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globalbriefs
Staying Real
Community Banking Expands
Go Wild
Why Lawns are Passé
to Meet Demand
Starting next year, gasoline-powered
Customers tired of robotic answer-
lawn mowers, chain saws and
ing machines, low CD rates, over-
weed trimmers, as well as boats
draft fees and megabanks’ lack of
and other watercraft, must clean
personal relationships often turn
up their act. New Environmental
to a local bank. More than 8,500
Protection Agency emission and
community banks—98 percent
fuel evaporation standards for new,
of all banking institutions—offer
small, spark-ignition engines take
a comforting antidote to the “too
effect with 2010 models. They’ll now
big to fail” promises of surprisingly
have catalytic converters, like those
vulnerable supersize institutions.
required in cars since 1975. A riding
They quietly continue to conduct
lawn mower, for instance, currently
neighborly business in 50,000
emits as much pollution in an hour
U.S. locations. According to the
as 34 cars. The move, “will allow
Small Business Association, they also tomer needs and goals.”
Americans to cut air pollution, as
provide 35 percent of all loans under It’s easy to shop for the right bank
well as grass,” quips EPA administra-
$1 million. The FDIC notes that almost starting with the Community Bank
tor Stephen L. Johnson.
93 percent of all banks in this country Locator at the Independent Community
By 2030, the improvement will
manage assets under $1 billion, with Bankers of America website, icba.org.
cut 15 percent of the nation’s annual
nearly 40 percent having less than $100 Verify that it is FDIC insured at fdic.gov/
hydrocarbon pollution load, includ-
million. deposit/index.html and compare rates
ing 600,000 tons of hydrocarbons,
“Community banking is coming at BankRate.com. Then, call and visit
130,000 tons of nitrogen oxide, 1.5
back to basics” says Bruce Jensen, who, to assess how management educates
million tons of carbon monoxide
after 33 years of service with the larger clients and how
and 5,500 tons of fine particulates.
financial institutions, left to establish the bank’s style matches one’s own
It’s like removing one of every five
Town and Country Bank, in St. George, personal values and needs.
vehicles on the road, notes the
Utah. “In the end, it is about customer
National Association of Clean Air
convenience and understanding cus- Source: The Christian Science Monitor
Agencies. This means less summer-
time smog, with associated reduc-
tions in respiratory illness, hospital-
izations, lost workdays and deaths.
NASA researchers estimate that,
despite widespread water shortages,
chemical fertilizer pollution and
injuries from mowers, Americans
still cling to 50,000 square miles of
lawns. “[Lawns] could be considered
the single largest irrigated crop in
America, in terms of surface area,”
they report, consuming a third of all
residential water use. Plus, lawns
receive more pesticide and herbicide
application than any other U.S. crop.
They advise that just leaving clip-
pings on the grass could nearly halve
the current volume of synthetic
nitrogen fertilizer used.
Secondary Source: Environmental
Defense Fund
20 Broward County
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