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Corporate Responsibility
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ENVIRONMENT

Environmental Performance


Greenhouse gas emissions summary report

In the 2008 period, BMO Financial Group's total reported emissions were 171,768 tonnes CO2 equivalent (tCO2e). BMO emitted 116,619 tCO2e from purchased electricity and 32,322 tCO2e from the combustion of natural gas and other fuels. Electricity purchased accounted for 67.9% of the total emissions, whereas natural gas and other fuel combustion accounted for 18.8% and 3.5%, respectively.

The reported emissions arising from energy combustion and purchased electricity are enterprise-wide and account for energy consumed by all BMO operations in Canada and the United States, as well as our international operations.

Emissions associated with fleet were 2,104 tCO2e accounting for 1.2% of total emissions, whereas ground travel and air travel accounted for 3.0% and 5.6%, respectively. These emissions relate to our North American operations only.

Total emissions by source
Use type Percent Emissions
(tCO2e)
Electricity* 67.9% 116,619
Natural gas* 18.8% 32,322
Other fuels* 3.5% 6,039
Fleet fuel 1.2% 2,104
Ground travel 3.0% 5,091
Air travel 5.6% 9,593
TOTAL 100% 171,768

*Leased premises included

Total emissions by source
Total emissions by GHG Protocol scope Total reported emissions by scope and country (tCO2e)
Scope Emissions (tCO2e)
Scope 1 – natural gas,
other/fleet fuels
15,899
Scope 2 – electricity purchased 32,980
Scope 3 – leased premises, ground/air travel 122,889
Scope 1 Scope 2 Scope 3
Canada 15,194 28,845 64,301
United States 705 4,135 57,908
International - - 680
TOTAL 15,899 32,980 122,899

BMO GHG emissions are categorized in accordance with the scopes identified by the GHG Protocol. Emissions estimates account for 22.5% of the total data reported and we are confident that the estimation techniques used provide a conservative, defensible, referential and reasonable estimation of energy consumption in the absence of actual data.

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Operational (ECO5) summary report View report in PDF (64 KB)

BMO has developed the ECO5 strategy to help focus our efforts in managing the environmental impacts of our operations in five key areas. This table is a summary report relating to some of the major indicators that are guiding us in the implementation of this strategy and in achieving continuous improvement.

Indicator Unit of measure Coverage 2008 20071
Employees FTE (M) enterprise-wide 37,116 35,827
Occupied building space m2 enterprise-wide 1,329,904 1,269,788
ECO5
1. Energy consumption
Electricity - non-renewable MWh enterprise-wide 373,016 336,306
Electricity - renewable MWh enterprise-wide 8,566 5,000
Natural gas m3 enterprise-wide 17,242,385 22,893,999
Heating oil Litres enterprise-wide 1,458,039 1,740,346
Diesel (emergency backup) Litres enterprise-wide 679,903 627,526
2. Transportation - employee business travel
Air Kms North America 85,730,508 99,869,232
Auto - company owned/leased vehicles Kms North America 3,348,863 4,487,320
Auto - employee owned vehicles Kms North America 16,027,282 15,455,385
Auto - rental cars Kms North America 3,485,285 2,251,223
Rail Kms Canada 672,292 725,994
3. Material consumption2
Virgin content paper Tonnes North America 4,895 6,986
Post-consumer content paper Tonnes North America 832 577
4. Waste
Solid waste generation3 Tonnes North America 3,380 Not available
Office paper shredding/recycling Tonnes North America 4,090 3,284
Technology assets disposed for recycling/reuse4 Tonnes North America 110 241
5. Procurement
Purchase of green renewable electricity MWh enterprise-wide 8,566 5,000
Resulting greenhouse gas emissions5
Total scope 1 direct emissions from energy
combustion – owned facilities (natural gas/fuel oil/other fuels)
tCO2e enterprise-wide 13,793 18,530
Total scope 1 direct emissions from fleet use tCO2e North America 2,104 2,633
Total scope 2 indirect emissions from non-renewable electricity purchased – owned facilities tCO2e enterprise-wide 32,980 31,285
Total Scope 3 indirect emissions from energy combustion and non-renewable electricity purchased – leased facilities tCO2e enterprise-wide 108,205 103,657
Total scope 3 indirect emissions from employee
business travel (air/auto/rail)
tCO2e North America 14,684 15,778
Total carbon dioxide emissions tCO2e   171,768 171,883

1 Portions of the information previously presented for 2007 have been restated to reflect more accurate data and a change to reporting boundary per GHG Protocol guidelines.
2 Office paper, marketing materials, customer statements and envelopes.
3 Represents solid waste from 23 major buildings/facilities or 31% of total premises space occupied. Of the total solid waste generated, 62% was diverted from landfill (recycled).
4 Includes computers, monitors, photocopiers, fax machines, cell phones and PDAs – donated to schools/charitable organizations or disposed of using environmentally friendly methods.
5 BMO greenhouse gas emissions are categorized in accordance with the scopes identified by the GHG Protocol. See also the BMO Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions Summary Report.

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The Carbon Disclosure Project

The Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) is an ongoing effort to enhance the level and quality of carbon emissions disclosure from publicly traded corporations. A growing number of Institutional Investors want to know what companies are doing to mitigate and manage their contribution to increased greenhouse gases and in turn global warming.

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