Pam Flaherty – Director, Corporate Citizenship, CitiGroup/ President & CEO of Citi Foundation/ Member, CitiGroup Senior Leadership Committee
Meet one of PINK’s Top 10 Women in Sustainability, 2011!
By Rachel Pomerance
Having devoted more than 40 years of her career to Citi, Flaherty embodies the spirit of sustainability. As she’s grown and thrived with the company, Flaherty learned how to manage her personal sustainability. Tasked with trimming a business from 6,500 to 4,000 employees in the 1990s, Flaherty says, “I needed all the sleep, good food, yoga and support from friends and family I could get to reach the finish line. I now know that combination is key to my own personal sustainability.”
And when it comes to business, she found success with a “show, don’t tell” formula. “At Citi, the way to achieve real change is not necessarily to own the project or initiative yourself, but to make the case for its implementation and to set strong examples for the business to follow.”
Why should Pam Flaherty be proud?
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Flaherty points to the “industry-wide environmental sustainability standards Citi has helped set,” Flaherty says. For example, in 2003, Citi was one of four banks to co-develop the Equator Principles, a set of industry guidelines to manage the environmental and social risks of project financing globally. Now, Citi says more than 60 financial groups follow the Equator Principles, which has helped finance more than $100 billion in projects.
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The company’s Climate Initiative, announced in 2007, earmarks $50 billion over 10 years into low-carbon projects.
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The way Flaherty sees it, social responsibility efforts spawn a ripple effect that goes well beyond the first stone’s throw. “The integration of corporate citizenship,” she says, is “a powerful tool for cultural change, and influences corporate strategy and operations. Corporations that achieve this synergy attract talent with the right skills and values, reduce risk, increase revenue and of course have a positive impact on their reputation – all key ingredients to success.”
How are these efforts paying off?
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A penny saved: Citi’s work to reduce its own environmental footprint has brought huge savings – some $8.6 million, for example, on its 2009 energy bill.
What’s next?
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By 2015, Citi’s environmental plans include reducing the company’s greenhouse gases by 25 percent, waste by 40 percent and water use by 20 percent.
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Citi plans to finance energy-efficiency projects and develop corporate “green teams” to engage and educate employees about adopting sustainable lifestyles.
Rachel Pomerance, a writer and public relations professional, specializes in sustainable transportation at Pomerance & Associates. The all-female firm, which is owned by her mother, Barbara Pomerance, manages the communications for the Washington Auto Show®.
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