Environmental Solutions

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We're committed to helping our customers and New Zealand tackle climate change.

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.

Reduced emissions by 21% in 2017 - the equivalent of taking 327 cars off the road

And maintained our carbon neutral status

Find out how

Find out how we reduced emissions

Reducing office waste has played a part in helping Westpac reduce its carbon emissions by 21% in 2017. 

Christchurch-based Westpac Facilities and Operations team leader, Paul Bonini, recalls the start of their waste reduction journey in 2015:

"Our landfill was 70% of our waste, and recyclables and organics only 30%."

By following the whole waste journey from the office to the cleaners to the waste management company, Paul and his team were able to make changes that have seen landfill reduce to 30% and recycling and organics increase to 70%. 

Desk bins were removed and Method recycling bins introduced, alongside an education campaign and an incentivised scheme for employees. Goals were set and cleaners weighed the waste nightly to measure progress. 

The Christchurch team is due to move to its new office buildings in 2018, and Paul's next task will be educating people about the sustainability aspects of the offices, such as an agile workspace, and working with Christchurch City Council on sustainable transport, to further reduce Westpac's carbon footprint.

55% decrease in lending to fossil fuel extraction since 2012

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CleanTech vs Fossil Fuel investment

Westpac is the only New Zealand bank to publicly publish its exposures to both fossil fuel extraction and the clean technology and environmental services (CleanTech) sectors.  Since 2012 our lending to CleanTech companies has by 18% increased to $1.3bn, and lending to fossil fuel extraction and production has decreased by 55% to $318m, with lending to coal mining decreasing by 98%.  CleanTech includes businesses that reduce negative environmental impacts including renewable energy, green buildings, forestry, recycling and waste reduction. 

Westpac has a strong focus on continuing these trends and recognises this is one of its most significant opportunities to positively impact on the environment.

$1.3 billion lending to the CleanTech sector

China doesn’t want our plastic waste. That’s okay – Westpac customer Comspec does.

Who's Comspec?

Who's Comspec?

Comspec, when  founded in 2005, was supposed to be a “little recycling company that would keep us occupied and then I’d retire”,  says industry veteran Robert Fowler. Instead, the venture has grown into a significant industry player in “closing the loop” on a mountain of consumer and industry plastic waste.

The company essentially does two important jobs. The first – and this was Comspec’s founding mission – is to be a ‘one-stop solution’ for general plastic waste from South Island manufacturers, transforming it into high-quality resin.

The other role involves plastic milk bottles. Comspec buys bales of used bottles from commercial sorters and converts the plastic into an HDPE resin. Typically, that resin is used to manufacture industrial drainage pipes, although it’s also used for cable protection and other plastic products. If you’re looking for an image to sum up the journey involved here, visualise a plastic milk container winding up as part of that black corrugated pipe you see going into new subdivisions.

What’s the win for the environment here? Fowler says this waste would otherwise be destined for recycling in China.

“Think about the carbon miles involved in a milk bottle going to China to be recycled – it’s crazy,” he says, also pointing out that, “Three years ago, drainage pipe here was all made out of imported virgin material, whereas now, certainly in the South Island, it’s all made from recycled material.”

He says that there hasn’t been a lot of work done to quantify the carbon saving achieved by operations such as Comspec, “But there’s a figure bandied around in the States that for every tonne of resin you make, you save a tonne of carbon. And we’d do 20 tonne a day.”

Based on an article from a series of Pure Advantage profiles of New Zealand business leaders utilising technological solutions for a zero-emission future.

Supported CleanTech start-ups

Lightning Lab Electric: New Zealand's first-ever energy sector accelerator programme 

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Lightning Lab Electric

The country’s first electricity industry accelerator programme, Lightning Lab Electric (LLE), hosted some of New Zealand's most experienced electricity sector practitioners and successful entrepreneurs to 'hack' the electricity industry. 

Lightning Lab is a four-month, mentor-intensive, business acceleration programme based on the best-of-breed accelerator model developed by TechStars in the US. The programme provides teams with structure, start-up methodologies, business skills and focused support so they can prove, build and launch their ideas into market, with speed. 

