Wachovia Goes Green

Wachovia Corp. has announced plans to building green Wachovia financial centers beginning this fall in California. The company plans to open its first eight green banking offices in Los Angeles, Orange, Santa Barbara and Riverside counties in California starting in November 2007.

The offices are part of a larger green building plan the financial services firm launched this month. Wachovia, based in Charlotte, N.C., plans to build at least 300 green financial centers that meet Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standards by 2010. California offices will begin opening in 2007, and by the end of 2008, every new Wachovia financial center opened throughout the U.S. will be built to LEED specifications, according to a press release from Wachovia.

The 300 green financial centers will reduce energy use by at least 20 percent. The new buildings will also consume 25 percent less water than traditionally built branches. Wachovia also plans to implement an employee recycling program in each branch for paper, plastics, aluminum and glass.

Wachovia expects to save up to $80,000 in construction costs for each of the new financial centers over a traditionally constructed branch, in addition to reducing operating costs by about 20 percent in the first year.

The company is also building a 1.2-million-square-foot office tower at its headquarters in Charlotte, aiming at gold-level LEED certification.

More information is available at www.wachovia.com.