Wells Fargo Exceeds $2 Billion in Financing for LEED-Certified ‘Green’ Buildings

RISMEDIA, Nov. 13, 2008-Wells Fargo & Company said this week that it has surpassed $2 billion in lending for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED®) certified buildings.

LEED is a voluntary, consensus-based green building rating system developed by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) for constructing high-performance, sustainable buildings. Of the buildings financed by Wells Fargo, 28% are LEED-rated, 37% are LEED-silver, 21% are LEED-gold and 9% are LEED-platinum, the highest rating available.

Since May 2007, Wells Fargo has:

- Doubled its commitments for LEED buildings from $1 billion to $2 billion
- Increased the number of LEED buildings it has financed by 125%
- Expanded its reach from financing LEED-certified buildings in 11 states and the District of Columbia to 19 states
- Increased the type of LEED buildings financed to include a cold storage facility, data center and community center, in addition to office, mixed-use, industrial, retail, schools, multifamily

“Our success is a result of doing business with experienced developers and investors,” said Larry Chapman, head of Commercial Real Estate at Wells Fargo. “Current market conditions provide us with the opportunity to further demonstrate our unwavering commitment to our commercial real estate customers. Together we can achieve long-term value for our businesses and our society though the development of high performance, resource saving buildings.”

USGBC President, CEO and Founding Chair Rick Fedrizzi said, “We applaud Wells Fargo’s leadership efforts. Buildings are responsible for 39% of CO2 emissions in the U.S., which directly impacts global climate change – however LEED buildings consume half the energy of conventional buildings.”

According to the company, Wells Fargo is one of the first to be pre-certified for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) for New Construction. Its new banking stores will use about 20% less energy and 40% less water than conventional buildings of the same type. Since 2007, Wells Fargo has contributed nearly $500,000 to nonprofit organizations in support of green building education and practices.

For more information, visit www.wellsfargo.com/environment.