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FAQ & Glossary
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs):
Glossary :
How is Corporate Responsibility managed at BMO?
Various areas are responsible for the specific economic, social, and environmental policies and programs that comprise corporate responsibility. Our Corporate Responsibility Unit is responsible for identifying best practices and emerging issues in corporate responsibility, and determining their applicability to the organization.
Learn more about BMO’s Corporate Responsibility Governance.
How does BMO ensure employees conduct themselves ethically?
Our Code of Conduct is called FirstPrinciples. It is our code of business conduct and ethics and reflects our commitment to doing what is fair, legal and right.
Learn more about our Code of Conduct.
What is BMO’s approach to Stakeholder Engagement?
We are continually seeking out opportunities to engage those stakeholders that
are impacted by our activities. Our stakeholders include customers, shareholders,
employees, communities, working groups and non-government organizations (NGOs).
Learn
more about engaging with stakeholders.
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What is BMO’s philosophy on Diversity?
Diversity is often thought of in terms of equitable opportunity regardless of gender, race, age, ethnicity, ability and sexual orientation. Yet diversity is also about the uniqueness of each individual – our personal stories, experiences, ideas, hopes and dreams. At BMO, our goal is to be a truly diverse organization – one that celebrates diversity in all its forms.
Learn more...
How does BMO create a supportive work environment?
BMO has an accessible website designed to assist employees in making informed decisions about their personal well-being, while also providing information on BMO’s principles, practices and supportive policies. Understanding that convenience is of the utmost importance to employees who are balancing work/life commitments, this website allows employees to also have access to information on our policies, programs, tools, and resources from the privacy and convenience of their own homes.
Learn
more about the policies and practices that support BMO’s supportive work environment in BMO’s 2006 Employment Equity Narrative Report (PDF).
Does BMO have an Environmental Policy?
BMO has had an Environmental Policy since 1991. On April 30, 2008, we released
our public environmental commitment entitled “Walking the Talk: Putting Commitment
into Action.” The document sets out our approach to ensure we honour our commitment
to minimizing the impacts of our operations on the environment and to demonstrating
leadership by integrating environmental considerations into our business practices.
Learn more about our Environmental Policy (PDF).
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What does climate change mean to BMO?
We acknowledge that our activities have an impact on the environment, both directly in terms of our own operations, and indirectly through our procurement practices and the products and services we provide to our customers. We are particularly concerned by the enormity of the problems posed by climate change. We agree with the conclusions of Sir Nicholas Stern in his review, The
Economics of Climate Change that “climate change will affect the basic elements of life for people around the world” while also having “serious impacts on growth and development.”
What is BMO doing to address its impact on climate change?
We are committed to minimizing the impact of our global operations. We introduced
the BMO ECO5 Strategy which provided us with an organizing framework to assist
us with reducing the environmental impacts flowing from our operational activities.
Learn
more about our initiatives.
Does BMO participate in the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP)?
Yes, BMO has been first a respondent and subsequently, a signatory investor in this annual disclosure exercise. As a signatory investor, we agree to put our name on the CDP information request
How do I get a copy of BMO’s current response to the CDP?
BMO’s current response, as well as our previous responses, can be found at the following link: BMO Carbon Disclosure Project.
How do I order a printed copy of BMO’s Corporate Responsibility Report/Public
Accountability Statement?
If I still have questions, whom should I contact?
For more information regarding corporate responsibility at BMO, please contact:
corporate.responsibility@bmo.com.
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Glossary :
Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP)
The Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) is an independent not-for-profit organization aiming to create a lasting relationship between shareholders and corporations regarding the implications for shareholder value and commercial operations presented by climate change.
CDP provides a coordinating secretariat for institutional investors with combined assets of over $57 trillion under management. On their behalf it seeks information on the business risks and opportunities presented by climate change and greenhouse gas emissions data from the world's largest companies: 3,000 in 2008. Over 8 years CDP has become the gold standard for carbon disclosure methodology and process. The CDP website is the largest repository of corporate greenhouse gas emissions data in the world.
Climate
Change
A change of climate which can be attributed directly or indirectly to human
activity
that alters the composition of the global atmosphere and which is in addition
to natural
climate variability observed over comparable time periods.
Corporate Social Responsibility
While CSR does not have a universal definition, many see it as the private sector’s way of integrating the economic, social, and environmental imperatives of their activities. As such, CSR closely resembles the business pursuit of sustainable development and the triple bottom line. In addition to integration into corporate structures and processes, CSR also frequently involves creating innovative and proactive solutions to societal and environmental challenges, as well as collaborating with both internal and external stakeholders to improve CSR performance.
Energy Star
Energy Star is the international symbol of energy efficiency. The symbol
helps consumers quickly and easily identify home appliances, and energy-using
equipment that save energy. The symbol identifies products as high efficiency
performers in their category.
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Environmental
Management System (EMS)
An environmental management system (EMS) defines and establishes an organization's
environmental policy and objectives. It also allows an organization to document
and implement the procedures needed to attain these goals. A properly functioning
EMS ensures that an organization is aware of the environmental impact of
its activities, is taking steps to manage that impact, is able to determine
the effectiveness of those steps, and can continuously review and improve
its procedures, products and services.
Equivalent
CO2 (carbon dioxide)
A change of climate which can be attributed directly or indirectly to human
activity
that alters the composition of the global atmosphere and which is in addition
to natural
climate variability observed over comparable time periods.
FSC-certified
paper
Paper whose fiber content has been independently evaluated by the Forest
Stewardship Council (FSC) to come from forest-friendly sources. FSC-certified
papers may contain a combination of fibre from FSC-certified forests, post-consumer
waste/recycled/reclaimed fibre, or fibre whose source has been controlled.
