Where Finance Drives Climate Impact

Keith Zakheim 0:02

Welcome to the Age of Adoption podcast. I am your host, Keith Zakheim. Today, as we do with every podcast, we're going to ask our guest one question and one question only. What is your Age of Climate adoption story? A little bit about the Age of Adoption. We live in an era where enterprises of every shape and size, regardless of industry, must rapidly transform to become more sustainable, climate sensitive. And just my day job is CEO of the
Keith Zakheim 0:32

Marketing public relations firm Antenna Group. Our agency works exclusively with conscious brands. What is a conscious brand? It is a brand that is conscious of its responsibility to be on the right side of history. Like most businesses, our clients are experiencing a transition from an age of innovation, an era in which technologists, entrepreneurs and investors focused on innovating climate and sustainable solutions, to this age of adoption which characterizes the world today.
Keith Zakheim 1:32

So if you accept the Age of Adoption hypothesis, then there's really only one salient question to be asked. What is your Age of Adoption story? As a communications major, Marissa Bridle never studied sustainability until she neared graduation and didn't have a full time job. So she made a spontaneous decision to go to grad school and ended up at a small Cleveland firm
Keith Zakheim 1:32

Called Brown Flynn that was pivoting from corporate philanthropy to corporate social responsibility. What she thought would be an executive assistant position became a 13 year journey where she, as she says, built the plane while flying it, honing her skills in sustainability consulting for clients across every imaginable industry. After a stint at Cleveland Cliffs, a leading North American based steel producer, where she discovered how critical steel is to the low carbon transition,
Keith Zakheim 2:01

Marissa made another leap, this time to KeyBank as sustainability director. What makes her story particularly relevant today is KeyBank's commitment to sustainability while navigating challenging market conditions. While companies across industries may be scaling back on climate and sustainability initiatives, KeyBank consistently ranks among the leaders in financing renewable energy and affordable housing in the United States. They have already deployed $20 billion towards their $38 billion
Keith Zakheim 2:31

:Sustainable finance goal and they are not slowing down. Today on the Age of Adoption podcast, Marissa shares how KeyBank finances everything from wind and solar to electric vehicle fleets and affordable housing, why banks cannot ignore economics even when politicians avoid reality, and how she's figuring out how to engage 17,000 employees across 15 states to walk the talk on sustainability. Back with Marissa in a Cleveland
Keith Zakheim 3:03

Marissa, welcome to the Age of Adoption podcast.
Marissa Brydle 3:09

Good morning, Keith. Thanks for having me. Happy to be here.
Keith Zakheim 3:09

My pleasure. So Marissa, you're joining us virtually from Cleveland, Ohio, at KeyBank headquarters. I know that it's I'm sure a balmy day in Cleveland in November. So I love Cleveland, been there many times. Great, great city. And I know it's a city that's been on the rebound for a number of years now.
Marissa Brydle 3:30

Yes, yes it has for sure.
Keith Zakheim 3:32

And little known fact that Kim Setliff, who never talks on this podcast, but is the magician behind all of it herself, is from Cleveland, Ohio. And not just from Cleveland, Ohio, but incredibly proud Clevelander. So again, she can't respond, but the answer is in the affirmative. Yes, she is big Browns fan as well, which maybe makes the experience slightly less exciting.  
Marissa Brydle 3:56

Yeah.  
Keith Zakheim 3:56

Anyway, it's not why exactly not why we're joined here today to talk about Cleveland, although it is an interesting topic. We want to talk about KeyBank and its role in promoting a future that's more climate sensitive and sustainability forward. So let's start with your career journey, how you got here into this position with KeyBank and doing some research. Marissa, you have a background and a career transition that probably is not
Keith Zakheim 4:26

Typical for many who are doing certainly this work in financial services. And that is you were you come from the steel manufacturing industry beforehand. So again love to hear all about your career journey and specifically maybe you can double click on that transition, which is fascinating.
Marissa Brydle 4:45

