Northern Trust releases its Sustainability Report

Today, Northern Trust announced the publication of its most recent sustainability report, emphasizing its contributions to the environment, society, and governance (ESG). 
 
Chairman and CEO Michael O’Grady stated that sustainability is about how we conduct our business and as members of the larger global community. “We continue to look at the long-term well-being of our employees, clients, shareholders, and the communities in which we live and work as we achieve our objective to be our clients’ most trusted financial partner.” 
 
Kimberly Evans, head of Corporate Sustainability, Inclusion and Social Impact, stated, “We are glad to give this update on Northern Trust’s efforts to increasing sustainability in all areas. “For instance, through community investments and charitable awards, we gave neglected communities over $236 million last year.  

Northern Trust

The 2021 Sustainability Report’s highlights include:

Risk Climate Caucus: We have established a cross-disciplinary group, known as the Risk Climate Caucus, to monitor and react to developments related to climate risk to our organization, ensuring that it is properly considered. We have taken a closer account of the impact that climate change has, or may have, on operations, credit conditions, and regulatory compliance across the globe. 
 
Reduction of emissions: As of December 31, 2021, we have cut our emissions by over 69 percent since our baseline year of 2015 and our energy use by over 46 percent. The majority of our workforce continued to work from home in 2021, and business travel remained markedly less frequent than in previous years. 
 
We committed to being net-zero carbon by 2050, using our 2019 baseline, after realizing that supply chains and physical infrastructure are not the only things that climate changes threaten. In the upcoming months, we will go into more depth about our plan. 
 
Along with continuing to decrease our carbon emissions, we are also increasing the range of emissions that we report on, as evidenced by the most recent inclusion of information on water and waste emissions. 
 
Northern Trust ESG Vector ScoreTM: Through transparency into ESG-labeled products, our ESG reporting gives customers a practical understanding of ESG exposures to their portfolios. To assist customers in monitoring and disclosing, we recently included Climate Focus to our ESG Insights, linked to the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures framework. 
 
Impact on society: At Northern Trust, we think that neighborhood-level transformation begins with the empowerment of local citizens and stakeholders in the revitalization and stabilization of their neighbourhoods. For 27 years running, we have kept our Community Reinvestment Act rating as exceptional. We started new community investments worth more than $1.4 billion in 2021. Our community investments portfolio, which reached over $4.5 billion as of December 31, 2021, supports the following priorities: 
 
In collaboration with lenders and developers with a social mission, $4.2 billion in affordable housing will promote the establishment and preservation of affordable house rentals and homeownership.

Spending $179 million on social services and education will provide long-term funding and equity for the creation of community and educational facilities and initiatives including charter schools, clinics, and daycare facilities. 
 
Global Philanthropic Strategy: In 2021, we kept moving forward with our philanthropic goals, concentrating our donations in four areas that have a fundamental impact and have been shown to help people improve their financial futures: high-quality education, food security, accessible healthcare, and affordable housing. Northern Trust gave $18 million to charity in 2021, bringing our global giving over the previous ten years to $160 million. 
 
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DE&I): Northern Trust’s DE&I strategy is to create an inclusive culture that represents our values and enables us to expand as a company by fostering a diverse workforce, equitable policies and practises, and a climate of equity. Driving accountability, improving development programmes and placement, and expanding culture are the three main goals of our strategy. Our hiring, development, advancement, and retention of women and individuals are guided by these principles.

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