Going green: there are few causes that win the heart of your customers and community faster than being environmentally friendly. PNC Financial Services, Pittsburgh, is a case study of how turning green can boost marketing and build the brand.

• Author: Stewart, Deb
• Position: Corporate Social Responsibility - Company overview - Case study

What company has more certified green buildings than any other?

Hint: It's not a fast-food chain, coffee shop or retailer--it's a bank!

The PNC Financial Services Group Inc., based in Pittsburgh, hits more certified green buildings than any company throughout the globe. But at PNC, green banking doesn't end with environmentally friendly construction, Green extends to every facet of the PNC Bank parent company's business model--including marketing, developing products, and educating employees and customers.

PNC is an example of a financial service company that has taken the green concept so seriously that the idea has evolved into an aspect of the company brand.

Let's walk through the various facets of this environmentally friendly approach find out how if began and get some advice on how other banks can embark on their own green journey.

How it began

In 1998 PNC had begun construction of a new around-the-clock operations center in downtown Pittsburgh. The company had selected the location Dora 17 different sites, looking for characteristics such as access to public transportation, 18-wheel truck access and so forth. A representative of the Green Building Alliance of Pittsburgh paid a visit to Gary Saulson, director of corporate real estate. By the end of that visit. Saulson had agreed to make the First Side Operations Center a green building. "We began this initiative because it was the right thing to do--for our community, our employees and ultimately our shareholders." says Saulson. The company felt that it was important to validate that the planned building was a true "green" building by going through the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification process. "We have continued with that thinking and the certification process ever since," says Saulson. When the building opened in 2000, it was the largest LEED-certified green building in the world at 650,000 square feet (the equivalent of 12 football fields). The building houses 1,500 employees.

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PNC's next office building project, PNC Global Investment Servicing headquarters in Delaware, raised the bar--building to LEED Gold standards--the first financial services building in the world to reach that standard. And, PNC's Washington D.C. regional headquarters is being built to even higher (Platinum) standards. Less than 5 percent of certified buildings are Platinum certified, explains Saulson.

Some of the new features for the Washington structure include an "eco" lobby and a green roof. The eco lobby treats the area as the transitional space it is. "Normally, you walk into a building on a humid 90-degree day and get goose bumps in the super-cooled lobby," says Saulson. "By using a three-story water wall in this space, we will radiantly cool the lobby by about 10 degrees, so that on a 90-degree day, a person would pass into an 80-degree lobby on the way to a 72-degree office without the sensation of being chilled and little of a conventional lobby's wasted energy."

The green roof will increase the building's energy efficiency and filter storm water--a concept that the company plans to...