Sure, happy to. So before we even talk about steel, we'll go back a little bit. So I didn't study sustainability in college at all. I was a comms major, English minor. I was nearing graduation and didn't have a full time job lined up. So I said let's go to grad school. So went to grad school for comms and business, was working a retail job, had a paid internship and about a year in decided that I probably
Marissa Brydle 5:15

Needed to, you know, get a big girl job. So I applied to a whole bunch of places locally before I went on a family vacation. Came back to an email from a firm, small niche firm based in Cleveland called Brown Flynn to come in and interview for an executive assistant position. So I did. One of the co founders was an alum of the place I went to college, John Carroll. Go Blue Streaks.
Keith Zakheim 5:40

Where was that? John Carroll?
Marissa Brydle 5:41

Yes, John Carroll. University Heights, Ohio. And the rest is history I think. So Brown Flynn was co founded and co owned by two what I call visionary women. They came from marketing and communications. Kind of started in strategic communications, corporate philanthropy, but really kind of saw the writing on the wall and the shift towards corporate social responsibility and sustainability. So really pivoted there and probably right before I joined the firm in
Marissa Brydle 6:11

2008 really kind of focused on those things. I'm not sure if you're familiar, but the Global Reporting initiative that's been around for many years, a global sustainability reporting framework. Brown Flynn was the first certified GRI training partner in the United States. And that was right around the time I joined. And so I really had the opportunity to kind of jump in with both feet. Even though I was an assistant, I had a comms background, I had a training background, and I really was able to kind of be there from the ground up. So
Marissa Brydle 6:41

Over the course of almost 13 years in consulting, which I, looking back, never thought I would be in the field for that long. At a young age, had the opportunity, yeah. But at a young age and a small firm that was really just pivoting towards sustainability and kind of building the plane as we were flying it, we like to say, had the opportunity to learn and grow and do the work, manage clients, manage teams, local, regional, national,
Marissa Brydle 7:11

Global clients in every industry that you could think of. And really cut my teeth in, you know, building a career in sustainability. During that time. I got married, I had two kids. I kind of came back after those kids part time. But that was the beauty of working for two women. Right. They were working moms as well. Gave me the opportunity to still be a contributing member of the team while also raising a family. And all of the knowledge and expertise and experience that I built through
Marissa Brydle 7:40

The firm helped me to transition to go in house at the steel company that you mentioned. And every time somebody asks me this question, I always go back to all of my time at Brown Flynn. We were acquired by a larger firm towards the latter part of my career, a global firm, which kind of shifted the dynamics a little bit. And it was also the time of COVID so. So we were all used to being in the office and collaborating together, which I really loved about the job because we learned a lot from each other. But going home and
Marissa Brydle 8:10

Working from home became a little bit isolating and I kind of decided I needed to change. So I really feel like all of my time in consulting and working for these women who really built a culture of collaboration, of believing in yourself, of, you know, believing what your. What your advice you're giving to your clients, and believing in the work that we were doing in sustainability and corporate social responsibility really allowed me to
Marissa Brydle 8:40

Transition to steel. So I had the opportunity to take all that knowledge and consulting and that foundation that I learned and bring it in house to a domestic iron and steel company that is also based here in Cleveland, Ohio. And I spent three years There taking all of the client management and reporting knowledge that I had and brought it to a firm that was kind of didn't, didn't really necessarily have a program at that time. They had had a program many moons
Marissa Brydle 9:10

Ago when they were actually a client of the firm I was working for and then kind of paused and was working on some other things. And so really we were kind of starting from scratch when I joined the company. And so I had a boss who was also new to her position and we were kind of learning together as we were building again, building a plane before flying it. But I also had the opportunity to work with someone else who came from steel. He was an engineer by trade and so he really understood
Marissa Brydle 9:40

The business and the metrics and the logistics behind it. And I spent three really great years at this company and I'm really proud of the program that we built that I left and they're very capable hands before I came to Key and I can, I. I learned way more about iron and steel than I ever thought that I would. And I'm really happy about that because I. All the things I learned there.
Marissa Brydle 10:10

