ESG for Corporations: Building an all-weather, long-lasting strategy MARCUS MARTIN: Hello. My name is Marcus Martin, head of ESG for Commercial Products here at U.S. Bank. Today's webinar is focused on ESG, which stands for environmental social governance and on building a sustainable strategy that is both unique to your own organization, but also ambitious enough to drive impactful outcomes as well. It is my pleasure to introduce Hassan Salem, head of commercial banking, and Felicia La Forgia, head of Corporate Banking, to help us set the stage for today's event. Please turn to the next slide. And over to you, Hassan. HASSAN SALEM: Thank you, Marcus. And welcome everyone to today's ESG webinar. We have a great lineup of presenters who will share their insights on creating an effective sustainable ESG strategy. We'll look at key trends. We'll talk about what you need to do to build a strong foundation for your program and show you how to optimize and operationalize your strategy. Throughout today's event, we will answer some of the questions you submitted during the registration. And we'll provide examples of ESG programs in action. Our hope today out of this conversation is that you'll come away inspired, energized, and armed with information that can help you build an all-weather, long-lasting ESG program, or supplement your current strategy. To kick things off, let me introduce our panelists. They're all from corporate and commercial banking team. They live and breathe ESG and are helping clients develop and implement their own successful strategies. Marcus Martin, managing director and head of ESG for commercial products; Ade Adedeji, director of ESG Advisory Services and Commercial Products, Ginger Sp, senior vice president who covers client sustainability solutions for corporate and commercial banking, and Jenna Papaz, an SVP and relationship manager in our corporate banking utility team. I'm also pleased to introduce Felicia La Forgia, head of U.S. Bank Corporate Banking, who will close out today's event. And with that, Marcus, over to you. MARCUS MARTIN: Thank you so much, Hassan. At U.S. Bank, our ESG vision is to be a leader in providing short term and long term value creation for all of our stakeholders by continuously demonstrating our core values, enabling a sustainable future through transitioning our own operations, and supporting our clients and customers, increasing equity, access, and economic empowerment for all. But our focus on ESG is not new however. This work has been going on for years across various business lines and functions. As the interest from stakeholders increased, however, we recognized the importance of aligning the work happening across the enterprise, addressing opportunities and gaps, and communicating our progress along the way. To support this effort in June, we created an ESG program office whose purpose is to develop and manage a One U.S. Bank ESG strategy. Additionally, we took steps to enhance the governance and oversight for ESG through the establishment of an ESG committee to act as the senior operating committee, providing clarity, direction, accountability, and oversight of ESG enterprise topics. But internal alignment is not enough. Again, we do recognize that. We also must identify opportunities to support the communities and clients we serve. In November of 2021, we announced several company-wide commitments to address the impacts of climate change on our businesses, customers, and communities, including setting a goal-- excuse me-- to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions reduction by 2050. Additionally, as you may have seen earlier this month, we announced a five year, $100 billion community benefits plan focused on providing access to capital for low and moderate income communities and communities of color. This commitment builds upon U.S. Bank's Access Commitment announced in February of 2021, which is a series of initiatives to increase wealth building opportunities starting with the Black community. Please turn to the next slide. So a little further information here on the community benefits plan, which is really exciting. Quick update. This is a part of our planned acquisition of MUFG Union Bank. The planned acquisition of MUFG Union Bank really underscores U.S. Bank's commitment to stronger, more competitive regional banking in a rapidly evolving environment. Through this merger, U.S. Bank is committed to our continuing and long-standing involvement to address the needs of low and moderate incomes and communities. Well, really after the announcement of our intended acquisition, U.S. Bank executives, including our CEO Andy Cecere, participated in six community listening sessions with more than 200 leaders across multiple different organizations across the country. Really the result of this was the formation of the Community Benefits Plan. And from the Community Benefits Plan, there are 10 core elements. I'll pick a couple of them that we know our corporate and commercial banking clients are focused on-- small business access to capital and technical assistance; community development lending and investment; environmental stewardship and commitment; and supplier diversity. Again, those are just a few of the 10 core elements of this community benefits plan that we also know align very well with our corporate and commercial clients. All of these commitments, of course, are subject