Taking Care of Colorado: Alpine Bank's Community Bank Sustainability Strategy

Environmental issues are front of mind for many people who live in areas close to nature, and for Alpine Bank in Glenwood Springs, Colorado, a multipronged initiative aims to provide a financial incentive for customers who invest in their homes and vehicles with energy efficiency in mind.

“Environmental sustainability has been part of the bank’s culture for a long time,” says Pete Yang, a senior vice president of the $6.7 billion-asset community bank. “We’re just trying to protect the place where our folks live and work. It just means so much to us here in Colorado.”

Alpine Bank’s sustainability efforts touch numerous areas of the bank’s operations, including its use of green energy, lending programs that support purchases such as electric vehicles and solar panels, and an environment-focused loyalty debit card.

The community bank’s sustainability efforts start with the Green Team, a multi-departmental group of employees across several branches. The group meets quarterly via Zoom to review energy-use data, discuss changes and updates to the sustainability programs, and hear about related events in their communities.

Employee-led environmental initiatives

While the Green Team leads these efforts, every employee is asked to help, says Yang, who chairs the group.

“Our hope is that everybody understands that our environmental efforts aren’t just going to be done by this group of people,” he says. “All 800-plus employees of the bank are part of the Green Team. Everybody’s got to do their part.”

To ensure all staff know how they can personally support the bank's efforts, Alpine Bank’s training staff creates quarterly educational programs. Lessons last five to 10 minutes and are streamed on the bank’s normal online training system. Recent lessons have included tips on recycling and reducing water usage.

Ninety-nine percent of staff view the green training sessions, Yang says.

“They’re very short and nothing too difficult,” he explains. “But I think it keeps things kind of top of mind for employees, and it keeps them engaged.”

Employees are also encouraged to volunteer—each person receives 24 hours of paid time off per year for volunteering—and many choose environmental causes, Yang says. A popular choice is Roaring Fork Outdoor Volunteers, an organization that restores habitats, manages trails and otherwise supports the environment surrounding Roaring Fork River Valley near Aspen and Glenwood Springs.

Green energy banking in practice

According to Yang, one of the most effective efforts is Alpine Bank’s close attention to its utility usage. The Green Team regularly reviews utility usage patterns, and the community bank has committed to using 100% green electricity.

It meets that commitment through several measures. First, whenever possible, the community bank purchases green power from local electric utilities. Next, several bank locations get their electricity from solar panels and participate in community solar gardens, and one uses geothermal power. Finally, if the commitment is not met through those measures, the bank purchases renewable energy credits to make up the difference.

“When we can’t get 100% through our local utilities, we will purchase renewable energy credits to top ourselves off,” Yang explains.

Sustainable lending and customer incentives

Alpine Bank’s green efforts don’t end with its staff and facilities. Bank customers are also incentivized to pay attention to the environment in the hopes of attracting new and existing relationships.

For example, borrowers seeking money for environmentally friendly purchases can qualify for lower interest rates at Alpine Bank.

“There are two avenues for this,” Yang says. “If someone is looking to buy an electric vehicle or a hybrid vehicle … we will offer a rate discount from the prevailing loan rate for a vehicle loan. And then if somebody applies for a home equity line of credit and they are going to do improvements to their home that are going to be energy efficient or related to renewable energy, we will offer them a rate discount as well.”

Yang explains that these borrowers still need to meet the same underwriting standards as other borrowers, but if they quality, their rate is slightly lower.

The community bank also offers assistance for investment customers who would like to focus their accounts in green investments. Its wealth management division can create customized portfolios that only include companies that are friendly to the environment, Yang says.

Finally, Alpine Bank offers five varieties of its loyalty debit card, and the second most popular is the one focused on the environment. Each time a customer swipes the card, the bank donates 10 cents of its own money to the customer’s chosen cause.

“There are over 23,000 current active debit cards for the environment among our customers, and last year we donated over $561,000 to environmental organizations in the state of Colorado,” Yang says. 

He likes to think of the bank’s activities as effective from a “triple bottom-line perspective: profit, people, planet.”

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