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  An update from RBC Corporate Environmental Affairs

July 2012   

Oxford Properties recently announced plans to achieve LEED Platinum certification for the 930,000 square foot RBC WaterPark Place office development currently under construction in downtown Toronto. RBC WaterPark Place will offer numerous features, including:

• Highly efficient systems will drive building energy performance of less than 20 equivalent kilowatt hours / ft².
• Deep lake cooling system, which uses cold water from Lake Ontario to drive a heat exchange system to provide cooling.
• One of the first major office buildings in the country to separate heating and cooling from ventilation to optimize energy efficiency and comfort.

• Daylight sensors and state-of-the-art lighting controls.
• Water saving infrastructure, including a cistern and greywater re-use.
• Bicycle storage, change rooms and showers.
• An 80,000 ft² green roof.

Water stations, green energy, priority bike parking and Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary certification are just a few of the environmental highlights at this year's event being held at Hamilton Golf and Country Club from July 23 to 29. Details include:

• The event will be bullfrogpowered with 100 per cent clean, renewable electricity and green natural gas.
• Goal to divert more than 70 per cent of waste from landfill through dual-stream recycling and organics collection.
• Free filtered water available at five water stations to help reduce waste generated from single-use containers.
• Plenty of bicycle racks will be available just outside of the main gate.

Since 2004, Hamilton Golf and Country Club has been certified as an Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary. For more details visit: RBC Golf and the Environment.

Thirty organizations from five countries, selected from 219 applicants from around the world, will share $4.4 million in grants for programs that help protect watersheds and improve access to clean drinking water. RBC's 2012 Blue Water Project Leadership grant recipients are from Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Trinidad and Tobago and China and work on a wide range of projects involving water restoration, conservation, management and education. These grants are in addition to recent announcements of a $2 million grant to the RBC Queen's Water Initiative and a $500,000 grant to the World Wildlife Fund's Living Rivers Initiative. Since launching the RBC Blue Water Project in 2007, we have now committed more than $42 million in grants to some 500 organizations around the world that care about protecting water.

The majority of GTA residents would prefer to live in a walkable and transit-accessible neighbourhood in the suburbs or the city that would better suit their day-to-day life according to a recent RBC/Pembina Institute study. If cost were not an issue, 81 per cent of respondents indicated they would give up a large yard for a smaller lot or more modest home within walking distance to amenities, easy access to rapid transit and less time behind the wheel. Over half would choose this type of location-efficient neighbourhood even if it was more expensive. GTA residents aged 60-and-over showed the strongest preference for living in walkable

and compact neighbourhoods (70 per cent), despite the higher home costs in this type of area.

Since 1995, the Meduxnekeag River Association (MRA) has acquired and protected 11 ecologically significant properties, totaling more than 700 acres and 8.6 km of shoreline in the Meduxnekeag watershed in New Brunswick. This area is home to a rare concentration of Appalachian Hardwood Forest that cannot be found anywhere else in Atlantic Canada. RBC and Earth Day Canada (EDC) were delighted to present the MRA with the 2012 Hometown Heroes Group Award and a $10,000 grant at the EDC Annual Gala held in June. Created by EDC, the Hometown Heroes program recognizes and celebrates

environmental leaders who look for local solutions to improve the state of the environment. This is the third consecutive year that RBC has sponsored the Hometown Heroes Award Program.

Race to Reduce is a unique Greening Greater Toronto program that represents unprecedented collaboration between office building landlords and tenants to encourage smart energy use. The program challenges Toronto office buildings to publicly commit to reduce energy use by at least 10 per cent over four years. So far, there are 380 organizations in the Greater Toronto

Area participating in the challenge, accounting for 117 buildings with over 50 million square feet of office space. Linda Mantia, senior vice president, Head Enterprises Services and Chief Procurement Officer, recently discussed the Race To Reduce campaign and progress that has been made with Matt Galloway on CBC Metro Morning. To listen to the broadcast visit: Saving Energy, CBC Metro Morning.

For the fourth consecutive year, RBC has been named one of Canada's "Top 50 Most Socially Responsible Corporations" in the June 25, 2012 issue of Macleans magazine. The list comprises the top five companies within ten major industry groupings including banking, energy and utilities, and food and beverage. All of the companies on the list have demonstrated strong performance in areas such as environmental initiatives, impact on local communities, treatment of employees

and supply chain management and were assessed using a best-of-sector methodology. The list was compiled by Sustainalytics (formerly Jantzi Research), a global provider of environmental, social and governance research and analysis.

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