to the successful completion and integrations of the systems to a unified bank platform. So with that information, I'd like to pass the microphone over to my colleague Ginger who will speak further about what ESG means to us here at U.S. Bank. Over to you, Ginger. GINGER TSO: Thank you, Marcus. So I'm Ginger So. I'd like to spend a few minutes discussing how we At U.S. Bank think about our social governance and environmental aspirations and what that means to us day to day. We recognize and strongly value the importance of diversity, equity, and inclusion. And we are proud to partner with Greg Cunningham, our chief diversity officer, and his staff to work on DEI initiatives and impact opportunities through the access commitment, which Marcus previously mentioned. This is an example of how we deeply value the social or S in ESG. And we're very proud of the recognition we've received in this space, as you can see on this slide. I've been the DEI champion for my business line for the last four years. We focus on four pillars for our efforts-- the workplace, supplier diversity, the community, including our foundation work, and the marketplace where we focus on access commitments to reduce the racial wealth gap. In our trusted advisor role, I've had numerous conversations with both publicly traded and privately held clients about how we embed our core value of diversity and inclusion into everyday life. These conversations are driven not just by emerging ESG regulation but also by employees, customers, and shareholders. With our own focus on social impact and community at the heart of our work, our ability to help clients solve for social challenges through embedded financing solutions has allowed us to act in a leadership role from ideation to innovation to execution. We continue to focus on diversity as a key element to the client first trusted advisor approach. Another area in which we are seeing increased focus under the S in ESG is on the supply chain. We are working with clients who want to increase the diversity of their supply chain and assist in providing attractively priced capital into their diverse suppliers. Please turn to the next slide. I'm excited to share that we offer tailored ESG solutions across commercial products. That includes bonds, loans, derivatives, foreign exchange, and with expanded capabilities in supply chain finance and blockchain. We recently hired a head of blockchain, which ties into the way we consider governance. Also, in close partnership with Municipal Products Group and the U.S. Bancorp Community Development Corp., which we call the CDC, we have tax credit, equity, and affordable housing solutions. And we also have capabilities in our trust businesses that support environmental trust. You can see some of the key transactions in this slide. We promote sustainability by working with clients who have set ESG targets and tie the pricing of their credit facilities to their ability to meet stated green or social goals. If a company meets its stated key performance metrics, they receive a pricing benefit. U.S. Bank works with clients on these sustainability-linked loans, which have become more prevalent. When we have a lead role as an agent or sustainability coordinator, we work extensively with borrowers to help them select KPIs that have a track record of disclosure through prior reporting. The market convention for these loans requires third party verification of the performance on these metrics. Our clients have often asked us how to help determine the appropriate KPIs for their ESG strategy along with pricing. We develop KPIs by examining current ESG goals. Some clients like KPIs to be more attainable, while others prefer KPIs to be more aspirational. We also focus how KPIs and financing plans broadly will be viewed by stakeholders and should demonstrate forward progress. In our trusted advisor role, we help clients also select an appropriate third party for certification. So the U.S. Bancorp Community Development Corporation, or the CDC in this slide, provides innovative financing solutions for community development and renewable energy projects across the country. As a leading community development investor, lender, and tax credit syndicator, its capital commitments contribute to the creation of new jobs, the rehab of renewable energy facilities, and the generation of economic activity in underserved communities across the country. Please turn to the next slide. This slide further demonstrates how we could collaborate with colleagues across the bank to create innovative and impactful solutions for clients. Last June, we acted in the capacity of sustainability coordinator, structuring agent, and purchaser on the first ever racial equity bond issued by a community development financial institution. CDFIs are lenders with a mission to provide financing to underserved communities. Our ESG Commercial Products Advisory team, the Municipal Products Group, and the CDC worked with Enterprise Community Loan Fund, which focuses on investing capital to build and preserve affordable housing nationwide to issue a bond to support Enterprise's Equitable Path Forward Initiative. So what makes this bond unique? What makes this bond particularly unique is the opportunity to target investments in projects that support racial equity by providing construction and other related contracts to qualified Black, Indigenous, and people of color-led