Climate First Bank is committed to living our mission, and our newly renovated St. Petersburg branch headquarters is a stunning addition to a comprehensive net-zero business strategy that includes high-performance green buildings for our bank branches and lending more than $400 million to values-driven projects such as clean energy projects, affordable housing and small businesses in 2024 alone. The built environment is a particularly effective place to achieve emissions outcomes as it accounts for 42% of global annual CO2 emissions, with 27% from building operations and 15% from materials and construction, according to Architecure 2030.

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Years in the making, our St. Pete building joins our Winter Park Location in achieving Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Platinum certification, the top designation by the U.S. Green Building Council, awarded to buildings designed to operate with consideration of energy, water, indoor environmental quality, materials selection and location.  

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“LEED Certification is about making every bit of the building process focused on sustainability and the impact behind it,” says Aarin Sharpe, Climate First Bank St. Petersburg Branch Manager. “It includes everything from what materials are on the floor to what pieces we’ve recycled to how waste materials are eliminated. Every decision is focused on sustainability.”  

With 35 years of banking experience in the Tampa Bay area, Sharpe recently joined the Climate First Bank team. “The purpose behind what we do is a huge part of why I joined the Bank,” she says. “While many individuals at banks are trying to do the right thing and take care of clients in the right way, Climate First Bank is unique in that it’s totally set up for purpose. Here, purpose is our everything. So when we talk about the LEED certification of the building, that’s part of driving our mission. It's in our DNA.”  

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What Does It Mean to LEED?

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When evaluating a building’s eligibility for LEED Certification, the USGBC considers nine categories: Location and Transportation, Sustainable Sites, Water Efficiency, Energy and Atmosphere, Materials and Resources, Indoor Environmental Quality, Integrative Process, Innovation and Regional Priority. Before renovation began, we considered how we could excel in each of these areas.  

Here are just a few of the ways our building meets and exceeds LEED requirements:  

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Materials and Resources: Reuse is a critical element of the USGBC scorecard, and many renovation materials were reused from other areas of the building. For instance, a former heavy-walled safe was repurposed into a conference room, eliminating the need for new material. Additionally, our construction partner, REAL building Consultants, conducted a thorough analysis of our St. Pete Branch’s emissions, estimating a 25% reduction in embodied CO2e as compared to a baseline building.  

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Energy and Atmosphere: Our St. Petersburg branch is powered by a full rooftop solar array and solar entryway and outfitted with energy-efficient AC and motion-sensor lighting. Employees and customers are encouraged to use the electric vehicle charging stations in our parking lot. By deploying Energy Star appliances, lighting controls and energy-efficient base building systems, we were able to make the St. Pete branch ~78% more efficient than a code-compliant comparable building.

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Indoor Environmental Quality: To create a more pleasant atmosphere to promote employee and customer well-being, over 95% of occupied spaces in the St. Pete Branch have access to quality daylight levels, which also lowers energy usage by reducing the need for artificial lighting. In retrofitting our branch, the team verified that 100% of the products in the paints, flooring, ceilings, and composite woods complied with the volatile organic compound limits set by LEED to reduce occupants’ exposure to airborne chemical contaminants.

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A Model of Sustainability for Customers and Community

"It supports the overall sense of what we do every day and why,” Sharpe says. “Every single day, we get to show our clients and community what we are doing. It's not just the clients that walk in the door, but it's the community when we are talking to them.”    

From how we inhabit our buildings, to how they’re designed, to where we bank, our everyday choices determine our impact on the planet. Climate First Bank is committed to ensuring our everyday operations are part of fulfilling our purpose of fueling the real economy in ways that benefit our planet. By operating our business from a building that achieves the highest level of LEED certification, we hope to inspire and set an example for every person who walks through our doors.    

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Join us! You’re probably not developing a piece of commercial real estate, but you can still make a substantial improvement to your environmental impact by making the single choice to work with an impact-based bank. When you bank with Climate First Bank, you are investing your deposits in powering mission-aligned projects that contribute to a regenerative future. Create an account today! Visit climatefirstbank.com to get started.

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