Returning to our Roots in Lower Manhattan

On Tuesday, October 3rd, I was proud to join hundreds of our colleagues to open the new public plaza in front of our global headquarters at 388 Greenwich Street in Lower Manhattan. We were honored to be joined by a color guard from the Marine Reserves during a stirring rendition of the National Anthem by a talented Citi colleague who was accompanied by the Stuyvesant High School choir. And we welcomed remarks from a number of community partners, business leaders and public officials, including New York City Deputy Mayor for Housing and Economic Development Alicia Glen, New York State Assemblymember Deborah Glick and Chair of Community Board 1 Anthony Notaro.

We also marked the completion of our new lobby, which connects what had been two separate buildings into a single, unified whole. And our newly landscaped public plaza will connect us more closely to a community where roughly 12,000 of our Citi colleagues will live and work, up from 9,000 prior to the renovation.

We also celebrated the fact that as we've returned to our roots as a bank, we've also returned to our geographic roots in Lower Manhattan. We're excited to be based in Tribeca, an historic and vibrant residential neighborhood that has always made us feel welcome, a sentiment we've been determined to return by providing a pleasant open space not just for Citi colleagues but for anyone walking by to relax and enjoy.

That's why we preserved the mature trees lining Greenwich Street while planting 28 new ones. And why we put in more than 8,500 square feet of new plantings and a 3,500 square-foot lawn. We've also upgraded the building's perimeter, which will feature additional public seating and other amenities facing the Hudson River. And why we are supporting the ambitious plans to rebuild Pier 26 across from our building with a $10 million grant to the Hudson River Park Trust.

The many sustainability features we've incorporated into the project are also tangible examples of our commitment to being not just a good local but also a good global citizen. When the project is complete, we'll start annually capturing and reusing over 80,000 gallons of rain water from our roof, which we'll use to maintain the plantings in the plaza. Our cogeneration plant, which will produce heat and electricity on-site, will reduce the buildings carbon footprint by 30%. That's a key contributor to our commitment to meeting The Mayor's Carbon Challenge, an initiative launched by the City of New York that aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from all the city's commercial buildings by 30% by 2025. And, nearly all the demolition waste from this project is being recovered, reused, and recycled.

All these efforts are proof-points in our plan to achieve a LEED Platinum certification from the U.S. Green Building Council, and are also in keeping with a firm-wide commitment we announced last month during Climate Week, to source 100% of all our energy needs worldwide from renewable sources by 2020.

There's still lots of work to be done before we complete the project in 2019. But I think I spoke for all my Citi colleagues working in the building when I said how proud we are to see the role our project is already playing, helping us to connect even more closely to our local community here in Tribeca while giving our colleagues a more flexible and collaborative place to work.