LLE was developed with the support of Westpac and other organisations that are passionate about seeing innovation in the energy sector, including Callaghan Innovation, Creative HQ, Genesis Energy, GE and Unison.

In 2017, four teams went through the LLE accelerator. Each targeted a significant energy sector issue or opportunity, and applied new technology to find and develop solutions. mhLabs, the team behind peer-to-peer electricity company P2 Power, won first place.

Westpac believes that more energy innovation will drive better outcomes for both customers and the environment.  By working with initiatives such as LLE, Westpac hopes to create value for society, and help New Zealand transition to a low carbon economy.

Westpac's environmental journey

See our journey

Financial Capability

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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 continue to explore how we can make every interaction with our customers work towards raising their financial capability.

Innovation Excellence Award for CashNav

Our app helps 67,810 people track, categorise and benchmark their spending.

Three Money Skills courses delivered

In Christchurch, South and West Auckland

See results

Three Money Skills courses delivered

Money Skills is a free, six-week in-depth programme, run by Westpac employees, for Kiwis struggling with their finances.  

Participants told us after the course:

“One of the things that stood out for me from the course is that I need to face the reality of my financial situation.”  

"We are also now putting some money towards paying down our debts and we are very proud of this.”

“Life is less stressful now.” 

The latest evaluation prepared by the Westpac Massey Financial Education and Research Centre, Massey University (July 2017),  which reviewed four Money Skills courses showed positive improvements across saving, budgeting, planning expenses, and retirement planning after attending the programme.

4,920 people benefited from our Managing your Money workshops

Hear from Ruby

4,920 people benefited from our Managing your Money workshops

Hear from Ruby

"I'm a strong believer in teaching our community and children the basics so they can make the best financial choices for themselves. I love seeing the increase in their confidence and drive at our workshops."

Ruby has been running Managing your Money (MYM) workshops in her community for three years.  She is a strong advocate for teaching financial education in schools because as a banking consultant she sees the challenges young people face with money when they leave school.  She finds it rewarding to help them make their dreams a reality.  

This year Ruby and a colleague Libby Collings worked closely with two local high schools to tailor MYM materials to the needs of their senior students.  This enabled it to be treated as part of the curriculum meaning the student were able to achieve NCEA credits.  

Matt Parr from Christchurch Boys High says, "What has been delivered is invaluable knowledge for these young men and something all teenagers need to know about - lessons I only wish I had received at the same age.” 

24,613 people participated in our financial education programme

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All Managing your Money facilitators are Westpac volunteers

Meet Deborah

All Managing your Money facilitators are Westpac volunteers

Meet Deborah

Deborah Lee is Bank Manager at the Greerton Branch in the Bay of Plenty.

Deborah noticed scamming becoming more rampant in her community and scammers getting bolder.  In response to this, she started running workshops in retirement villages, schools, and to the general community on how to keep financially safe.  She has now delivered them to more than 500 people, with hundreds more lined up to attend.  She is pleased to have customers regularly calling in now to check whether something is a scam or not. "I feel an enormous sense of pride in what we are doing to get this message out, especially to our vulnerable members of the community," says Deborah.

Social & Affordable Housing

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Every day we support New Zealanders into housing. This is increasingly challenging for some, due to rising house prices, which also puts 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.

Increased lending from $24.5m to $148.8m to social and affordable housing sector in 2017

Find out more

Social and affordable housing

We increased our lending to the social and affordable housing sector from $24.5m to $148.8m this year.

This was due largely to our financing package to Accessible Housing to support their acquisition of Housing New Zealand stock in Tauranga.  Two other large scale social housing transactions were progressed to bid stage, Tamaki Regeneration and Christchurch Housing New Zealand stock transfer.

592 low-deposit Welcome home loans

Approved to lower income Kiwis in 2017 to help them get into their first home

Diversity & Inclusion

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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.

NZ's first accredited dementia friendly bank

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52.4% women in leadership

New Flexible Work Policy launched

Hosted Social Procurement Symposium

Partnered with ATEED and Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei on event

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Awarded the Rainbow Tick for the third year running

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DVFREE Tick 

First company to receive accreditation from Shine for making our workplace supportive for employees affected by domestic violence.