businesses. Investors in the bond are also provided with thorough impact data, allowing them to see project level details on how their investment is advancing racial equity. How great is that? We see significant investor demand for products like this. Let's turn to the next slide and Marcus will speak on how to implement an ESG strategy. MARCUS MARTIN: Thank you, Ginger. And it is truly exciting. And so let's talk a little bit about how you can build your own all-weather sustainability strategy. And as you can see here on the slide, we've broken down a few of the core elements. They're obviously somewhat agnostic in a lot of ways, but we certainly will break down in a little more detail here. The very top, we think about organizational influence. And really there are no-- no two businesses are the same. And I think we are all aware of that. But it's particularly important to keep that in mind as you're developing your own sustainability strategy. Some have substantial enterprise staff that can handle data and reporting support. In other instances, without much thoughtful preparation, we have certainly seen situations where clients have had to rely on treasury and CFOs offices to track and report this type of activity. That's clearly less than ideal. And it ultimately adds workload and could create professional distractions for the financial fiduciaries. No matter what the internal resource looks like, transparency, oversight, and external validation are all required elements to consider. In addition to the data requirements, the engagement with stakeholders of all sorts will continue to increase. Sustainability related proxy proposals really-- and also the attention around just broad sustainability goals regardless of whether they're in a proxy vote or not, those agendas are all really a big focus of the stakeholders. And I think the focus is really at an all-time high. But beyond shareholders and proxy voting, the universe of stakeholder engagement continues to grow and continues to evolve. And it's becoming ever more clear that, ultimately, not having a sustainability strategy becomes your sustainability strategy. So how can you hunker down and focus on your company's own journey? We'll continue to dig into that through the rest of today's webinar. But we want to also just highlight a few key elements around what the requirements might be depending on the type of organization that you're working with. That, obviously, is going to vary based on sector. It's going to vary based on region. Of course, it's going to also vary based on the transparency expectations and aspirations within those that you might comp yourself with. So all of this is really important to keep in mind when we think about what it takes to create an all-weather sustainable strategy. At the core of it, as we said at the top, it's always going to be about building your own unique strategy that drives your own results from your business model. Finally, what we do think we will see a lot of continued standardization and less variability over time is around reporting. The maintenance around monitoring, reporting, and validation will likely continue to standardize. And we'll speak more to that later on in today's webinar. But, ultimately, the concept of ongoing ESG-related maintenance is one of the most important elements of what we would call readiness. Really the ever changing reporting and disclosure landscape is going to require that companies understand your own game plan and how that correlates to your own responsibilities of monitoring, reporting, and validating, from which that really is the basis of what we would consider to be an agreement, if you will, with the marketplace around financing framework and subsequent ESG-labeled activity like bonds, loans, and other potential financings. So with that, I'd like to pass over to my colleague Ade, who will spend more time talking about how you can build your own all-weather strategy. Next slide, please. And over to you, Ade. ADE ADEDEJI: Thank you very much, Marcus. Let me start off by just laying a strong foundation discussing four key elements around ESG or sustainable financing. You can think of these as key internal milestones along the pathway of your sustainable financing process. First is an assessment of what is your current ESG strategy. Secondly, an understanding of the readiness around the integrity of your ESG data. What policies, procedures, and controls are in place? Third is a materiality assessment around your key ESG risks. And last but certainly not least is dissemination of the ESG targets, also known as sustainability performance targets, at either the enterprise level or a project level, and at what time frame those targets are expected to be realized. We'll make a number of references to ESG targets or sustainability performance targets today because this is a critical ingredient in a sustainability-linked financing structure, which, by the way, is the fastest growing segment within sustainable finance. So there is a cadence to the four elements that I just mentioned. And in order to get to ESG targets, ideally, you've already had the three initial cursory steps. Our focus in an advisory capacity is to help make sure that your plumbing is done right to begin with so as to avoid costly repairs and disruptions further down the line. Many clients today may be wondering, how does ESG impact my ability to do a financing? And