing thought leadership

Many businesses within Citi study and publish research on topics relating to the environment for clients throughout the firm. Examples in Australia include;

Ground-breaking investment research by Elaine Prior of Citi Investment Research on the likely impact of a cost for carbon and physical impacts of climate change on listed Australian companies: Climate Change and the ASX 100

Follow-up reports included;

Carbon Trading for Australia: Scheme Detail is Critical to Heavy Industry, published March 2007
Rudd's National Climate Change Summit: A Broad Agenda- the "Silver Buckshot", published April 2007
Carbon Capture & Storage: Frightening for Some, Opportunities for Others, published May 2007-11-26
Climate Impacts, Adaptation & Vulnerability: Water, Coasts, Ecosystems & Agriculture Require Early Adaptation, published June 2007

An inaugural Australian Climate Change Conference in Sydney on 25 July 2007 which included presentations from senior management at Australia's largest listed companies, the CSIRO, and Peter Garrett, the then Shadow Minister for Climate Change, Environment, Heritage and the Arts.
Signatory to a letter published by the World Wildlife Fund asking all Australian governments to take action to address climate change, in May 2007. This was undertaken by Paul Brennan, co-head of Economic & Market Analysis at Citi in Australia
A significant contribution to the ongoing debate about the allocation of water in Australia, by Shane Lee of Economic and Market Analysis. Reports included;

Reports on sustainability in various sectors. In 2006, Alan Heap and his team received a Special Commendation "for exemplary leadership in integrating best-in-class environmental and social policies across the global operations of the group" by the judges in the inaugural Financial Times Sustainable Banking Awards. Alan is Global Head of Commodities within Citi Investment Research, and is based in Australia
Contribution to governments locally and offshore to identify carbon liabilities and options for addressing them. Much of this work is conducted by Roger Wilkin's, AO, Citi's Head of Government and Public Sector Group in Australia. Roger was a part of the Australian delegation negotiating the Kyoto Protocol, Chaired the National Emission Training Taskforce and was responsible as the Director General of the NSW Cabinet Office for the NSW Greenhouse Office and establishing the NSW Emission Trading Scheme. Roger has also authored a submission from the banks and financial institutions to the British Commonwealth Finance Ministers conference on carbon markets and climate change policy.