News Releases

TORONTO, November 12, 2008 – BMO Financial Group today announced that it has accepted the challenge of the “One Million Acts of Green” environmental initiative.

The program encourages everybody to make small changes in their behaviour to reduce greenhouse gases, adding up to a million acts of green that will make a measurable impact on the environment.

“We have accepted the challenge, and we are encouraging our 36,000 BMO employees to support this fantastic initiative,” said Ula Ubani, Director, Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability, BMO Financial Group. “We know that the environment is very important to our customers and employees. We believe small acts, such as using a refillable coffee cup, really can make a difference. We are encouraging employees of other companies to accept the challenge too.”

BMO employees can join the BMO Financial Group Clear Blue Skies challenge team at www.onemillionactsofgreen.com.

BMO applauded Cisco Canada for launching the initiative and encouraged other corporations to take part in the challenge. BMO employees log nearly 100 million kilometres of travel every year, and by using Cisco's state-of-the-art teleconferencing system, called TelePresence, BMO hopes to begin to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions caused by business travel.

"BMO has been a great supporter of One Million Acts of Green,” said Willa Black, Vice President, Corporate Marketing, Cisco Canada. “We commend them for accepting the challenge, and we hope their leadership will encourage others to do the same.”

A video featuring Ula Ubani discussing One Million Acts of Green can be found on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRKMdZ1w5sY.

BMO and the Environment:

• In September 2008, BMO's CEO Bill Downe announced that BMO will seek to achieve carbon neutrality by 2010 across our enterprise – worldwide. To reach this goal, BMO intends to reduce net emissions related to energy consumption and transportation to zero within two years. And BMO is committed to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 5 per cent over this period.
• BMO has been a leader in reducing its non-renewable energy consumption. All newly opened branches (56, so far, in Ontario and Alberta) are powered from renewable sources of electricity (where available), such as Bullfrog Power. Last year, BMO purchased 5,000 megawatt hours of electricity from renewable sources, and it expects to increase that commitment significantly over the next two years. BMO recently, contracted with Bullfrog for an additional 3,300 MWh of clean energy, raising the total to more than 8,300 MWh, making BMO the leading purchaser of electricity among financial institutions from the company. This is enough renewable energy to power nearly 100 BMO branches.
• BMO recently redesigned its Corporate Responsibility website and expanded significantly the section devoted to addressing climate change (www.bmo.com/environment). To help customers, investors, employees and other interested parties make sense of it all, the new site provides one of the most complete compilations of corporate performance data among its peers, and will allow BMO and all its stakeholders to track the company's progress toward carbon neutrality.
• BMO is listed on both the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (North America) and FTSE4Good Series Index.
• BMO is a long-time signatory and respondent to the Carbon Disclosure Project. BMO has been named as one of two Canadian banks in its Carbon Disclosure Leadership Index for 2008.
• BMO has appeared on Corporate Knights Magazine's Best 50 Corporate Citizens list every year since 2003.

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