| |
|
|
GreenMoney Journal - publishing since 1992
Fall 2010 issue
Socially Responsible Investing – Better Companies, Better Communities
|
| |
ShoreBank Pacific: EcoCash, Climate, and Truck Stop Ecology
Ted Ketcham
Environmental challenges are myriad and interrelated; the solutions to meeting these challenges
must be similarly intertwined.
One example of such interrelated solutions involves, among other things, a new online checking
option by ShoreBank Pacific, environmental offsets by The Climate Trust, and, to mention just one
environmental solution among many, - truck stop electrification.
It all ties in.
Environmental banking leader ShoreBank Pacific of Portland, Oregon, and Ilwaco, Washington,
launched EcoCash checking for ShoreBank customers last October. EcoCash accounts encourage
individuals to go check-free with a Visa check card and free online banking with optional bill pay,
eliminating wasted time, paper, and activity associated with traditional checking accounts, while
paying interest (based on the average balance). This enables the bank to donate a portion of
product fees to The Climate Trust's carbon dioxide offset programs. We'll come back to this.
Under the leadership of CEO David Williams, ShoreBank Pacific provides an important model of a
solutions-based enterprise serving the triple bottom line of sustainability, profit, and
social/environmental responsibility. A Washington State chartered, FDIC insured bank, ShoreBank
Pacific, is the first US commercial bank with a commitment to environmentally sustainable community
development. It was formed in 1997 as a joint project of Shorebank Corp. Chicago (the nation's
first community development bank) and Ecotrust (an environmental non-profit).
EcoCash is
free to customers with direct deposit and a minimum monthly balance of $1,500 (or $2,500 without
direct deposit) and earns interest (rate determined by average daily collected balance).
While the program's newness makes success difficult to measure, David Williams is initially
pleased by customer response. Since it began in October, 2005, he said, twenty ShoreBank customers,
some of them larger accounts than he expected, have moved their checking activities into EcoCash,
saving them significant time and material.
In addition to these ShoreBank customers,
other EcoCash beneficiaries are the participants in the funded projects of The Climate Trust, a
Portland-based non-profit organization dedicated to stabilizing climate by funding projects that
offset the damage caused by greenhouse gases.
Which is where truck stop electrification
enters the picture. An important greenhouse gas (GHG) offset project funded by The Climate Trust,
the Truck Stop Electrification project deals with a ubiquitous source of GHGs - that of truckers
idling diesel engines to run heating and A/C appliances while drivers sleep, rest, or just wait out
federally mandated rest periods.
Each night thousands of idling engines cause undue wear
on machinery, emit harmful local and global air pollutants, and increase noise levels for drivers
and neighboring communities.
In a joint partnership that will eliminate 90,000 metric tons
of GHG carbon dioxide over 16 years, (the average US auto produces about one metric ton of C02 in
two or three months) The Climate Trust and Shurepower LLC will install 275 pedestals at seven truck
stops in Oregon and Washington.
Shurepower's electrified parking system is a low cost
alternative to idling that provides grid-based electricity, cable TV, and Internet connections to
allow drivers of long-haul heavy-duty trucks to shut down their engines and save fuel. Using the
Shurepower technology is much cheaper than paying the costs of fuel for idling engines.
One of the largest buyers of offsets in the United States, The Climate Trust is the largest
buyer with an environmental purpose. And because it's such an impressive and encouraging list, we
want to mention The Trust's categories and projects: Energy Efficiency (Paper Manufacturer
Efficiency Upgrade, Portland Building Energy Efficiency), Renewable Energy (Innovative Wind
Financing), Sequestration (Deschutes Riparian Reforestation, Ecuadorian Rainforest Restoration,
Preservation of a Native Northwest Forest), Cogeneration (Lumber Mill Cogeneration), Material
Substitution (Cool Climate Concrete) and Transportation Efficiency (Truck Stop Electrification,
Internet-Based Carpool Matching, Traffic Signals Optimization).
This current Climate Trust
portfolio will, over the life of its projects, offset 1.6 million metric tons of carbon dioxide.
Which takes us back to our main point, which is that just as one environmental problem
causes many others, so, too, can one solution lead others. Thus, a practical-minded business
banking customer may choose to use EcoCash to save time and money, enabling ShoreBank to better
support the activities of The Climate Trust, enabling a trucker to plug his cab into the grid while
he sleeps, enabling the rest of us to breathe cleaner air, enabling the atmosphere to protect us
all a little better from further warming.
EcoCash, is a small but growing element in a
much bigger enterprise that seeks to fund and encourage a web of both profit and non-profit
activities that are environmentally positive and sustainable.
An important contributor to
The Climate Trust, ShoreBank Pacific is among a group of more than forty foundations, utilities,
businesses, and others who understand the need to support such complex associations and activities.
In addition to donating to important environment activities such as The Climate Trust,
ShoreBank Pacific also assists businesses, and through them their communities, to be sustainable in
economic, social and environmental practices. They do so by lending to businesses and non-profits
seeking to improve environment performance. Improvements include energy efficiency, waste and
pollution reduction, conservation of natural resources, and long term planning.
To thrive,
a healthy eco-system must contain a diverse population of species that continually recreate and
nurture a biological community as each species does what it does best within its own niche.
ShoreBank Pacific and The Climate Trust reflect nature's model, financing, researching, and
encouraging an assortment of interrelated activities and enterprises, each contributing to the
recreation of a healthy, sustainable environment.
Suggestion: Take a little clicking tour
of the following websites and some of their links. You'll see that that in spite of the current
administration's lack of a sound environmental policy, there are exciting and abundant
pro-environmental activities underway, with ample opportunities for you to participate, whether
through investing, donating, or volunteering. Be encouraged.
EcoTrust -
http://www.ecotrust.org
ShoreBank Enterprise Pacific - http://www.sbpac.com
Shurepower LLC - http://www.shurepower.com
ShoreBank Pacific - http://www.eco-bank.com
The Climate Trust - http://www.climatetrust.org
Article by Ted Ketcham,
long-time editor of the GreenMoney Journal, retired teacher, and on-going home improvement expert.
|
|
|
Home | Archives
| Sponsors |
Links | Calendar
| Contact Us |
Advertising
| SRI News
MISSION
STATEMENT
The GreenMoney Journal encour-ages and promotes the awareness of socially
& environmentally responsible business, investing and consumer
resources in publications & online.
Our goal is to educate and empower individuals and businesses to make
informed financial decisions through aligning their personal, corporate
and financial principles.
“Responsibility from the Supermarket to the Stockmarket.”
The material presented in this news letter is for educational and
informa-tional purposes only. The GreenMoney Journal does not endorse
or recommend firms, products, funds or advertisers.
GreenMoney is a registered trademark.
Copyright 1995-2010 by the
GreenMoneyJournal ®
Green Money is a Registrated Trademark
of The GreenMoney Journal / Cliff Feigenbaum
|
|
|
|
