Green Branch

“Green Branch” is now a registered trademark of PNC Bank. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office ("USPTO") recently granted the mark to PNC, which is actively participating in USGBC’s LEED Portfolio Pilot Program. PNC currently manages forty LEED-certified branch banks in six states, with more on the way. Fifteen of these branches have been certified under the Portfolio Program. We've written previously here at gbNYC about both the Portfolio Program and PNC's green efforts, which also include plans to seek LEED ratings for Three PNC Plaza, a mixed-use building in Pittsburgh that should open in 2009, and a new regional headquarters in downtown D.C. scheduled for 2010. According to PNC, the USPTO approved its application for the “Green Branch” trademark in part because the financial services industry is not generally associated with sustainable or energy-efficiency characteristics. PNC opened its first LEED-certified branch back in 2002, and Gary Saulson, director of corporate real estate at the bank, noted that the mark is "affirmation of PNC's leadership in green business practices during the past decade."