Texan by Nature is excited to recognize Ally as a 2025 TxN 20 honoree for their leadership in conservation and sustainability. Ally‘s commitment to conservation, their projects, programs, best practices, and lessons learned are an example and inspiration for us all.

Honoree Name: Ally Financial 

Honoree Industry and Size: Financial, Enterprise

Company Overview:
Ally Financial Inc. (Ally) is a financial services company with the nation’s largest all-digital bank and an industry-leading auto financing business, driven by a mission to “Do It Right” and be a relentless ally for customers and communities. The company serves customers with deposits and securities brokerage and investment advisory services as well as auto financing and insurance offerings. The company also includes a seasoned corporate finance business that offers capital for equity sponsors and middle-market companies. For more information, please visit www.ally.com. 

What is Ally’s conservation and sustainability mission and why is it important to its culture?
As a digital bank with no brick-and-mortar branches, Ally inherently has a smaller operational carbon footprint than many traditional banks. This is encouraging, but we recognize we can do more to manage environmental risks for our customers, employees, and communities. We continue to be committed to finding new and more sustainable ways to operate and reduce our impact on the environment.

Ally’s commitment to “Do It Right” extends to the conservation of environmental resources to promote a sustainable future for our customers, employees, shareholders, and the communities in which we live and operate. We recognize the importance of understanding, preparing for, and taking timely preventive action against potentially material environmental impacts.

Our strategy is informed by the recommendations of the Task Force for Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), a framework designed to enhance industry consistency and comparability in addressing the complex topic of climate-related risks and opportunities. With a foundation built on TCFD’s core recommendations, Ally continues to adapt our environmental disclosures in line with evolving stakeholder expectations, regulatory requirements, and reporting frameworks. Our intentional focus on industry standards helps us communicate our efforts in a language that resonates with our stakeholders, with a goal of greater transparency and clarity on a topic that can be challenging to understand. Consistent with our brand promise, we are committed to ongoing communication regarding our environmental efforts and sharing our developments in this dynamic area.

What steps is Ally taking to address global natural resource challenges, and how are these efforts integrated into its overall business strategy?
Ally’s environmental sustainability strategy is focused on stakeholder education and engagement and the importance of building a solid data foundation to identify and quantify our risks, opportunities, impacts, and/or dependencies. Ally regularly considers environmental-related risks and opportunities and their potential impact on the business and recognizes the increasing importance of evaluating the potential financial effects of nature-related impacts and dependencies​ in tandem. As Ally’s environmental risk management processes mature, we will continue to refine our ability to assess interconnections between environmental considerations.

As we reimagine our facilities, we continue our focus on creating healthy workspaces, including the incorporation of Fitwel design standards in our renovation projects to support the health and well-being of our employees alongside sustainable project initiatives tied to the reduction of energy, waste and water at our owned sites. Ally implemented several initiatives to drive our operational sustainability forward. These actions were informed by a number of environmental processes and technologies that were piloted across select facilities.

Sustainable operations

• Enhanced our strategic approach to identify new office locations and renovation projects by incorporating sustainability improvements whenever possible, including requesting information on specific sustainable features in the initial questionnaire. We request data on building certifications, construction, HVAC systems and efficiency, location and access to public transportation, local amenities, recycling and composting streams, water fixtures, landscaping and building lighting. The answers to these questions are used to evaluate and select new office space. 
• Analyzed the energy intensity of our portfolio to prioritize energy audits, targeting our most inefficient spaces to deliver more impactful energy and emission reductions. 
• Conducted periodic testing of environmental processes and technologies across Ally-owned facilities to identify waste and water reduction initiatives and determine which will have the greatest impact.

Completed renovation in Lewisville, Texas

• Implemented a centralized trash and composting program
• Upgraded the existing gas-powered HVAC system to a 25% more efficient electric system, reducing overall emissions
• Promoted biodiversity through landscape redesign that incorporates native species that attract pollinators and reduce water usage
• Installed solar panels that will generate renewable energy to offset almost 90% of the building’s electrical needs and provide weather protection to over 300 parking spaces

Who in Ally is leading your conservation and sustainability efforts? What are some examples of employee engagement in conservation and sustainability at Ally?
Since its launch in 2021, Ally’s Sustainability Office, led by Kathleen Price, Sustainability Executive, has been responsible for implementing our TCFD-informed enterprise sustainability strategy. 