Somebody from the outside looking in may not know all the ways in which steel is a critical component to the transition to a low carbon economy. It's, it's needed in every type of energy production and transportation that you can think of and the way in which the company, you know, the business model, the fact that they were vertically integrated, the fact that they owned and operated all of their facilities, it's a US based company, all of those things
Marissa Brydle 10:40

And mainly union jobs as well, you know, really also made me proud to work for a company that had really strong, a really strong legacy, I think almost 180 years in the business and a really strong culture in American manufacturing and jobs and those types of things. So after a few years I kind of felt like I took the program as far as I felt that I could take it. And I really had some folks underneath me who
Marissa Brydle 11:10

Were ready for the opportunity to lead and so I was ready to move on to a new adventure. So I joined KeyBank just about 18 months ago. So I still consider myself fairly new to, to the bank and to the position. But so far it's been again had some banking clients in my consulting days, but never really got too deep in the weeds of how a bank functions. What does sustainability look like and mean to a bank and have really
Marissa Brydle 11:39

Enjoyed the opportunity to learn and collaborate with my colleagues over the last 18 months.
Keith Zakheim 11:46

Fantastic. And I guess we're going to do a deep dive, I guess into what does sustainability mean to a bank. And the way, and of course you're going to be the expert on this, but the way I see it, in terms of what is sustainability ultimately or maybe what your responsibilities are, a CSO in general might have responsibilities for when it comes to a bank. So there's that climate strategy and decarbonization piece, there's that disclosure piece, there's building sustainability programs that would
Keith Zakheim 12:15

Scale, I guess for the bank. And then what I find to be really, I mean, it's all interesting, but what I'd love to hear more about is this mobilizing capital. Right. So supporting clients and communities with climate adaptation resiliency by investing in certain projects and initiatives that will enhance that resiliency and social well being. And I know that you, I guess you have a goal of 38 billion in climate and green initiatives and you've already hit 16 billion. So just would
Keith Zakheim 12:45

In general, the age of adoption story and I'll ask that question in a second, but I'd love to really learn more about all those things. And I'm sure that really does dovetail nicely with the question of the day, the question that I'm best known for outside of, I guess when I come home, what's for dinner? That's probably the second best question I'm known for. But usually the answer is go make it yourself. But anyway, getting back to the question of the day, Marissa, what is your age of adoption story?
Marissa Brydle 13:13

That is a great question, Keith. So I came from, as I just mentioned, a long standing company in the U.S. to another long standing company in the U.S. key just celebrated its 200th anniversary this year. Our bicentennial we've been celebrating all year and probably into next year.
Keith Zakheim 13:33

Has it been Key bank all the way through or it's gone different iterations in terms of.
Marissa Brydle 13:38

Yeah, different iterations. So it was, you know, Society Savings many years ago and the company was actually founded in Albany, New York and has since moved headquarters to Cleveland, Ohio. But we are in 15 states across the country. We have just about 17,000 employees. We have just about a thousand branches and ATMs across the country from Maine to Alaska. And we're really proud of the
Marissa Brydle 14:07

Legacy that the company has built. So our mission is to help clients, colleagues and communities thrive. And I really feel that we do that. We have such a breadth and depth of capabilities and expertise to meet our clients where they are. And we really can be most things to all people. That's something that I coined not the company, but I would say that, so don't trademark that.
Keith Zakheim 14:34

Are you comms? Are you sustainable?
Marissa Brydle 14:36

Well, I came from comms, so you can't take the comms out of the girl. But I would say that it's probably no secret in the banking industry over the last several years that there's been a lot of ebbs and flows, especially in US based banking. There was the banking failures a few years ago and the market shifts and dynamics around that. And so just, you know, going back to celebrating 200 years, I'm really proud that our leadership and, and our,
Marissa Brydle 15:06

You know, management enabled us to endure all these years and that our clients and colleagues still trusted us to, to bank with us and really see us through.
Keith Zakheim 15:15

