Corporate Responsibility: Helping our communities prosper

At CB&T, we recognize that banking is a local business and to be successful, we must have strong ties to the communities we serve and strong relationships with our customers and employees. The events of this year have only reaffirmed our values in employing our resources to build strong neighborhoods and communities, invest in our employees’ growth—and as always, help customers achieve their financial dreams. CB&T is a division of Zions Bancorporation, N.A. and we’re proud to highlight some of our corporate responsibility numbers that reflect our commitment to our communities.

Building strong communities

It’s part of what makes our company a great place to work and a great place to bank: we give back and we make a difference. Our employees are encouraged to be involved in local nonprofit organizations, volunteering their time and serving on boards. Here’s how they’ve gone above and beyond:

Employee volunteerism in 2019 

• 4,272 Total employee volunteer hours - (That’s a 24% increase from 2018!) 

Corporate giving

There are almost no limits to the ways that you can better your community—and our charitable giving decisions are made by each of our banks to invest in our neighborhoods and empower residents. In 2019, contributions were made to about 200 charitable groups received contributions from CB&T.

2020 Corporate giving initiatives

With the COVID-19 pandemic, it caused a devastating impact on the people, neighborhoods and small businesses. CB&T provided donations to 10 nonprofits, including:

• Feeding San Diego
• California Capital Financial Development Corporation
• Local Initiatives Support Corporation
• United Negro College Fund (UNCF) in an employee donation-matching campaign

Bolstering environmental sustainability

CB&T is continually working to benefit future generations by taking deliberate actions toward sustainability through energy conservation and benchmarking. We’re continuing to make progressive changes for a greener future, such as offering incentives for employees to use mass transit, financing green projects and supporting air quality efforts.

Green building initiatives

• All CB&T building projects are designed to the CAL Green standard, complying with mandatory green building standards that reduce greenhouse gasses through energy conservation measures
• All CB&T projects are built to reduce indoor water use by 20% and construction waste by 50%

CB&T Oakland Main branch  

• This three-story flagship achieved LEED Certified rating in 2019. The project comprised of a team of contractors, designers, engineers, the City of Oakland and the USGBC, partnered with CB&T facilities beginning in 2016 to establish the necessary goals to achieve the LEED rating
• The green team worked to create design concepts that minimized waste, reduced the consumption of non-renewable resources and created a healthy, productive facilities were fully realized in this location

Other completed green building projects

• Escondido branch
• San Clemente branch and Mortgage offices
• Palo Alto Premier Wealth Management
• Century City administrative offices for Real Estate, Private Banking and Wealth Advisors

Environmental impact

Over the years, we have made many changes to achieve sustainability at our bank locations.  We have conserved energy, saved water, reduced landfill waste and greenhouse gases.

• Reduced the landfill waste by eliminating Styrofoam products and replacing with reusable plates and silverware. 
• Moved paper subscriptions to digital versions
• Implemented a toner recycling program
• Recycled old carpet
• Refurbished and reused furniture
• Replaced plastic bottled water units with filtered units
• Reduced interoffice mail pickups and deliveries across the state
• Increased use of shared printing through the multi-function copy machines
• Disposed of Fax machines and replaced with right Fax, with few exceptions
• Appliances and IT equipment have been replaced with energy efficient units
• Lighting retrofits and automatic light switches have been installed at some locations
• Drought tolerant plants and drip systems added to some branch locations
• Low flow valve aerators installed in some sink faucets
• Utilizing shred bins to recycle paper

Financing renewable energy and energy efficiency  

Zions Bancorporation, N.A., the parent company of CB&T, created a special unit that helps finance utility-scale renewable energy projects more than 10 years ago. The special unit includes industry professionals based in Los Angeles, California, working on utility-scale wind and solar projects across the U.S.

• By June 30, 2019, the bank had financed more than 13.0 gigawatts (GW) of renewable energy capacity since the unit began. With each GW providing energy to 150,000 homes, the funding helps power more than two million households.
• At the end of 2019, Zions had committed more than $700 million to wind and solar projects in the state. That amounts to 2.2 GW, which will provide power for 350,000 households.
• Up to 90% of the unit’s financing volume is concentrated in solar-and wind-powered energy.[cite::171::cite] [cite::172::cite]