Sustainability
As the impacts of climate change are increasingly felt around the world, Fifth Third is committed to leading the transition to a lower-carbon and more sustainable future. With a deep commitment to serving all of our customers, Fifth Third appreciates that banking is key to the development of new technologies, financing new infrastructure and helping customers make the decarbonization transition. We embrace our opportunity and responsibility to meet these growing needs.
To advance our commitment and address climate change impacts, Fifth Third is focused on three strategies:
Supporting a sustainable transition
by helping our customers and communities respond to a changing climate and succeed in a decarbonizing economy.
Managing climate-related risks
facing our company, including those related to physical and transition risks.
Reducing our environmental and carbon footprint
through projects that efficiently manage our operations.
Transition to a Sustainable Future
We have set an ambitious 10-year, $100 billion environmental and social finance target through 2030. The target demonstrates our financial commitment to accelerating the transition to a more sustainable and inclusive economy for all. As of Dec. 31, 2023, Fifth Third provided $37.6 billion in sustainable financing under the target. The Fifth Third Environmental & Social Finance Framework provides our stakeholders clarity regarding target criteria and the value of transactions.
Environmental categories for the $100 billion target include renewable energy, green buildings, energy efficiency, clean transportation, circular economy, pollution prevention and control, and other environmental categories.
Social categories include affordable housing, access to essential services, access to basic infrastructure, employment generation, food security and sustainable food systems and socioeconomic advancement and empowerment. Also included in the target are sustainability-linked loans and sustainability bonds.
Through Dividend Finance, a leading national provider of solar and sustainable home improvement financing, Fifth Third offers residential financial services and assists homeowners by promoting innovative energy efficiency, decarbonization and peak energy reduction by deploying, integrating and financing a wide range of distributed energy technologies. The technologies include smart thermostats, fuel-cells, smart electric panels, electric vehicle charges, solar PV and more.
Climate Risk Management
Fifth Third identified climate-related risk as an "emerging" risk in 2017. Since then, the Bank has updated its Enterprise Risk Management Framework to define climate risk for the Bank, and physical and transition risk was incorporated into each of our risk types.
Physical risks from a changing climate are already present and growing. These risks can be acute (event-driven) or chronic longer-term shifts in the environment. Transitioning to a lower-carbon economy may also present additional risks such as energy transition policies, disruptive technological advancements, including clean energy development storage, and shifts in consumer preferences.
The integration of climate risk into the framework was among the first tasks of the Bank’s newly appointed climate risk officer in 2021. The appointment underscored the Bank’s commitment to managing climate risk and helped ensure the development and maturation of the Bank’s climate risk identification and monitoring program.
In 2023, Fifth Third published its third Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) Report. Fifth Third also disclosed emissions from commercial financing activities as part of a TCFD Report Addendum in March 2024, which was the Company’s first disclosure of financed emissions. It was published in alignment with our commitment to the Partnership for Carbon Accounting Financials (PCAF).
Operational Sustainability
Operational sustainability, the reduction of our own environmental and carbon footprint, has been key to our environmental sustainability program since its inception in 2010. In addressing our own environmental impact, we better prepare our organization for future changes by reducing our exposure and risk to decarbonization, energy market volatility and potential carbon pricing scenarios.
After setting our first set of operational sustainability targets more than seven years ago, Fifth Third is currently operating under six ambitious targets established in 2022 and to be achieved by 2030. Goals include purchasing 100% renewable power, a 40% reduction in energy use, 75% reduction in location-based GHG emissions, 75% waste diversion from landfills, 50% reduction in water use, and a 75% reduction in paper use. As of Dec. 31, 2023, we have achieved our renewable power and energy use reduction goals and are making significant progress on the remaining goals. See the Bank’s 2023 Sustainability Report for details.
In 2023 and into 2024, Fifth Third completed solar panel installations at 20 financial centers located in communities across North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Florida. The Bank also installed 14 new electric vehicle charging ports at facilities for employees and added installations at financial centers in Illinois, Ohio and South Carolina for customer use. In 2023, Fifth Third was recognized by the U.S. Green Building Council of West Michigan, the Detroit 2030 District and Dynegy & Homefield Energy with energy reduction awards.
Additional Information:
Fifth Third Bank Investor Relations’ Sustainability Site
Fifth Third 2023 Sustainability Report
Fifth Third 2022 Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures Report
Environmental Data
2022 Financed Emissions Disclosure
2023 GRI Index
2023 SASB Index
2023 Stakeholder Capitalism Metrics
2023 GHG Verification Statement
2023 Environmental KPI Assurance Statement
2023 Environmental Data Table
2022 CDP Response