It's actually amazing not to, not to get sidetracked, but I'm actually reading a book right now. Andrew Ross Sorkin just wrote a book about 1929. But Wall, you know, the crash in Wall street and then some of the aftermath, the Great Depression. I want to say there were more than 3,000 banks that went under during that time. So banks that exist today that did not collapse. I mean, you talk about resiliency, that's pretty amazing.
Marissa Brydle 15:39

Yeah, it's incredible. Yeah, no, that's a great point. I think in terms of market shifts, again, it's no secret that over the last year focus around climate stewardship and climate risk and associated activities has been perhaps less of a focus on a larger scale than it was in the past. But another thing that I'm proud of is that, you know, Key remains committed to all of the things we said we're going to do. So you mentioned  
Marissa Brydle 16:09

The 38 billion in sustainable finance. We also have a goal to be carbon neutral for operational emissions by 2030. We have a goal to source renewable energy for our operational footprint. And we're also committed to assessing our lending portfolio and the emissions that financing in our lending portfolio. And those are all things I'd say, you know, by and large, aside from climate risk management that, you know, I'd say US banks are trying to focus on,
Marissa Brydle 16:39

You know, and I think the way that you kind of bucketed the topics and the focus areas are probably ring true for Key. So, you know, we're not just financing sustainable activities for our clients in several ways. We also have to walk the talk, right? So, you know, we can't be the number two renewables financer in the country of which we are, and we have been for many years if we're not trying to, you know, source renewables ourselves. And what does our footprint look like how do we get there? How do we scale by
Marissa Brydle 17:09

2030? Can we meet our goal earlier than that in this current environment? That there are challenges around that. And so what's the sense of urgency for us to go to market on those types of things? But I would say just going back to your point about sustainable finance, we have a very mature renewables business. We're in primarily wind, solar and battery storage all across the country. We are right now, I think roughly around 20 billion to our total goal through Q3 for sustainable
Marissa Brydle 17:38

Finance. And we're really proud of that because, you know, we see the writing on the wall, right? We see that, you know, regardless of what's going on in the market, that ramping up of renewables and scaling those will help us to transition, will help lessen the strain on the grid. And that's really important. You know, if our clients are coming to us and they're, and they're wanting us to help us move into that, help them move into that space, then we're, we're poised to do that. And we have experts on our team that have been doing
Marissa Brydle 18:08

This for decades. We also do a lot, so we call them green social sustainable bonds or GSS bonds in the public and private markets, but particularly in the public markets, we've been financing affordable housing again for decades. And right now I believe we're also the number two financer of affordable housing in the US that is a very mature business and it goes back to helping our clients and communities
Marissa Brydle 18:38

Thrive. We're really proud of that. We have so many folks internally, whether it's community development, lending, cdfi lending to low and moderate income households. I mean the work we do around this is so needed and it's so impressive and you know, it's really great to see the momentum behind this. In the social space that we've been able to sustain over so many years. We have, we have experts in house that I hope stay with us for many years to come
Marissa Brydle 19:08

Because they bring expertise from previous jobs, they have connections, they know who to talk to, they know who to collaborate with to make sure that these projects that we're financing are sustainable for years and years and years to come and really fit within the communities that they're operating in. So we're really proud of that. Another thing I would say is we're heavy into energy efficient equipment financing as well. So, you know, your standard, you know, lighting and H VAC systems for building management, but also electric vehicle
Marissa Brydle 19:38

Fleets. We're moving into that space as well as, you know, the market is transitioning from ICE vehicles to EVs, and what does that look like? How do we build a business around that for the future? What else? I feel like I can go in so many different directions.
Keith Zakheim 19:55

Yeah, no reporting.
Marissa Brydle 19:57

Oh, yes, you talked about reporting and disclosure. So again, there's been a shift. Right. Our three kind of regulators, bank regulators in the United States, a few years ago, they put out some principles around adherence to climate risk management, and then they have since rescinded those principles. So how do you continue doing the work around climate risk identification and management and mitigation internally when you kind of  
Marissa Brydle 20:27

