TORONTO, July 15, 2020 /CNW/ - The Bank of Nova Scotia [Scotiabank] today announced the publication of its Green Bond Report, which outlines the estimated impact of the use of proceeds from its inaugural Green Bond. The net proceeds from the USD $500 million 3.5 year Green Bond were used to refinance eligible green assets, which refer to new or existing assets, businesses or projects that meet the Scotiabank Green Bond Framework Eligibility Criteria.

As stated in the criteria, a business will be considered eligible for financing using a Scotiabank Green Bond only if it derives 90% or more of its revenues from activities in eight key categories. To date, funds from the Bond have been allocated to businesses that have qualified in the green building and clean transportation categories.

"In its first year of issue, we are pleased to announce the estimated impact of the proceeds of our inaugural Green Bond," said Tom McGuire, Executive Vice President and Group Treasurer at Scotiabank. "This offering was a milestone for Scotiabank, and a great example of our commitment to sustainable business, both within the financial industry and across the rest of society." 

Over the last 12 months, Scotiabank has continued to build on its leadership in ESG with the announcement of several notable initiatives. These include:

• The launch of an enterprise-wide climate change strategy, the Scotiabank Climate Commitments, including a pledge to mobilize $100 billion by 2025 to reduce the impacts of climate change. More than $16 billion has been mobilized toward this commitment as at October 31, 2019.
• The creation of a new Sustainable Finance Group within its Global Banking and Markets division.
• The development of a climate change risk due diligence and rating methodology and related training program for all banking and credit teams.
• Recognition for leadership in climate change by the CDP with a score of 'B' in 2019.

For more information about Scotiabank's sustainability strategy, visit: www.scotiabank.com/sustainabilty.

About Scotiabank
Scotiabank is a leading bank in the Americas. Guided by our purpose: "for every future," we help our customers, their families and their communities achieve success through a broad range of advice, products and services, including personal and commercial banking, wealth management and private banking, corporate and investment banking, and capital markets. With a team of approximately 97,000 employees and assets of over $1.2 trillion (as at April 30, 2020), Scotiabank trades on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX: BNS) and New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: BNS). For more information, please visit our website and follow us on Twitter @ScotiabankViews.

SOURCE Scotiabank