Sustainability initiatives
Environmental solutions
We’re committed to helping our customers and New Zealand tackle climate change. We believe driving faster development and uptake of clean technologies through our banking services is the most effective way we can help reduce the use of fossil fuels. That’s why we’ve set green growth lending targets, are developing products that help customers reduce the upfront costs of cutting emissions and are setting an example by reducing our own environmental impact.
committed to 30%
Sustainable Supplier Code
to $1.29 billion
energy efficiency
Reduced emissions by 12%
How did we do it?
We’ve recorded 12% reduction in 2016 and 43% since we started focusing on this area in 2008.
How did we do it?
- 52% of our customers have turned off their paper statements by choosing to view their statements online with Westpac One. They can access their statements anytime which minimises their environmental impact by reducing paper use. Click here to find out how to turn off your statements.
- Where possible we are digital with our processes. Through careful management we decreased our electricity use and emissions. The latter was down by 24% this year.
- We recycle and compost what we can which has reduced landfill and where we can we use landfill with gas recovery resulting in a 20% reduction in emissions.
- Continued our focus to decrease emissions from our air conditioning.
We are also proud to maintain our carbon neutral status in 2016 by offsetting the impact of our remaining emissions by voluntarily purchasing and retiring NZU compliance grade carbon credits.
30%
CleanTech vs Fossil Fuel
Westpac is the only New Zealand bank to publicly publish its exposures to both the fossil fuel and the clean technology and environmental services (CleanTech) sectors. In the last four years our lending to CleanTech companies has increased by 17% to $1.29bn and lending to fossil fuel extraction and production has decreased by 30% to $488m. Lending to fossil fuel companies is just 0.65% of our overall lending. CleanTech includes businesses that reduce negative environmental impacts including renewable energy, green buildings, forestry, recycling and waste reduction.
Financial capability
One of the biggest positive impacts we can have as a bank is drawing on our financial expertise to help customers and communities manage their money. We have a network of trained employees delivering workshops in the community and a range of digital tools.
This year we have started to explore how we make every interaction with our customers work towards raising their financial capability.
CashNav
29,377 people
I’ve saved over $7000
“I took every little bit we learnt over the last few weeks and altered my finances drastically, to the point where I’ve saved over $7000”.
Elsie Palemene is one of over 3500 New Zealanders who participated in Westpac’s Managing your Money programme this year, taking a Money Skills course in Henderson.
Elsie says most of that gain was achieved through debt consolidation and the budgeting skills she learnt on the six week course.
“I’m walking away from this course, educated and more informed about my finances, cause at the end of the day it’s my money and I should know the ins and outs of it,” she says.
Westpac employees passionate about promoting sustainable money habits volunteer their time to deliver hands on workshops in communities aimed at making people more confident when they make decisions about money. Courses range from an hour to six weeks and cover topics such as budgeting, savings, digital banking and planning for retirement.
Westpac private banker and MYM facilitator Aimee Alefaio says it’s great to be able to use her banking skills to help others, and what keeps her continuing to do this is seeing the positive changes to the lives of the participants through their feedback, engagement and participation during the six week journey.
“One of the biggest positive impacts we can have as a bank is using our financial expertise to help others manage their money.
“We want people to use these workshops to learn better money skills, plan for the future and not be afraid to ask the hard questions– and it’s free for all Kiwis, whether you are a Westpac customer or not.”
You can learn more about managing your money here.
3,575 people
CANSTAR Youth Banking Award
245
Affordable housing
Every day we support New Zealanders into housing. This is increasingly challenging for some, due to rising house prices, which also put pressure on rents. One of the ways we’re helping is by supporting the community housing sector to provide safe, healthy affordable homes for those struggling in the rental market. We have set a $200 million lending target to support the sector’s growth. We’re also committed to helping lower income New Zealanders buy their own home through the Welcome Home Loan scheme.
118 low-deposit
1,150 social houses
grow their housing base
We strive to ensure our employees reflect the diverse communities we serve in order to deliver exceptional service. We know allowing people to be themselves at work creates an inclusive culture and lifts performance and having a wide mix of New Zealanders across culture, gender, age and sexuality provides the diversity of thought necessary to solve future challenges in our fast moving business environment.
6 Employee Action Groups
develop careers for Māori
Banking the experience
Tana Luke says he applied for the Te Waiu O Aotearoa Trust scholarship to help keep his university costs as low as possible, but the benefits have been far wider.
“There is so much more to the scholarship than just the initial $5000, you become cultivated in a wider team, creating networks and meeting amazing people throughout your journey,” says the Canterbury University student.
Te Waiu O Aotearoa Trust was set up to encourage and support Māori into a career in banking, finance and business by providing scholarships. Westpac administers the Trust and saw it as an opportunity to attract talent and provide the recipients casual work while they study. This collaboration is a great example of Westpac’s Māori and Iwi strategy, Te Kākano, in action. A culturally confident workforce, connected to our communities will see everyone grow and prosper.
Tana was awarded the scholarship in 2014 and is now working part-time at Westpac while he studies for Bachelor of Commerce and Arts degrees. Of Ngāti Rārua, Ngāi Tahu and Te Rarawa whakapapa, he is also an intern with the Whai Rawa team at Te Runanga O Ngāi Tahu and continues to pursue a love for rugby.
“For the future I hope to finish off my degrees and utilise them in a position whereby I can help Māori and Iwi alongside Westpac and its cultural values."
Dementia Friendly Bank
A daughter's promise
Six months after being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s it became clear Gerry needed help with his banking.
“Initially we thought the doctor had made a mistake – how could my 64 year old dad have Alzheimer’s – isn’t that an old person’s disease,” says daughter Lorraine Hunter, a Westpac Private Banking Adviser.
When he died four years later, one of the last things he said to her was ‘promise you’ll do something to help people like me living with dementia’.
Now two years later, Lorraine has fulfilled this promise to her father heading the first ‘dementia friendly bank’ initiative in New Zealand. With 60,000 people currently living with dementia in NZ, Lorraine believes that the area of banking needs to be addressed, especially with this number expected to grow to 150,000 in 2050.
In 2015, Westpac formed a dementia friendly working group to take a holistic approach to assisting and protecting customers with dementia. This has led to a specialised training programme for over 98% of Westpac frontline staff, tailored in branch notifications for the over 720 customers who have a specific vulnerability such as dementia and changes to the physical branch environment.
“Westpac has been dementia friendly for a year now and we’re seeing amazing results with our frontline staff interactions with customers living with the illness as well as an overall awareness and sensitivity with our staff which is helpful for everyone”
But Lorraine doesn’t want to stop there. She’s also passionate about raising awareness and championing other corporates and Kiwi businesses to get on board. All educational materials are publically available on the Westpac website (westpac.co.nz/dementia) to ensure that as many organisations as possible have free and ready access to dementia friendly education.
“For me, this initiative means that something really positive has come out of a particularly dire situation – my Dad would be really proud. It’s important for people living with dementia or caring for someone with dementia to know that they don’t need to go through this alone.”
98% of Westpac employees
50.5%
620 ATMs
Supporting our communities
Westpac has a strong history of community involvement and this year our focus has been working with partner organisations to inspire leadership, provide help to those who need it most, and support local business and economies to succeed.
Highlights included our new partnership with the Middlemore Foundation to support the Mana-ā-riki pilot programme of integrated nurse clinics, digital learning and healthy home environments across six low decile schools in Papakura, South Auckland, and supporting Sir John Kirwan’s talks to youth and rural audiences on mental health and depression.