Additionally, Ally’s Green Team, our network of Ally employees dedicated to environmental service, offers both training and volunteerism to drive sustainability awareness.  

In 2024, Ally’s Green Team:

• Grew strategic relationships within our communities, hosting innovative programming and volunteer events across all of our conservation focus areas: land use, water use, community impact, air quality, biodiversity and recycling. 
• Cultivated community-driven experiences focused on biodiversity at the Ally-sponsored community apiary in Charlotte, North Carolina. 
• Sponsored the Catawba Land Conservancy’s annual Pop Up Picnic, which raised over $93,000 to support an important grassland restoration project.
• Spent 3,400+ hours volunteering in support of 30 environmental organizations.

Ally partners deeply with environmental organizations in the communities where we office, including:  

• Detroit’s Belle Isle Conservancy: Ally sponsors the Axolotl tank at the historic Belle Isle Aquarium in Detroit and in July, we participated in their Best Fin Friend fundraiser program. Ally’s ongoing support enabled Belle Isle to remain open for an extra day of each week throughout the month, allowing an estimated 4,750 additional visitors to engage with exhibits and learn about the importance of preserving aquatic ecosystems. Additionally, Ally’s employees contributed 400 volunteer hours helping to collect 6,391 pounds of litter during the 2024 cleanup season and making a tangible difference in maintaining Belle Isle’s natural beauty and accessibility for the community.
• Envision Charlotte: Ally supports Envision Charlotte’s goal to build circular economies as a regular volunteer and supporter at their Innovation Barn. Our employees volunteer biweekly to create sound panels from donated t-shirts, maintain the pollinator garden and three beehives, and sort various materials for repurposing or recycling.

What conservation and sustainability programs and projects does Ally lead and participate in?
Ally has partnered with the Arbor Day Foundation since 2021 to sponsor tree-planting events in the communities where we work. We prioritize projects within urban neighborhoods with low tree canopy or green spaces. Through this partnership, we’ve distributed and planted 1,000 trees. The projected cumulative impact of these efforts, measured by the Foundation over a 40-year outlook window using the USDA Forest Service’s i-Tree Planting tool, is estimated to:

• Sequester 470 metric tons of carbon dioxide 
• Avoid 1,287,761 gallons of stormwater runoff
• Remove 1.9 tons of air pollutants

Ally collaborated with Envision Charlotte and Bee Downtown to create a community apiary, comprising three beehives located at Envision Charlotte’s Innovation Barn, a unique facility dedicated to creating a circular economy. The addition of beehives to the Barn supports circularity concepts and the importance of healthy ecosystems through educational events and experiences that use lessons from nature, while also providing important pollinators to support native plant species both at the Barn and in the surrounding neighborhoods. This collaboration builds on Ally’s ongoing Green Team activities with Envision Charlotte, with over 1,000 volunteer hours served with just this one organization.

Ally is proud to support Catawba Land Conservancy (CLC) in restoring native grasslands in North Carolina’s Piedmont. In 2024, Ally served as a presenting sponsor of CLC’s Pop Up Picnic, the Conservancy’s flagship fundraiser, which raised over $93,000 for a critical habitat restoration project. Once open savannas and prairies, much of the Piedmont’s grasslands were lost to development, reducing vital habitat and ecosystem services like water filtration, carbon storage, and pollution control. Ally’s partnership helps CLC save land, protect wildlife, and connect communities to nature for generations to come.

Operationally, Ally has launched several sustainability initiatives, including: 

• Renewable energy: Installed solar panels generating enough renewable energy to offset the electrical needs of our building in Lewisville, Texas.
• Electric vehicles: Installed EV charging stations providing more than 50% of our employees with access to EV chargers.
• LEED certification: Achieved LEED certification in 55% of the buildings we own.

“At Ally, our commitment to conservation and sustainability is woven into the very fabric of our operations. As a digital bank, we inherently have a smaller carbon footprint, but we are dedicated to doing more. Our initiatives, from enhancing office sustainability to promoting biodiversity, reflect our promise to ‘Do It Right’ for our customers, employees, and communities. Together, we are building a sustainable future, one step at a time.”

– Kathleen Price, Environmental Sustainability Executive, Ally Financial

 What strategies does Ally use to educate and raise awareness among employees, customers, and stakeholders about the importance of conservation and sustainability?
Ally’s commitment to “Do It Right” extends to the conservation of environmental resources to promote a sustainable future for customers, employees, shareholders and the communities in which the company operates. Ally activated the “Green Teams” initiative, a network of Ally volunteers dedicated to environmental service, which started as an opportunity to build community and business education to drive sustainability awareness among Ally employees.