The FSC is a global non-profit organization which trains, accredits and monitors
third-party certifiers around the world and establishes environmental and
social standards against which forests are audited.
Greenhouse
gas
Greenhouse gases are those gaseous constituents of the atmosphere, both
natural and anthropogenic, that absorb and emit radiation at specific wavelengths
within the spectrum of infrared radiation emitted by the Earth’s surface,
the atmosphere, and clouds. This property causes the greenhouse effect. Water
vapor (H2O), carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrous oxide (N2O), methane (CH4), and
ozone (O3) are the primary greenhouse gases in the Earth’s atmosphere.
Moreover there are a number of entirely human-made greenhouse gases in the
atmosphere, such as the halocarbons and other chlorine- and bromine-containing
substances, dealt with under the Montreal Protocol. Besides CO2, N2O, and
CH4, the Kyoto Protocol deals with the greenhouse gases sulfur hexafluoride
(SF6), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), and perfluorocarbons (PFCs).
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Hazardous
Waste
Discarded material which, because of its inherent nature and quantity,
requires special disposal techniques to avoid creating health hazards, nuisances
or environmental pollution. Hazardous waste can physically be solid, liquid,
semi-solid or gaseous.
High
Conservation Value Forests
HCVFs are those that possess one or more of the following attributes: a)
forest areas containing globally, regionally or nationally significant :
concentrations of biodiversity values (e.g. endemism, endangered species,
refugia); and/or large landscape level forests, contained within, or containing
the management unit, where viable populations of most if not all naturally
occurring species exist in natural patterns of distribution and abundance;
b) forest areas that are in or contain rare, threatened or endangered ecosystems;
c) forest areas that provide basic services of nature in critical situations
(e.g. watershed protection, erosion control); d) forest areas fundamental
to meeting basic needs of local communities (e.g. subsistence, health) and/or
critical to local communities’ traditional cultural identity (areas
of cultural, ecological, economic or religious significance identified in
cooperation with such local communities).
International
Organization for Standardization (ISO)
ISO is the world's largest developer and publisher of International Standards.
ISO is a network of the national standards institutes of 157 countries, one
member per country, with a Central Secretariat in Geneva, Switzerland, that
coordinates the system.
ISO is a non-governmental organization that forms a bridge between the public
and private sectors. On the one hand, many of its member institutes are part
of the governmental structure of their countries, or are mandated by their
government. On the other hand, other members have their roots uniquely in
the private sector, having been set up by national partnerships of industry
associations.
Therefore, ISO enables a consensus to be reached on solutions that meet both
the requirements of business and the broader needs of society.
Post-consumer
reclaimed material
Wood and/or wood fibre that is reclaimed from a product after that product
has been used for its intended end-use purpose by individuals or businesses,
and has reached the end of its useful life for that end-use.
Project
Finance
Project finance is “a method of funding in which the lender looks
primarily to the revenues generated by a single project, both as the source
of repayment and as security for the exposure. This type of financing is
usually for large, complex and expensive installations that might include,
for example, power plants, chemical processing plants, mines, transportation
infrastructure, environment, and telecommunications infrastructure.
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Recycled
Fibre which has been reclaimed from a previous product and reprocessed and
incorporated into a new product is recycled. Sources of fibre for recycling
may be reclaimed post-consumer, reclaimed pre-consumer or other reclaimed
material.
Socially
Responsible Investing (SRI)
Making investments with an eye towards social, environmental and financial
returns. Investors and funds that “screen” companies that violate
environmental, social, or other values (across a wide variety of issues,
such as: worker's rights, child labor, minority hiring practices, gender
equality, environmental practices, animal rights, foreign investment, charitable
giving, etc.) refuse to invest in companies whose behaviors don’t pass
the screens. There can be as many interpretations and prioritizations of
issue screens as there are individuals.
Sustainable
Development
Environmental, economic and social well-being for today and tomorrow.
Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present
without compromising
the ability of future generations to meet their own
needs. It contains within it two key concepts:
- the concept of needs, in particular the essential needs of the world's poor, to which overriding priority should be given; and
- the idea of limitations imposed by the state of technology and social organization on the environment's ability to meet present and future needs.
United
Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)
UNESCO seeks to encourage the identification, protection and preservation
of cultural and natural heritage around the world considered to be of outstanding
value to humanity. This is embodied in an international treaty called the
Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage,
adopted by UNESCO in 1972.
United
Nations Environment Programme – Finance Initiative (UNEP FI)
The United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI) is
a unique global partnership between the United Nations Environment Programme
(UNEP) and the private financial sector. UNEP FI works closely with over
160 financial institutions who are signatories to the UNEP FI Statements,
and
a range of partners’ organizations to
develop and promote linkages between the environment, sustainability and
financial performance.
Virgin
wood
Wood, whether in the form of roundwood, sawnwood, or industrial co-products
or by-products which are traceable to forest sources. Virgin wood fibre is
fibre from virgin wood.
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Symbols
| Symbol |
Description |
| CO2 |
carbon dioxide |
| CO2e |
carbon dioxide equivalent |
| GJ |
gigajoule |
| GWh |
gigawatt hour |
| kg |
kilogram |
| km |
kilometre |
| kt/y |
kilotonne per year or thousand tonnes per year |
| kW |
kilowatt |
| kWh |
kilowatt hour |
| m3 |
cubic metre |
| Mt/y |
megatonne per year or million tonnes per year |
| MW |
megawatt |
| t |
tonne |
| t/y |
tonnes per year |
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