Wells Fargo announces Chief Sustainability Officer replacement

Eight months after the departure of Chief Sustainability Officer Robyn Luhning, US bank Wells Fargo has appointed Jeffrey Schub as Head of Sustainability.

Schub made the announcement on Linkedin this week, adding that he will be leading the enterprise sustainability team and be responsible for the bank’s sustainability strategy.

“I’ll also be directing initiatives across the company to support our employees, customers, and communities as they pursue their sustainability goals. Our work is evolving quickly, with new challenges, solutions, and innovations emerging every day,” Schub wrote.

He had been Interim Co-Head of Enterprise Sustainability since Luhning’s departure in May 2024 and joined the bank's sustainable finance team in 2022.

Building on Robyn Luhning’s legacy

Luhning was Wells Fargo’s first Chief Sustainability Officer, and stayed in the role for just over two years before exiting the bank to pursue other opportunities last May. In her time as CSO, Wells Fargo committed to unlocking US$500 billion in sustainable finance by 2030 and achieve net zero emissions by 2050.

As of 2023, the bank had deployed US$178 billion from its sustainable finance goal.

The bank has also set interim targets for five carbon-intensive sectors: oil and gas (26% reduction in absolute emissions from a 2019 baseline of 97.7 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent) and power (60% intensity reduction from 2019 baseline of 253 kg CO2e/MWh), as well as automotive, steel, and aviation.

Wells Fargo sustainability ambitions from 2025 onwards

Wells Fargo was one of the first US banks to leave the Net Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA) last December, amid fears of anti-ESG backlash under a new Trump administration. It was followed by at least five other Wall Street banks and four major Canadian banks.

The bank is also ranked as the fifth top fossil fuel financier by the Banking on Climate Chaos report and provided about US$30.3 billion to the industry in 2023, with reportedly no immediate plan to reduce this financing – leading to disappointment among climate activists and the bank’s own sustainability team.

With President Trump expected to incentivise more fossil fuel production in the US in the coming years, it remains to be seen whether Wells Fargo will maintain its focus on delivering interim 2030 targets.