Highlights

In March 2021, Goldman Sachs announced a commitment to align their financing activities with a net-zero-by-2050 pathway — and to achieve net-zero emissions in their operations and supply chain by 2030. 

Their OneGS approach involves Sustainability Councils in each of their businesses to accelerate the growth in sustainable finance, each led by senior partners to guide the development of solutions and ensure cross-pollination across the firm.

In 2020, they benchmarked their vendors against industry-specific ESG business practices and developed a set of ESG minimum standards for their key spend categories.

Goldman Sachs was the first US corporate to sign onto all three of The Climate Group’s RE100, EV100 and EP100 programs (initiatives focused on, respectively: 100 percent procurement of electricity from renewables; electric transport; and energy productivity).

Launched in February 2021 their inaugural sustainability bond issuance — a $800 million commitment aligned with their sustainable finance framework that funds a range of on-balance-sheet sustainable-finance activity.

Array Technologies (one of the world’s largest manufacturers of ground-mounting systems used in solar energy projects) went public with a $1.2 billion IPO in October 2020 with Goldman Sachs as lead left bookrunner. 

In early 2021, Goldman Sachs was lead left bookrunner on the $2.2 billion IPO of Shoals

Technologies Group, the largest-ever US-listed IPO in the renewables sector.

Goldman Sachs published its inaugural TCFD report in 2020, reporting the provides improves the understanding and analysis of material climate-related risks and opportunities.

Goldman Sachs now encourages companies to adopt SASB and TCFD frameworks, where feasible, and provide them with resources and tools to make progress.

COVID-19 resulted in a handful of setbacks in Goldman Sachs’ goals: 1) A reintroduced 4.6 tons of single-use plastics in 2020 from a category that had previously been eliminated. 2) 3% of their total business waste was sent to landfill due to no alternative means of waste diversion in APAC and ANZ.

Across their global workplace, Goldman Sachs achieved their target of 70% certified green buildings prior to the end of 2020 and met their 2020 operational goal of procuring 100% of their global electricity from renewable sources.

As employees transitioned to working from home, they partnered with Arcadia to offer all Goldman Sachs employees in the US free access to renewable energy to offset their carbon footprint at home.

In 2020, Goldman Sachs’ 150 Outer Ring Road (150 ORR) office in Bengaluru was the first office in their global portfolio to achieve WELL Gold Certification for healthy buildings, and is the largest certified interior fit-out in the world.