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San Diego Nonprofits Receive Largest Set of 'Green' Grants Awarded By the Bank of America Charitable Foundation in California Under New Environmental Initiative

Posted on: Tuesday, 15 January 2008, 15:00 CST

SAN DIEGO, Jan. 15 /PRNewswire/ -- San Diego nonprofits working to improve the environment are the recipients of the first and largest set of environmental grants provided by the Bank of America Charitable Foundation in California since announcing its $20 billion Environmental Initiative to reduce climate change. San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders joined Bank of America to announce $500,000 in "green" grants as part of the city's overall strategy to increase environmental sustainability in the region.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20050720/CLW086LOGO-b )

Today's announcement was made at the future site of a new health center in the low-income neighborhood of City Heights that will be green-built by nonprofit developer La Maestra to meet gold-certified standards by the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program.

The four Bank of America Charitable Foundation green grants are: -- $250,000 to the San Diego Foundation's Climate Initiative to develop policy solutions at the local government and grassroots level that curb global warming, and generate public awareness around climate change. http://www.sdfoundation.org/ -- $100,000 to the San Diego Regional Economic Development Corporation (EDC) to further promote environmentally sustainable practices in the business community and develop a Clean Technology business cluster, proposed last Spring by Mayor Sanders. http://www.sandiegobusiness.org/ -- $100,000 to La Maestra Community Health Center for the construction of a green-built, LEED Gold certified health center in City Heights. http://www.lamaestra.org/ -- $50,000 for the California Center for Sustainable Energy to offer workshops for residents to make changes in their daily routines to mitigate climate change, and to provide residential green-building assistance, particularly in the rebuilding following the recent wildfires. http://www.energycenter.org/

"This is the first and largest package of environmental grants Bank of America has made here in California as part of its new Environmental Initiative," Janet Lamkin, President of Bank of America California, said. "It grew out of our working relationships with Mayor Sanders and local environmental organizations, and it represents a huge investment in San Diego and particularly in the Mayor's efforts to make this the greenest city in the world."

"The environment is the most precious gift we leave for our children. We thank Bank of America for recognizing the leadership that the City of San Diego and local nonprofit organizations are taking in the area of environmental sustainability, and supporting our efforts to create a sustainable economy," said Mayor Sanders. "With public-private partnerships like this one, San Diego can -- and will -- become a globally recognized cleantech business leader."

Bank of America has a legacy of environmental leadership dating back two decades, when it began implementing an environmental focus to its own operations and business practices. For example, it does not finance projects that would destroy primary moist tropical rainforests, certain endangered forests or companies involved in illegal logging. Internally, the company reduced paper usage per associate by 40 percent, and set aggressive, voluntary goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions across the company nine percent through the reduction of its energy consumption. Bank of America also gives its associates $3,000 to buy a hybrid car -- a program piloted in Southern California.

Today, the company is building what is expected to be the world's most environmentally-sound sky scraper in Manhattan, and recently opened its greenest retail bank branch ever in Southern California, built to meet the highest LEED Platinum green-built standards.

The $20 billion environmental initiative announced in March 2007 encourages development of environmentally sustainable business practices through lending, investing, philanthropy and the creation of new products and services. The first significant investments under this plan were in California, from outfitting the largest solar K-12 school program in the nation, to preserving redwood forests.

More information on Bank of America's environmental efforts can be found at http://www.bankofamerica.com/environment .

Bank of America Corporate Philanthropy

Building on a long-standing tradition of investing in the communities it serves, Bank of America is in its fourth year of achieving an unprecedented 10-year goal to donate $1.5 billion to nonprofit organizations engaged in improving the health and vitality of their neighborhoods. Funded by Bank of America, the Bank of America Charitable Foundation will give more than $225 million in 2008, making the bank the most generous financial institution in the world and the second largest donor of all U.S. corporations in cash contributions. Bank of America approaches giving through a national strategy called "neighborhood excellence" under which it works with local leaders to identify and meet the most pressing needs of individual communities. Through Team Bank of America, bank associate volunteers contributed more than 650,000 hours in 2007 to enhance the quality of life in their communities nationwide. For more information about Bank of America Corporate Philanthropy, please visit http://www.bankofamerica.com/foundation .

Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20050720/CLW086LOGO-bAP Archive: http://photoarchive.ap.org/PRN Photo Desk, photodesk@prnewswire.com

Bank of America

CONTACT: Reporters, Colleen Haggerty of Bank of America,+1-213-718-2156, Colleen.Haggerty@BankofAmerica.com

Web site: http://www.bankofamerica.com/http://www.bankofamerica.com/environmenthttp://www.bankofamerica.com/foundationhttp://www.sdfoundation.org/http://www.sandiegobusiness.org/http://www.lamaestra.org/http://www.energycenter.org/

Source: PRNewswire

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