I'd just like to really talk a little bit about the evolving regulatory backdrop here. The largest companies will have to include ESG data in their filings as early as 2023 financial year, which will be filed in 2024. Smaller companies will have perhaps another year or two to get their ducks in a row. But these are changes being implemented or expected to be brought online according to the SEC's proposed rules, which were announced earlier this year and expected to be fully inaugurated before the end of the year. And so to that extent, it goes without saying that the days of arbitrarily or somewhat arbitrarily picking ESG targets are over. However, it's also important to keep in mind some of the actions that the SEC has already begun to take, such as issuing [INAUDIBLE] letters on climate disclosure where they're seeking additional information about materiality determinations. And in some cases, we've actually seen SEC enforcement as well where they feel that there have been violations. One other thing to keep in mind here is for companies who already have publicly stated ESG targets that it makes a lot of sense to align, to the extent that you're looking to do a sustainability-linked financing-- it makes a lot of sense to align KPIs in that context with what is already a publicly stated target. We've also received some questions around the role of attorneys in this evolving disclosure landscape. And I will just say here that absolutely clients will need to increasingly rely on the advice of counsel around all these disclosure requirements for two reasons. I already talked about the increase in SEC potential for action, but also is the increasing demands of requests from shareholders. They also want to see transparency, and, of course, the potential for shareholder litigation as well. And with that, let's go on to the next slide. So progressing our conversation today, our focus really is how you can take action. In our advisory capacity, we want to help you work with external parties in bringing together the remaining elements towards a successful financing that aligns your corporate sustainability objectives with your financing outcomes. Many companies today already have a comprehensive ESG or sustainability report, which is often published annually. And while we do not typically have a role in crafting an ESG report, it doesn't mean we don't have a unique or critical perspective to lend. I'll say that again. In the context of the unfolding regulatory environment here, the likely expectation is that there will be a reasonable assurance standard so the ESG data, material ESG data, in those sustainability reports, and also that that same information will be included in a company's SEC filings going forward. To that extent, it's advisable that the data and the issue report should be prepared using widely accepted reporting frameworks and standards, such as the United Nations sustainability development goals, 17 of which are shown on this page; the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board, SASB, the Science-Based Targets Initiative, the SBTI, and the Task Force on Climate Financial Disclosures, TCFD. Leveraging the momentum from the body of work that flows into a sustainability report, a Treasury Department really can then build on that to create a financing framework-- associated financing framework. This is a document that details the scope of potential sustainable financing, the use of proceeds, our project eligibility, and a management of proceeds, and the related governance around all of this. It will typically also include a reference to a second party opinion, which is an independent validation on the framework. In the context of sustainability-linked financing, the framework could also include scoping out potential KPIs and calibration of sustainability performance targets. Really, again, this whole process from materiality assessment all the way to framework development is so much circular. And every management team needs to determine the optimal cadence for their organization. In some cases, we see much less the assessments conducted perhaps every two years. But again, this is a decision that needs to be made in view of everything else going on within an organization and perhaps the changing nature of the business. There are, however, externalities that I'd like to point out here that could impact the process. And this includes things like change in market standards, the competitive dynamics, as well as, again, the regulatory environment. So our role and what we enjoy doing, as was mentioned, however, as we live and breathe ESG, is really to level set and to work with you in terms of where you are today and how we can get you to the finish line. That includes things like, again, focusing on building up the framework, working, determining the number and profile of potential sustainable financing projects, KPI calibration, and determining what is a realistic timeline in which to get all of this work done. And so with that, I'll take a pause and take a question from my colleague Marcus. MARCUS MARTIN: Thank you, Ade. And so we've got a question here from a nonprofit. How can a nonprofit incorporate ESG risk into solutions? ADE ADEDEJI: Great question. Thank you, Marcus. I'll say the issue of ESG risk applies to nonprofits and public corporation or profit corporations alike. Really, the first or the precautionary step here is to