Headlines

Deutsche Bank has been chosen to receive the inaugural US Green Building Council (USGBC) Leadership Award for its industry leading work to deliver Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) facilities around the globe, and for advances toward reaching the Bank’s commitment to achieving carbon neutrality by 2013. The USGBC also recognized the Bank’s investment in alternative energies and low-carbon technologies.

In response to the award, Jeff Baer, Head of Global Logistics Services, said: “As a global corporate citizen, we recognize the responsibility we have to ensure that our business operations are not only sustainable but that we also create awareness and influence others to do the same. We remain excited about the possibilities that lie ahead to make the buildings we occupy and invest in more eco-efficient through leading edge practices and with key industry bodies.”

Deutsche Bank’s relationship with the USGBC began in the design stage of the Deutsche Bank Towers retrofit in Frankfurt. It was, at the time, the largest modernization of a high-rise building in Europe and a major green building project. The Deutsche Bank Towers were retrofit to LEED Platinum specifications and became the first large-scale office retrofit to achieve Platinum certification.

Pictured left to right: Rick Fedrizzi, President, CEO and Founding Chair, USGBC; Beth Heider, Skanska, Incoming Chair, USGBC; Ron Herbst, Deutsche Bank Head of Energy Management and Sustainability; Mark MacCracken, CALMAC,
Chairman of the USGBC Board of Directors

Additionally, Deutsche Bank’s real estate investment division, RREEF Real Estate, is integrating eco-efficiency into its investment process, property due diligence, management standards and reporting procedures, and is certifying investment properties under LEED and a variety of other voluntary certification systems in local markets around the globe.

To date, 22 buildings have been LEED-certified across Deutsche Bank-owned properties and the RREEF Real Estate investment portfolio, including LEED Platinum and Gold designations.  The Bank is also pursuing volume certification for new and retrofit retail banking branches in Europe. 

Working to LEED standards is now an integral part of the Bank’s capital project management program and project managers are sharing their experience and knowledge from each project to industrialize and simplify the certification process.

Achieving LEED certification demonstrates the Bank’s commitment to green buildings, to its employees and to the broader community. It also promotes Deutsche Bank’s sustainability agenda to its suppliers, landlords, tenants and contemporaries.

Ron Herbst, Global Logistics Services Head Energy & Sustainability, added: “We set out to build green facilities and now we’re managing eco-operations – driven by a culture of setting new standards, measuring, verifying and reporting. It’s becoming part of our DNA.”

For the latest information about the Bank’s sustainability initiatives, click here.