Bank of America Implements Paper Procurement Policy

CHARLOTTE, N.C., April 15 /PRNewswire/ -- Bank of America, the nation's largest retail bank, and one of the world's largest consumers of paper products, has devised a new paper procurement policy that reduces impacts on the world's forest ecosystems and promotes sustainable forestry practices.

"Maintaining the ecological health of forests is a key factor in sustaining the cultures, local communities and economies relying on this resource," said Greg Taylor, Supply Chain Management executive. "This new policy expands on Bank of America's heritage of environmental stewardship to address climate change, biodiversity and conservation of natural systems."

In addition to simply encouraging best practices that protect endangered forests, the new policy has teeth and aligns with the bank's forest practices lending policy, Taylor said. "Suppliers of paper products to the bank must remain in compliance with applicable laws and regulations governing timber harvesting and ensure their third party suppliers also comply with applicable laws and regulations."

The new procurement policy, implemented on April 1, has three primary goals:

(1) Source Reduction and Recycling -- Minimize the bank's consumption of paper products containing virgin wood fiber, in order to reduce demand on forests. (2) Sustainable Forest Practices -- Ensure that source forests from which virgin wood fiber is procured are managed using environmentally preferable practices. (3) Protection of Endangered Forests -- Require the bank's suppliers of paper products to identify and appropriately manage endangered and high conservation value forests.

The bank developed the policy in partnership with a group of key suppliers, such as International Paper, and environmental organizations such as Metafore, a non-profit group that works to conserve, protect and restore the world's forests, and the non-profit organization, Environmental Defense.

"We applaud Bank of America's commitment to use less paper, buy post- consumer recycled paper and promote sustainable forest management among its paper suppliers," said Environmental Defense senior economist Robert Bonnie. "These efforts will help protect forest ecosystems, conserve natural resources and reduce pollution. Bank of America's new policy is a big step forward for the financial services industry, and we hope other firms will follow its lead."

As part of the policy, the bank will continue its existing efforts to reduce paper consumption, maximize recycled content where paper elimination is not feasible, and recycle the paper it uses in internal operations and receives from external sources.

During the same time period in which the bank's assets have grown from $670 billion in 2000 to more than $1 trillion in 2004, it has decreased the amount of paper used in internal operations by 32 percent. To reduce paper sent to outside parties, it now offers online banking customers the option of electronic statements in place of paper statements, for which over 1 million customers have signed up. In 2004, the bank recycled 28,268 tons of paper, effectively recycling all the paper it uses internally, plus the same amount again received from external sources.

In 2004, 70 percent of the paper purchased by the bank contained recycled content, at an average of 20 percent post-consumer content. The bank has set a goal that 90 percent of total paper purchases contain a minimum of 20 percent post-consumer recycled content by 2006.

"We believe our paper reduction and recycling efforts are already best in class, but we are eager to raise the bar," Taylor said. "Efficient use of resources reduces environmental impacts and expenses, driving benefits for both our shareholders and the communities in which we do business."

Regarding forest practices, the bank will not align with suppliers engaged in the conversion of high conservation value forests or natural forest ecosystems to tree farms or plantations, on any scale, on lands that they own or manage. The bank will require its suppliers to work with their third-party suppliers of wood fiber to encourage and monitor compliance with conversion requirements and promote retention of high conservation value forests and natural forest ecosystems.

To protect endangered forests, Bank of America will require suppliers of paper products to warrant that neither their products nor product inputs, whether sourced from internal operations or third party suppliers, were derived from the harvesting of primary tropical moist forests, or primary forests in temperate or boreal forest regions that are not managed using sustainable forestry practices as verified by an independent third party audit.

About Bank of America

Bank of America is one of the world's largest financial institutions, serving individual consumers, small and middle market businesses and large corporations with a full range of banking, investing, asset management and other financial and risk-management products and services. The company provides unmatched convenience in the United States, serving 33 million consumer relationships with more than 5,800 retail banking offices, more than 16,700 ATMs and award-winning online banking with more than 12 million active users. Bank of America is the No. 1 overall Small Business Administration (SBA) lender in the United States and the No. 1 SBA lender to minority-owned small businesses. The company serves clients in 150 countries and has relationships with 98 percent of the U.S. Fortune 500 companies and 85 percent of the Global Fortune 500. Bank of America Corporation stock is listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

http://www.bankofamerica.com/ * Serving more middle market banking clients than any other bank.

For more information on the bank's paper procurement policy, click on the link below. If the link is not live, please copy and paste into your browser.

http://www.bankofamerica.com/newsroom/press/pdfs/Paper_Procurement_Policy.pdf