conduct that materiality assessment to understand what the key risks are. Following that, focusing on how to mitigate those set risks. Now while we can't necessarily decide a client's ESG strategy, what we advise in the context of deciding on that strategy is to make sure that there is transparency with respect to the risks, transparency with respect to how management is mitigating the risks, and any oversight surrounding all of this work. Thank you. MARCUS MARTIN: Great. Thank you, Ade. And so let's go back to you for further color here in how our clients can continue to build their own all-weather strategy. ADE ADEDEJI: Sure. OK. I'm moving on to the next slide. Again, we work with clients understanding that everyone is at a different point in their respective journey. But we certainly love to just really go through the details of this readiness checklist with you on an individual basis. And this list is provided for your reference. Obviously, we won't go through line by line at this time. But I just like to highlight a couple of important considerations. One is absolutely critical to success here is mobilizing an internal working group that's empowered to make decisions such as what kind of financing will this be. Is it going to be focused on use of proceeds or is it going to be sustainability linked? And you would expect that a group like this would include individuals from Treasury, Investor Relations, Compliance, ESG, Legal, and so on. Another point to just highlight here-- and my colleague Ginger earlier on talked about sustainability linked loans. Now while we work with you in determining appropriate level target levels based on your stated ESG objectives, and also keeping in mind what the market precedents are where available, I want to note that in terms of how you set the targets and how ambitious those targets are, while it remains a matter of choice, we, in our advisory capacity, tell clients that the guiding principles for ESG debt espoused by ICMA on the bond side and the LCA on the loan side both support ambitious target setting. In addition, I'd like to just also mention that the market really wants to see targets being set against the companies' most material ESG risks. And lastly, the target levels that are set to low run the risk of pushback from the investment community amidst concerns around greener social washing. So while we focus on SPTs or targets, I note that the materiality again is not all the same across every particular sector. As a reminder, when we're talking about things like scope one, and scope two, scope three emissions, how each pertain to particular sectors varies. And these are some of the nuances that need to be kept in mind. With that, let's move on to the next slide. OK. There are two key considerations to keep in mind when you're looking at executing an ESG capital markets transaction. One refers to the corporate readiness, which we've talked about for the last couple of minutes. The second really refers to the market conditions. And with that, I'd like to make a couple of comments about the state of the ESG debt markets over the next two slides. Looking on the page here, the shot on the left really shows volumes of new ESG debt volumes globally for the first four months of the year going back about 10 years or so. And you see for the first months of 2022, we achieved about 420 billion-- a little over $420 billion in issuance. Now while this is a gigantic number, it's off of the highs that were experienced in the same time period last year, actually about a 20% decrease. Secondly, if you look to the chart on the right, it tells a little bit-- it gives a little bit more color in terms of what is actually going on. This chart on the right shows cumulative issuance for sustainability-linked debt, Bond C in particular. And so you can see, through April 2022, about $35 billion of issuance, which is almost double the number we saw in the same time period in 2021. So clients have increasingly chose sustainability-linked bonds as an option while the overall ESG debt volume numbers have actually declined. I think the reason for this is really because clients have seen the flexibility and have chosen that flexibility that a sustainability-linked debt structure provides around use of proceeds. And we move on to the next slide. On this page, we can see from the two charts, which are set in two time periods for the first quarter of 2021 versus 2022, last year we saw that a lot of the debt issuance was focused on two industries, financials and utilities. That has changed significantly just over the course of the year. And we are seeing issuance from sectors such as communications, health care, consumer staples, and so on. This just really demonstrates the fact that ESG financing is becoming more prominent across industries. In addition, I'd just like to also highlight what my colleague Ginger said earlier that there are other ESG financing solutions available for corporate and commercial clients away from the capital markets. And this includes things like working capital solutions. Again, our expertise is to bring together customized financial structures, risk analysis in understanding what ESG risks pertain to every particular client, and how to best articulate your sustainability story to the financing community. Also, I'd like to make some comments on this page about the role of the government in furthering sustainable