Don't have those, you know, guiding principles from your regulators to guide you through this process? So we're trying to figure out how that works for us at Key and what makes sense. And we're still committed to doing the work internally around that. You know, the SEC was supposed to come out with a climate disclosure rule, and that has since been tabled. I think we all know. But California is pressing ahead. They're moving forward. And they have two bills

Marissa Brydle 20:57

That they passed around. Climate Risk Disclosure and Opportunity Disclosure and Greenhouse Gas Emissions Disclosure. And the great thing about Key is that we've continued the work in these areas, so we are well positioned to, you know, comply with these bills. But there are other companies that maybe have been ebbing and flowing in that work, and they might be behind the eight ball. They might not be ready to put those disclosures out there confidently when the time comes. So,
Marissa Brydle 21:27

You know, we're very much.
Keith Zakheim 21:30

Our experience. Yeah. And our experience right now in the industry and, you know, working with clients across a broader, a variety of sectors is that the commitments really haven't been rolled back. The recognition that political headwinds are what they are, politicians typically can avoid reality. Business people, it slaps them in the face. And when companies are thinking about resiliency, they're thinking about economic growth.
Keith Zakheim 22:00

Right now, economic growth is being driven by data centers. Well, data centers can only thrive and the hyperscalers can only thrive when there's grid modernization, as you said, when there's energy abundance, which at this point has to include renewables, when there is water technology that actually is sustainable, that can cool these data centers. Right. So there's so much there that business people, banks specifically, and those who are financing this can't ignore. And so, you know, look, we're comms firm, you're a
Keith Zakheim 22:30

Storyteller. We're both telling stories in this. And of course, when you tell stories, nuance is important and language is important, and some of that of course, has to change in different cultural and political environments. But ultimately, the thrust of this movement, the thrust of. And not even a movement, you know, to us right now, this is about economics, right? This is about the economy. This is not about do gooding. You know, may for some it might be, and that's great. But ultimately, that's not the story that needs to be told. The story that you just told, right, because, you know, for
Keith Zakheim 22:59

Resiliency, for growth, this is what we need. So it's gratifying to see from our clientele that nothing is being rolled back. It's great to hear that the Same is at KeyBank. And it does seem like the Age of Adoption story that you're telling is not just being maintained, but progressing and growing, which is critical for all of us. So, Marisa, I'm going to give you the last word and then we will sign off.  
Marissa Brydle 23:26

Thanks so much, Keith. I really appreciated the time that we've taken here to chat about these topics because my whole career has been in sustainability. I believe in it. I think it's necessary for us to thrive and grow as a society. And you're right, it makes good business sense. It doesn't make good business sense to not do these things. And I think the other thing I would say is that I'm really looking forward to figuring out how we can engage our employees more around
Marissa Brydle 23:55

These topics. I think in my daily conversations, I. People understand the work. I think it's important. But, you know, we. We have a lot of people across our footprint and, and how do we come together in a more intentional way to walk the talk around sustainability? So that's my next. My next horizon that I'm looking forward. Forward to.  
Keith Zakheim 24:17

Fantastic. Well, Marisa, this was. This was great. I really appreciate the time and I look forward to being in touch soon.  
Marissa Brydle 24:26

Thank you so much, Keith. Take care.
Keith Zakheim 24:29

The Age of adoption podcast features CEOs, investors, entrepreneurs and policymakers sharing their climate and sustainability business transformation stories episodes can be found on your favorite podcast apps, including itunes and Spotify. The Age of Adoption podcast is brought to you by Antenna Group. Antenna is the home of unconscious brands. We partner with companies that don't wait for change to happen. These brands shape the future, are
Keith Zakheim 25:58

Awake and already moving, unsure if you are a conscious brand or even if you are one, whether you are positioned as one. Please visit our website at www.antennagroup.com and take the Conscious Compass assessment, a groundbreaking tool that enables enterprises to assess their brand against the eight traits of brand consciousness. At Antenna, we partner with companies big and small from Growth Stage to Fortune 100 to  
Keith Zakheim 25:28

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