Living in a Better World: Sustainability at Citi - What's next?

Throughout the month of May you've seen how environmental sustainability has become core to Citi's business success, whether it's reducing our costs and/or strengthening our relationships with clients while finding new sources of revenue. And all of this comes with the added benefit of contributing to a healthier environment. You've heard from our employees, clients, industry networks and NGO stakeholders on issues ranging from how we've reduced Citi's carbon footprint to how we manage environmental and social risks in financing palm oil production. Our progress even earned us the title of "The World's Greenest Bank" by Bloomberg Markets magazine this year.

While we've accomplished a lot, there's still much more we can do to ensure a sustainable future for the planet. Here are a couple of the things we're focused on moving forward:

• Continuing to reduce the environmental impact of our operations. Citi surpassed its 2011 greenhouse gas emissions reduction goal of 10 percent, and now we're working towards goals to be met by 2015 that include more than just emissions. These goals, from a 2005 baseline, are: to achieve a 25 percent reduction in absolute GHG emissions, a 40 percent reduction in waste stream to landfill, a 20 percent reduction in water usage, and LEED certification for 15 percent of our global real estate portfolio, and to improve real estate portfolio energy efficiency by 20 percent.
• Creating innovative financial solutions that address climate change and resource depletion. One of the main ways the world can prevent climate change is by being more efficient with energy produced from carbon intensive fuels. Energy efficiency, despite sounding simple, is one of the most under tapped resources in the fight against climate change, partly because of financial barriers inhibiting funding for projects large and small. Citi is at the leading edge of tackling these barriers, demonstrated by groundbreaking deals with the Delaware Sustainable Energy Utility and Green Campus Partners. Water risk, biodiversity and natural capital in general are other issues that we have begun working on as well.

I hope you've enjoyed hearing from our employees, clients and other stakeholders and thought leaders on various sustainability issues during May. Sustainability has central to our business every day, as we search for more opportunities to drive down operational expenses while identifying new sources of climate-friendly revenue.

Stay informed about Citi's sustainable efforts on our website at https://www.citigroup.com/citi/environment/.