Frank Jossi//June 1, 2026//
Workers install a solar array on the roof of Every Meal’s warehouse in Roseville. (Submitted photo: Every Meal)
Sustainable: Community bank leans Into sustainability
Workers install a solar array on the roof of Every Meal’s warehouse in Roseville. (Submitted photo: Every Meal)
Frank Jossi//June 1, 2026//
Every Meal recently installed a solar project that went live in May at its 70,000-square-foot Roseville warehouse with financing from Sunrise Banks.
The provider of weekend meals for more than 13,000 disadvantaged children throughout Minnesota used a Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy (C-PACE) loan of $274,000 to finance the solar project. Every Meal President Rob Williams said Sunrise Banks had one of the few C-PACE programs that fit the organization’s needs and values.
“I don’t even know how many people do C-PACE loans,” Williams said. “There’s only a handful of banks. We worked with [Sunrise] and it was very smooth. I would say there was a values alignment. They are also a nonprofit that’s focused on the community.”
Commercial sustainability is prominently featured in Sunrise Banks’ mission, with a website touting “eco-friendly banking” and a long list of clients focused on socially responsible enterprises served through four branches in the Twin Cities and one in Sioux Falls, S.D. The bank, with $2.1 billion in assets, has made eliminating carbon part of its DNA.
Under the leadership of the Reiling family, the bank in 2001 was the first in Minnesota to be certified as a Community Development Financial Institution, a designation given to organizations focused on helping low-income communities.
A few years later, in 2009, Sunrise earned another first by becoming Minnesota’s first “Certified B Corporation,” which requires high performance in environmental sustainability, governance, worker treatment, and positive impact on communities. Sunrise joined the Global Alliance for Banking on Values in 2011, which involves measuring emissions as part of a commitment to social and economic development. Sunrise’s CEO and chairman, David Reiling, also chairs the global alliance.
Reiling has led the bank to focus on reducing carbon, including “a commitment to reach net zero emissions by 2050 in alignment with the Paris Climate Agreement,” said Laura Wildenborg, vice president of strategic lending. As part of its net zero 2050 goal, Sunrise continues, as it has for the past six years, to track its own carbon emissions and those of clients. A recent impact report shows the bank’s financed emissions dropped 6.7% and its purchased energy emissions plummeted 19% from 2024 to 2025.
Some of the client emission decreases can be attributed to green financing programs targeting green buildings, energy efficiency improvements, infrastructure, electric vehicle purchases, and renewable energy. Those fall programs fall under Sunrise’s “Net Zero Banking” effort, which allows customers to place their money in net-zero deposits and clients to apply for net zero financing.
“With net zero deposits, if you put your money into a checking, savings or certificates of deposit, you get to know you get to know your money is going towards projects that reduce or avoid carbon emissions,” she said.
The bank used more than $7.4 million in net zero deposits in 2025 to fund low-carbon projects. The deposits often go to fund projects in Sunrise’s Net Zero Financing program, which offers loans for energy-efficient commercial and nonprofit projects. That program has lent more than $20 million. “What’s really important is that [the project] reduces or avoids carbon emissions, so that’s how it differs from normal commercial loans,” she said.
Clients “have to go through a lot of hoops” to obtain information on projects. Still, many eco-friendly businesses and nonprofits do so willingly, in part because of the potential for a lower interest rate. In the past two years, the net zero deposit program helped finance the following projects: Solstice Apartments in Minneapolis, a passive home-designed building with 23 low-carbon footprint units; 2441 Arts in St. Paul, home to Film North; Firefly in Minneapolis, another low-carbon building.
Colin Oglesbay, the principal at D/O Architects, purchased 2441 Arts with Film North around three years ago. Having collaborated with Sunrise on smaller projects, he liked the option of having Sunrise create a package featuring a $6 million New Markets Tax Credit, a $400,000 Net Zero Financing loan, and a much smaller C-PACE loan for a solar project. It made sense to use a Sunrise because it had long experience working with nonprofits and this development included one in Film North, Oglesbay said.
The 100-year-old Clarence Johnston-designed building has many sustainability features and a solar installation that will help 2241 Arts cover 70% of its energy needs. “I think they’re more creative with their financing” than other banks, he said. “Sunrise was a no-brainer in a lot of ways, because they’re geared towards more community-oriented development.”
Wildenborg noted that Sunrise offers traditional business financing, as well as small-business and personal banking services. The Net Zero Banking product is another important offering, as it aligns with Sunrise’s carbon savings goals.
For now, Net Zero Banking is for commercial clients, but that could change. The bank hired a New York-based graduate school to research which products would serve residential clients seeking clean energy solutions. One idea from the study is that Sunrise could partner with contractors to provide financing to help customers who want clean energy solutions and need them quickly, after their furnace or air conditioner has failed and needs to be replaced.
Wildenborg doesn’t know whether or when that program will come to market, but she’s ready if it does. “It’s something I want to do,” she said.
Looking back on her career, Wildenborg confessed that numbers did not come naturally. After graduating in environmental studies, she spent a decade as a Red Wing outdoor educator and sea kayak guide before earning a Master of Business Administration from the University of St. Thomas. She found a home at Sunrise during an internship at the bank.
“Sustainability has been foundational to my work, and I see climate change as our major issue that we need to focus on, because focusing on that will help with a lot of the other environmental issues that we are dealing with,” Wildenborg said.
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