Climate Museum Switches to a Fossil-fuel-free Bank, launches banking toolkit
New York, NY (May 27, 2021) — The Climate Museum has moved to Beneficial State Bank, a California-based, fossil-fuel-free bank that invests in local communities and renewable energy, joining a growing movement of banking consumers and institutions demonstrating disapproval of their banks’ fossil fuel financing by switching their banks.
The Museum’s move to a mission-aligned bank is an example of direct advocacy that helps limit the flow of capital to the fossil fuel industry and reduce its social license to operate, paving the way for a clean energy transition to stabilize the climate.
The genesis of the Climate Museum’s banking shift was the research for its exhibition Taking Action in early 2019, which revealed the large and negative role of major banks in the climate crisis. Serving its mission as an activist Museum, it curated five civic actions for visitors; one was “call your bank” to urge divestment from the fossil fuel industry.
To expand that call to action, the Climate Museum has now launched a banking toolkit for formally registering customer concerns about fossil fuel financing, spreading the word on social media, and switching to a fossil-fuel-free bank. The toolkit includes ways for consumers to check their bank's policies on fossil fuel financing. For further information, visit: https://climatemuseum.org/bank.
“Beneficial is an excellent example of a climate-forward bank that also invests in its local communities, providing affirmative community benefits,” said Miranda Massie, Climate Museum Director. “Imagine the impact if our major U.S. banks were to follow suit—shaking off the cobwebs of business as usual and engaging in ethical and sound decision-making,” she continued. “Banks could harness their immense power, advancing the infrastructural and job components of a just transition to a stabilized climate, and putting us on a pathway to decarbonizing the economy.”
Lynn Marie Auzenne, Beneficial State Bank’s CMO said, “Finance underpins nearly every facet of our society. The choices we make around where we spend and keep our money can have a magnified impact. This is a tall order, and not everyone wants to get such insights from a bank. The Climate Museum not only fills this void, but they also go a step further--providing experiential services that personalize the impact each of us can make and presenting us with simple and accessible options for taking meaningful action."
About the Climate Museum
The Climate Museum’s mission is to inspire action on the climate crisis with programming across the arts and sciences that deepens understanding, builds connections, and advances just solutions. In its public programming to date, it has created an activist cultural approach to community engagement with climate, recognizing that most Americans are worried about the climate crisis but are unsure how to take meaningful action. The Museum’s free, accessible exhibitions, art installations, events, youth programs, and more have touched tens of thousands of New Yorkers and visitors and received extensive recognition, broadening the climate movement with an emphasis on community, justice, equity, and inclusion. Programs are presented at the museum’s exhibition hub on Governors Island, in parks, galleries, in venues citywide and, in 2020-2021, through virtual events. The Museum is currently scaling out to a permanent, year-round presence in New York City. Additional information is available at climatemuseum.org.
About Beneficial State Bank
Beneficial State Bank (Beneficial State) is a state-chartered, federally insured bank with branches in California, Oregon and Washington. Beneficial State serves the triple bottom line of people, planet, and prosperity for all. The bank’s unique ownership structure supports these strategic priorities; its economic rights are majority-owned by the nonprofit Beneficial State Foundation, which is in turn permanently governed in the public interest.
Beneficial State Bank is a founding signatory of the UN’s Principles for Responsible Banking, a member of the Global Alliance for Banking on Values, and Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI), and one of the world’s top-rated Certified B Corporations, awarded B Corp "Best for the World" status every year since 2012.
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