Sustainability

We’re committed to finding ways to engage in sustainable day-to-day practices in the areas we serve.

We recognize our impact in environmental sustainability isn’t limited to how we operate our company, it’s also shown in how we involve our customers, colleagues and communities.

Our LED lighting program: an in-depth look

Associated Bank reduces our daily energy consumption through the use of occupancy sensors, power management processes, Energy Star compliant appliances and LED lighting.

LED program benefits include:

17%

Reduction in energy consumption and approximately 6.0M kwh of annual electricity savings through the company’s LED retrofit program over last seven years.*

*As of December 31, 2022.

Reduced environmental footprint

Lower operations cost & longer life cycle

Improved light quality

Improved consistency across sites

Our community solar farm program: an in-depth look

Associated Bank is an anchor subscriber to solar farms in Illinois and Minnesota, providing the platform for renewable energy to be generated and delivered directly to the local utilities where the farms exist.

Solar program benefits include:

Contributes to local economy

  • Generates long-term revenue for landowners

  • Utilizes local companies and labor whenever possible

  • Improves grid reliability and resiliency during peak hours

  • Energy is generated locally right where it is consumed

  • Minnesota projects contribute to a grant provided to a local school

Environmentally productive

  • Farms are designed and installed to minimize disturbance to surrounding land

  • Design goals: native cover crops, climate resiliency, wildlife habitat/food sources, improved soil/water/air quality and erosion/runoff minimization

  • Provides pollinator-friendly native habitats in all solar farms, supporting monarch butterflies, bees, birds and other species critical to the ecosystem

Our move to paperless

Since 2016, we have had an average reduction of 12.1 million pages of print production, representing approximately 24,000 reams of paper and 1,450 trees.

We are working to further reduce internal print production by both improving our internal processes and supporting the increased migration of customers to digital services. 

In celebration of our customers’ engagement in this process, we planted a tree for each customer who switched to paperless banking statements during the year, through our partnership with the Priceless Planet Coalition.