Founder of First Green Bank turns focus to climate change
Latest venture is a return to banking based on values
When Orlando-based First Green Bank merged with Seacoast Bank in 2018, customer Ben Johansen was most upset about the loss of his branch’s building in Winter Park, which sported solar panels and recycled building materials.
“Why get rid of a building that had almost no carbon footprint?” said the owner of Embellish FXin Orlando.
Johansen’s disappointment reflects a common theme among former customers and employees of the environmentally focused First Green, including the bank’s founder, Ken LaRoe.
“When [the merger] was done, I thought, ‘What have I done? I’ve sold this thing that meant so much to so many people,’” he said.
So LaRoe, 63, is returning to values-based banking with his latest venture, Climate First Bank (In Organization), a Florida-based community bank looking to open its first branch in St. Petersburg inMay.
“Not to sound egotistical, but there’s nobody better situated to do it,” he said.
First Green was LaRoe’s second bank, after he founded Florida Choice Bank in 1998 and sold it to Alabama National in 2006.
“I wanted to do something with my life … something that would give back rather than just make people a bunch of money,” LaRoe said. “I’m a rabid environmentalist, but I’m a rabid capitalist also.”
Inspired by the autobiography of Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard, LaRoe created First Green with a mission to help people make more environmentally conscious decisions. The bank became known for its eco-friendly branches as well as loans to help customers add solar panels to their homes and offices.
Lynne Lawrie, First Green’s vice president of human resources, recalled running the Mission Specialist program at the bank, which gave bonuses to employees who underwent voluntary education on the values of the bank.
A lifelong resident of Eustis, LaRoe went on join the Global Alliance for Banking on Values in 2012. He also created the First Green Foundation, a nonprofit organization that promotes renewable energy and conservation.
So what happened? Why did First Green, which had nearly $800 million in assets at its conclusion, merge with Seacoast?
It was investor pressure, LaRoe said. “The cycle of community banks in Florida is you start it, you build it, you sell it,” he said. Seacoast
bought First Green for $115 million.
LaRoewould not disclose howmuchhe pocketed personally on the sale, saying that he would have to review his records. “I can assure you that it wasn’t enough for 10 years of my life!” he wrote in a text message.
With Climate First, LaRoe is looking to break that cycle and keep the mission of his bank alive. To that end, he has filed for his new venture to be the first bank to qualify as a Florida benefit corporation, a legal status that helps prevent shareholders from forcing a company to make decisions against the company’s values. “I believe in shareholder primacy, but I believe in stakeholder primacy as well,” LaRoe said. “They’re at least equal.”
LaRoe is still waiting on certification fromFlorida to start seeking investors in Climate First, though he said he already has $7.25 million in written commitments.
His main goal is to “provide a place for the community to vote with their dollars and … put money toward what they care about,” he said.
LaRoe also said Climate First will be more aggressive in its attempts to address climate change. This means expanding the solar loans program to allow customers to sign up online, collaborating with other banks to fund scale solar projects, and funding building retrofits and regenerative agriculture.
Climate First will also be “doubling down” on its commitment to take care of its workers, according to LaRoe. First Green had a living wage initiative that started every employee with a salary of at least $30,000 a year. It also offered 401(k) and insurance benefits to employees from day one.
Most of the former First Green employees were transitioned towork at Seacoast. First Green reached out to customers and other businesses to help place the two dozen employees who didn’t get jobs inthemerger. “Their welfare really mattered to [LaRoe],” Lawrie said.
Lawrie, who is consulting on recruitment efforts for the new bank, said she is “looking forward to picking out the new 401Koptions.”
Johansen has been banking with Seacoast since the merger and he’s not sure he’s going to switch any time soon. But he admits a social mission was part of what drew him to First Green.
“If you value our planet, thatwas the right choice for us,” he said. “We’re putting our money behind what we believe in.”