financing or just creating that environment for sustainable financing. We've talked about a lot of what the SEC is doing with respect to protection of investors from material ESG risks, but I'd also like to just highlight a couple of things regarding the Community Reinvestment Act, which relates to many of our municipal clients. Recently, the three main banking regulators, the Fed, the OCC, and the FDIC, in a rare joint statement announced a proposal to refresh the CRA. And this was originally designed to address redlining and to encourage lending in lower income communities and to racial minorities. And so while the proposed rules are in a comment period, expected to end sometime early August, the key areas of update are around expansion of credit to low and moderate income communities, adoption of metric-based approach to CRA evaluations. And this will only increase clarity and consistency. Lastly, updating the technology around mobile and internet banking. Last, but certainly not least, we also need to just keep in mind government spending around renewable energy for instance. Over $5 billion have been earmarked for electric vehicle infrastructure buildout. And they have plans to address funding for rural and underserved communities as well. I know there's going to be-- my colleague Jenna is going to talk about ESG adoption within the utilities industry. But first, let's give some time to address some of the questions we received from the audience. With that, Marcus. MARCUS MARTIN: Great. Thank you, Ade. So it looks like we have a little bit of time to go through a few questions. Let's start here with a question from somebody in the Treasury Department. The question is, what would a Treasury ESG framework look like for corporate treasury departments? ADE ADEDEJI: OK. Thank you. And we've talked about developing financing frameworks. And again, this is a document that's owned by the Treasury Department, which is typically responsible for execution of financings. However, I really think a Treasury team does not need to be confined to just executing an ESG strategy that's been prescribed by other teams. They can equally take a leadership stand in crafting the strategy around sustainable finance-- sustainable financing alternatives that will support their enterprise level goals around ESG investment and/or funding. And again, this is a value add that we bring to our finance and treasury relationships. MARCUS MARTIN: Great. OK. Let's ask another question here on someone who's in the earlier stages of forming an ESG policy. So the question is, we are in the early stages of forming an ESG policy. What are the key considerations we should keep in mind as we formulate our policy? ADE ADEDEJI: Thank you, Marcus. I know earlier on you actually made some comments around readiness and maintenance. And I would just like to restate again the focus of our work is to help ensure that the internal plumbing is set right from the get go. This includes ensuring not only that key ESG risks are properly identified but also that the ESG data is being handled in a manner that's consistent with widely adopted reporting frameworks. Carl had mentioned the SDGs, the SASB, SBTI, and so on. So again, it's really essential to pull together a working team comprised of individuals in compliance, legal risk, community engagement, and so on, depending on what company your client is in question here. But ultimately, we need to keep in mind that the best ESG policy for a company is the one that is uniquely crafted for your organization. MARCUS MARTIN: Yeah. Great point. Great point. All right. I think we have time for one more question here before we move on to some of the additional color from our colleague Jenna. So this is a question from someone at a private company. I would like to understand better how far along all the private companies are in implementing their ESG programs versus public companies. And is there any particular advice you could provide for a private company? ADE ADEDEJI: This is a great one. So we've actually received several inquiries about ESG on the private side, just given the typical lack of visibility with privately held companies. For example, I think actually Ginger has also had some conversations with private companies seeking to support ESG initiatives that align with their corporate desire to support the needs of their host communities. Also, in our conversation with [INAUDIBLE] sponsors, we've been hearing from a number of them that are expressing a desire to see greater transparency around climate disclosure for their portfolio names. And so to this extent, the recently announced standard for greenhouse gas accounting and reporting in private equity is a very welcome development. This is something that was just announced by the iCI, Initiative Climate International. And that represents over 160 firms representing about $3 trillion in assets. So this standard that was developed in partnership with ERM, which is a global sustainability consultant, enables GPs to establish processes for carbon footprint data collection and calculation, thereby improving the quality of their greenhouse gas emissions, and really allows for a path to strategically planning the portfolio and target setting from a portfolio standpoint supporting the overall transition to net zero economy. MARCUS MARTIN: Oh. Thank you. Great answer and great transition as well. Maybe if we could go to the next slide and then we'll hand the microphone over to our colleague Jenna to speak more about what she's seeing within the utility sector but particularly, as you mentioned, around the uniformity of greenhouse gas emission reporting from the private side. It's all starting to dovetail it looks like on the climate side so this is good. Over to you, Jenna. JENNA PAPAZ: Great. Thank you, Marcus. Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Jenna Papaz. And I am a relationship manager in our utilities division within corporate banking. Our utilities division covers the large majority of utilities across the country. Today I will share an update about this mature industry in the ESG world. Many of our utility clients are very familiar with ESG and have been following ESG trends very closely. They've already thought about or developed their strategy broadly and are now more focused on tactical approaches to ESG. At this point in time, we are seeing heightened levels of stakeholder ESG activism, which is driving both operational and financial strategy for utilities. As a regulated industry, regulators are incentivizing utilities to adopt green policies through such measures as securitization, state mandates like renewable portfolio standards, and, of course, federal renewable tax credits. Many stakeholders expect utilities to encompass ESG while performing at the highest levels, despite extreme weather and a global pandemic. And as a result of this increased activism over the last few years, the sector has set ambitious targets. In fact, 70% of the 30 largest utilities have set net zero targets, which is fantastic. Utilities have, especially in the last few years, leveraged financing options such as green bonds and sustainability-linked loans, as previously discussed. And we know a large portion of green bonds are driven by the utility industry. Green financing is commonplace in the utility industry now in 2022. CapEx plans are increasing to support decarbonization. And it's not a question of whether utilities should engage in ESG financing. It's more of a question of the right timing for clients to engage in this financing. We anticipate more capital raising for this industry as we transition from ESG to ESG 2.0, which I believe entails more investment and capital spend in things like battery storage and the acceleration of renewables. The development of green technology is crucial to get the country where it needs to be to meet the White House's goal of 100% carbon free electricity by 2035. Utilities, because they have been early adopters, can be credited for decarbonizing the energy sector. We have seen carbon emissions cut 40% below 2005 levels, driven mostly from coal retirement. As Marcus and Ade mentioned earlier, this demonstrates how setting aspirational and attainable ESG goals can reap meaningful benefits. Going forward, utilities will be even more focused in the S and the G when developing ESG strategies. Even now we see SDG KPIs within sustainability-linked loans for utilities. KPIs tend to have generation as well as other measures such as workforce diversity or strong governance. Ade mentioned the importance of data gathering earlier. Many of our clients know the benefit of capturing as much data as possible, both on the generation front as well as what they're doing for social and governance. This data is very helpful when communicating to stakeholders how successful they have been at executing their ESG strategy. In fact, some utility clients are gathering data and monitoring their levels of diversity for their outside business partners. At U.S. Bank, we fill out surveys for some of our clients about our bank's diversity both at a relationship level and across the bank. We think the industry should be very proud of what it has accomplished so far and how it continues to prepare itself for the future. And with that, it is my pleasure to hand it over to our head of corporate banking, Felicia La Forgia, to discuss next steps as you consider your company's ESG goals and objectives. FELICIA LA FORGIA: Thank you, Jenna. That was great. So throughout this webinar, we've looked at the ESG market landscape and what you need to consider as you engage in strategic planning. We've talked about how to assess where you are on your journey and identify additional opportunities to help integrate ESG into your business planning and policies. And we also discuss ways to operationalize your ESG strategy. So what are the big takeaways from today's event? Well, clearly, ESG is growing in importance. As Marcus said, if you don't have any ESG story for your organization, that is your story. And we can help you change that. Of course, there's really no single right way to approach this. Every organization is different and has different needs. But U.S. Bank can be an essential advisor and show you things to think about and solutions you consider as you work to integrate ESG into your business every day. So we are here for you. And we can certainly help you succeed. So on behalf of Hassan, Ginger, Marcus, Ade, and Jenna, I want to thank you for joining today's event. We really truly appreciate being here with you and everybody being on the call, and certainly hope you got a lot out of it. If you have any questions, please reach out to your U.S. Bank relationship manager or contact the ESG team. With that, I thank you again. And this concludes today's call.