As the climate continues to churn out headline-generating crises, it feels almost trite to posit that a bank account can be part of the solution. But Sunrise Banks’ Laura Wildenborg disagrees, and will take every opportunity afforded to her to advocate environmental sustainability and the power of reducing one’s carbon footprint.
The 36-year-old Wildenborg, a former naturalist, outdoor educator and wilderness guide is now in only her fourth year as a banker working at the St. Paul, Minn.-based Sunrise as vice president of strategic lending. She is being recognized as a 2024 BankBeat magazine “Outstanding Woman in Banking,” and she’s all in on the bank’s commitment to achieve Net Zero emissions by 2050. The bank’s commitment (for lowering both its operational and financed emissions) emerged after the 2016 Paris climate agreement, which seeks to limit global temperature rise to 2.5 degrees Celsius by 2050 in order to avoid the most intense impacts of climate change.
Wildenborg was pursuing an MBA in 2020 at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul when she first encountered Sunrise through a presentation it was giving to the university’s graduating class. It was the bank’s commitment to sustainability, the fact that it’s a CDFI, a social enterprise and a B Corporation, which made it easy for Wildenborg to think about trading her trekking poles for a keyboard and her canoe for a desk.
Eric Schurr, chief strategy officer at Sunrise, met Wildenborg after she’d applied for a summer internship at the bank. “It was really her curiosity that captivated me,” Schurr said. Curiosity combined with a sack-full of experiences not one of which included banking. “Diversity of experience is highly valued at our bank.”
Prior to pursuing an advanced degree, Wildenborg had spent more than a decade inspiring children to get outdoors and grow excited about protecting it. She also served six years on the Sustainability Commission for the city of Red Wing, Minn., her hometown. She’s been loving the outdoors, and spending time sharpening her appreciation for the earth, since the sixth grade.
Wildenborg said she figured the changes she wanted to see happen with the environment could come about more quickly by working in the private sector. She didn’t have “banking on the brain” when embarking on the MBA, which she believed would provide her with the language and tools to pivot into private enterprise and keep fighting for the environment. When she stood at the crossroads of what she called “environment and business,” she recognized the opportunities inherent in working for a B Corporation (a mission driven company that balances profit with purpose).
“They were so open to what I was interested in,” Wildenborg said of Sunrise leadership. “What helped was they’d made that Net Zero commitment already, which meant I had a big jumping off point and there was already leadership buy-in. It’s a whole different conversation when I don’t have to convince you.”
For the bank’s part, the heft of her knowledge and experience in the realm of sustainability filled a needed gap, Schurr said. They helped her take ownership of her sustainability goals and find the right language that would resonate. Soon Wildenborg was talking about sustainability as “a journey” rather than “a fight.”
Wildenborg’s early days at the bank were spent as part of the fintech innovation team. But it wasn’t long before she raised her hand and volunteered to address climate change at the bank. Her first step: Calculating the carbon emissions associated with the loan portfolio.
She turned for guidance to the Partnership for Carbon Accounting Financials, which created a methodology for banks based on the greenhouse gas protocol, something Wildenborg called the most widely accepted carbon accounting methodology. She broke the loan portfolio down by asset class, and using the methodology created a baseline data quality score. Once she determined the emission level in the mortgage portfolio, as an example, the bank developed products to lower it, such as a Green HELOC that focuses on helping homeowners reduce their energy usage by adding insulation or solar panels.
Wildenborg helped write the bank’s initial report on financed emissions in 2020 and the bank has since hired an ESG analyst to continue this work. “It’s so critical to getting to Net Zero; you have to have the data behind it,” Wildenborg said, who admitted to occasionally “geeking out” with spreadsheets.
The other side of the coin when focusing on assessing and reducing financed emissions, Wildenborg said, was coming at the problem from the deposit side. “You have to grow one and the other together,” she said.
With support from the team, Wildenborg spearheaded the launch of Sunrise Banks’ Net Zero Deposits, which allows people to direct the funds held in checking, savings or CD accounts toward net zero loans. The launch occurred in July of this year, and by Aug. 31, the bank said it had brought in $3.51 million for net zero lending, much of it through new accounts.
It’s not just consumers who are wielding the power of their deposits for change. “Different companies are starting to realize their bank account can have a big impact,” Wildenborg said, citing Patagonia and Seventh Generation as large corporations that changed banking relationships based on a bank’s environmental impact.
Locally, Wildenborg collaborated with a group of builders who wanted to work with more sustainable materials on more sustainable buildings. What they needed from a banker, they said, was just the slightest nudge in the form of a lower rate. Such partnerships are keeping Wildenborg excited about the possibilities ahead at Sunrise.
“I really believe addressing climate change at a bank is innovative in the United States,” Wildenborg said. “It makes me want to talk about it and get anyone who wants to do it to do it.” And that includes other banks.
“She really is one of the leading women bankers in the Twin Cities when it comes to her knowledge on climate and sustainability,” Schurr said. She puts it all into action with her work and her outside interests, which include involvement in The Cairn Project, which supports initiatives to get women into the outdoors.
Her shift from outdoor education to banking has been a healthy one, Wildenborg admits. “It does feel like everything I’ve ever done before has led me here.” And that’s a place where Wildenborg can focus on solutions to life’s greatest challenge, and stay on course to make them meaningful.
