
Active
This profile is actively maintained
Active
This profile is actively maintainedWebsite | http://www.goldmansachs.com/ |
Headquarters |
200 West Street
10282 New York
United States
|
CEO/chair |
David M. Solomon Chairman and CEO |
Supervisor | |
Ownership |
listed on NYSE
Goldman Sachs' shareholder structure can be accessed here. |
Goldman Sachs was founded in 1869 and is an American global financial services firm that is headquartered in New York. It provides an array of financing services, including investment banking, asset management for institutions and high net worth private clients, and investment research.
Goldman Sachs's most important sustainability commitments can be found at the website sections listed below.
Goldman Sachs is linked to a number of companies and projects that BankTrack considers controversial (so called Dodgy Deals), e.g. as a current or past financier or through an expression of interest. The profiles below provide more details on the nature of Goldman Sachs's link to these deals.
Banks and Climate
The 2022 Banking on Climate Chaos report showed that Goldman Sachs provided US$ 118.98 Billion in financing to the fossil fuel industry between 2016 and 2021. Find further details on Goldman Sachs fossil fuel portfolio and how it compares to other large banks globally on Fossil Banks No Thanks and in the Banking on Climate Chaos report.
Reclaim Finance tracks the coal, oil and gas policies of financial institutions, including banks, in the Coal Policy Tracker and Oil and Gas Policy Tool. Find further details on their assessment of Goldman Sachs fossil fuel policy below.
Banks and Human Rights
BankTrack assessed Goldman Sachs in its 2022 Global Human Rights Benchmark, where it achieved 2.5 points out of 14 and was ranked as a laggard. In addition, Goldman Sachs scored 0 out of 3 on how it responds to alleged human rights violations linked to its finance, which were raised by civil society organisations. More information is detailed in the "Accountability" section of this profile.
Global Human Rights Benchmark 2022
Banks and Nature
Goldman Sach’s policies for forest-risk sectors (beef, soy, palm oil, pulp and paper, rubber and timber) have been assessed by the Forests & Finance coalition, achieving an overall score of 5.1 out of 10 and ranking it as a front runner. Goldman Sach achieved a score of 1.2 out of 10 specifically for its policies related to the beef sector and 6.1 out of 10 for its policies related to the palm oil sector. In addition, BankTrack and the Environmental Paper Network have assessed Goldman Sachs’s policies related to the pulp and paper sector.
Between 2016 and 2022, Goldman provided USD 753 million in credit to companies operating in these forest-risk sectors and held investments amounting to USD 80 million as of 2022. For more information, see the links below.
Forest & Finance Policy Assessment 2022: Overall scores
A bank can obtain a total of 10 points for the quality of its policies. The total score is based on their scores per sector, weighted against their financing and investment for each sector. For further details on this see here. Based on their overall score, banks are then classified as Laggards, Followers, Front runners or Leaders, as follows:
Forest & Finance Policy Assessment 2022: Beef
A bank can obtain a total of 10 points for the quality of its beef policy. The total score is based on their scores per sector, weighted against their financing and investment for each sector. For further details on this see here. Based on their overall score, banks are then classified as Laggards, Followers, Front runners or Leaders, as follows:
Forest & Finance Policy Assessment 2022: Palm Oil
A bank can obtain a total of 10 points for the quality of its palm oil policy. The total score is based on their scores per sector, weighted against their financing and investment for each sector. For further details on this see here. Based on their overall score, banks are then classified as Laggards, Followers, Front runners or Leaders, as follows:
Tracking the Net Zero Banking Alliance
Goldman Sachs is a member of the Net Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA) and has therefore committed to reduce its financed emissions to net zero by 2050; within 18 months of joining the alliance set interim targets for 2030 (or sooner) for high emission priority sectors, and within 36 months set further sector targets; set new intermediary targets every 5 years from 2030 onwards; annually publish data on emissions and progress against a transition strategy including climate-related sectoral policies; and take a robust approach to the role of offsets in transition plans. BankTrack track's implementation of these commitments in the NZBA compliance tracker.
Banks and Putin's war in Ukraine
BankTrack is keeping track of the public response of Goldman Sachs to Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine. Goldman Sachs has publicly condemned the war. Goldman Sachs is considered by Leave-Russia.org to be "suspending" its operations in Russia. We consider its exposure to Russia as limited, with over $650m of financial assets. Goldman Sachs supports the Russian fossil fuel industry through investments, loans and underwriting. For further details, see the table linked below.