Ally collaborated with Envision Charlotte and Bee Downtown to launch a community apiary, comprising three beehives. The program facilitates lessons from nature through educational events and experiences that emphasize the importance of biodiversity in an era of climate change. The community apiary is located at Envision Charlotte’s Innovation Barn — the first innovation center in the U.S. focused on the circular economy — as a complementary addition to its hands-on learning and unique programming to improve sustainability, resilience, economic competitiveness and quality of life. To create a welcoming home for the bees, the apiary features a mural by The Charlotte Street Art Collaborative, a woman-led non-profit organization with a mission to encourage and assist current and next-generation artists toward making a sustainable living in the arts. The Ally-branded beehives were unveiled at the Innovation Barn during their grand opening Earth Day event, where the community learned about bees, enjoyed local honey tastings, and voted on names submitted by Ally employees for the queen bee of each hive. 

Additionally, Ally supports environmental education in the community as a sponsor of the Axolotl tank at the historic Belle Isle Aquarium in Detroit.

During Earth Month, 165 employees participated in planned events that provided the opportunity to learn, grow and give back to the community. We hosted an interactive session with Duke Energy utility to uncover simple, cost-saving strategies for energy conservation. Duke Energy shared how they are reducing carbon emissions and rewarding customers who make smart energy choices with rebates and bill credit programs. Additionally, Ally’s Charlotte Center hosts a centralized recycling program and we educate teammates on simple ways to avoid waste and conserve resources. Since the system has been in place, we’ve seen a 200+% increase in recycling.

Can you share specific examples of successful partnerships or innovative collaborations Ally has formed with other organizations to enhance sustainability and conservation outcomes?
Ally collaborated with Envision Charlotte and Bee Downtown to launch a community apiary, comprising three beehives. The program facilitates lessons from nature through educational events and experiences that emphasize the importance of biodiversity in an era of climate change. The community apiary is located at Envision Charlotte’s Innovation Barn — the first innovation center in the U.S. focused on the circular economy — as a complementary addition to its hands-on learning and unique programming to improve sustainability, resilience, economic competitiveness and quality of life. To create a welcoming home for the bees, the apiary features a mural by The Charlotte Street Art Collaborative, a woman-led non-profit organization with a mission to encourage and assist current and next-generation artists toward making a sustainable living in the arts. 

Ally supports conservation and sustainability through continued sponsorship of the Axolotl tank at the historic Belle Isle Aquarium in Detroit. In 2023, our employees contributed to the Belle Isle Conservancy’s record-breaking beach clean-up season by providing ~400 hours of volunteer service, helping collect 8,936 pounds of litter. 

Ally also sponsored the Catawba Land Conservancy’s Pop Up Picnic fundraiser to support critical grassland habitat restoration in the Piedmont region of North Carolina. 

How does Ally quantify investment and return on conservation and sustainability?
Ally focused on delivering more sustainable operations and developing reduction strategies that align with the recommendations from the TCFD and improve environmental performance metrics. To quantify the financial impacts of sustainable operations, Ally conducted a focused energy study at its Lewisville, TX office, prior to commencing renovations. This study resulted in the approval of direct capital investment to replace an existing gas-powered HVAC system with a more efficient electric system and reduce overall emissions. In the same year, we also conducted a solar feasibility study at an owned site, which resulted in an investment in a solar panel canopy, estimated to offset almost 90% of the building’s power in the future. Additionally, after a review of Ally’s HVAC operations at Ally’s largest facility in Charlotte, efficiency and run-time adjustments were made to the HVAC systems to reduce energy usage and associated emissions.

What is the one lesson that Ally has learned from its conservation and sustainability efforts that others can take back and think about applying within their own space?
One key lesson we learned is that advancing this work means meeting people where they are. We started with the basics, educating our teammates about sustainability, and then we connected it to Ally’s core value of building resilient communities. As we shared that message and connected those dots, people had these “light bulb” moments where they saw how it all fit together and were eager to participate.

Why is Texas an important home or base of operations for Ally?
As Ally is home to the nation’s largest all-digital bank with no physical branch locations, we consider Lewisville a hometown, with one of our biggest employee populations. Ally’s Lewisville office is also home to many of our industry-leading auto financing and customer care teammates. 

Find out more about Ally’s conservation and sustainability efforts here.