Banner Bank Releases 2022 Environmental, Social and Governance Report

WALLA WALLA, Wash., Aug. 02, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Today, Banner Bank released its 2022 ESG Report. The report identifies ongoing practices and recent accomplishments in the areas of environmental risk and impact management, social responsibility (including diversity, equity and inclusion), and governance, including:

• Providing financing for affordable housing projects to reduce housing insecurity, supporting local businesses with their financial needs as they faced economic headwinds, and financing public infrastructure projects that enhance and strengthen the communities we serve.
• Operating our business in a way that aligns with the highest ethical standards and effective governance practices. We maintained our mature ethics program and further refined our strong governance practices, including through additional focus on succession planning and on the skills and experience of our Board of Directors.
• Benchmarking our significant progress towards calculating our carbon footprint and greenhouse gas emissions. We also continued our support of the transition to a lower carbon economy by providing financing to innovative renewable energy and environmental sustainability-focused projects. These and additional details from our Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) Report, can be found in our full TCFD Report, which is linked within the ESG Report.
  

Additionally, the 2022 ESG report includes disclosures prepared using the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) standards for the financial sector that we determined to be most relevant to our business, as well as a link to our full SASB report.

“The activities outlined in this report are examples of how we continue to honor our longtime guiding principle to ‘Do the Right Thing’ for our communities, colleagues, clients and shareholders,” said Mark Grescovich, President and CEO of Banner Corporation and Banner Bank. “Through this report, we shine a spotlight on how this principle translates into meaningful action by demonstrating the multitude of ways that our sustainable business practices enhance our long-term strength and ability to create value for all our stakeholders.”

To learn more about the Bank’s ESG efforts and view the report, please visit www.bannerbank.com/esg

About the Company

Banner Corporation is a $15.58 billion bank holding company operating one commercial bank—Banner Bank—in four Western states through a network of branches offering a full range of deposit services and business, commercial real estate, construction, residential, agricultural and consumer loans. Visit Banner Bank at www.bannerbank.com.

Contact: Kelly McPhee, Banner Bank Senior Vice President, PR & Communications, 509-232-1968 or Kelly.mcphee@bannerbank.com