What does this mean?

What does the DVFREE Tick mean?

We've been awarded the DVFREE Tick which recognises our comprehensive domestic violence programme that provides a safe and supportive workplace for employees who are experiencing domestic violence. 

“Realising that domestic violence is actually a workplace issue was a revelation for me,” says Westpac NZ Chief Executive David McLean. 

“As a large employer, knowing that some of our staff members are suffering abuse from a partner or family member obliges us to do something to help them because we take our role to keep our people safe and secure seriously.”

“The DVFREE Tick requires much more than a domestic violence policy and provision for special domestic violence leave. We help in all manner of ways to ensure our people are kept safe. This could include a security plan, alerts that let us know if they need urgent assistance or other forms of support – whatever they feel they need."

Te Reo Waikato added to ATMs

In addition to te Reo Māori

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Te Kākano

In 2016, we launched te Reo Māori as a language option on our Smart ATMs across New Zealand.  It's proved to be popular and has been used on average 3,300 times a month.  In 2017, we took the next step by rolling out an iwi-specific language option.  In partnership with our customer, Waikato-Tainui, Reo Waikato was added as an option on more than 90% of ATMs.

We're committed to embracing and driving inclusion and diversity and our Te Kākano framework is used to embed the principles of working effectively with Māori and iwi to support the growth of the Māori economy.  Through Te Kākano, Westpac has among other things:

• Provided paid work experience for the Te Waiu O Aotearoa Trust scholarship winners;
• Partnered with iwi to provide Māori internship and cadetship programme;
• Partnered with Te Pūtahitanga to help whānau with their business ideas and understand finance options;
• Sponsored Whanganui’s inaugural Māori Business Awards and the University of Auckland’s Māori and Pacific Business Students of the Year Awards;
• Partnered with Global Women in a Mana Wāhine series event;
• Partnered with ATEED and and Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei to host a social procurement symposium; and
• Created a cultural training pathway for all employees.

Community

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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.

1,700 children supported to reach their potential by the Mana-ā-Riki programme

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19,860 hours of employee volunteering

That's 2,648 days or more than 7 years!

Watch Video Read about what Huan did

Huan's volunteering story

Huan Wang, a technology graduate based in Wellington, donated her web development skills to create a website for Qtopia, a LGBTI+ youth support group based in Canterbury.

“It was fun to delve into website design, learn new things along the way and know that the end product was going to really help a support group that needed it."

“Being able to do this as part of my working day and my volunteer day really reinforces that Westpac cares about and demonstrates actually living its values of supporting diversity and inclusion" say Huan

Chloe Jones, General Manager of Qtopia and her team were very impressed by the overall result. 

“The modernisation of the Qtopia brand and website will improve how we engage with young people, whānau, funders, services and the wider community in a meaningful and accessible way."

Supporting local initiatives around NZ

Helping local budgeting services

Supporting local initiatives around NZ

Westpac has a long history of working with and supporting our communities.  This year we launched a local community investment programme to enhance our response to local issues.  Our branches around the country supported a wide range of causes including environmental projects, local schools, budgeting services and health and wellbeing services, by making donations, fundraising, facilitating collections and volunteering their time.

Helping local budgeting services

Our South and East Auckland branches have worked closely with the Mangere Budgeting Services, which provide the lower socio economic community with a full package of tools to help families out of health and financial strain.  Not only does the service help people with managing their financials and food donations, they also offer cooking lessons to teach people how to make healthier affordable meal options and accompany people to the supermarket to educate them on how to purchase cheaper and healthier food items.

The Service had been receiving record requests for food parcels over winter so the branches rallied together to collect as many food donations as they could.   They collectively accumulated over ten boxes of food items to donate. To further demonstrate their support, Westpac Pukekohe decided that as part of their new branch opening event, they’d award the Mangere Budgeting Services with a $1,000 donation to help them keep doing good work for the community. Westpac will continue their support and relationship with Mangere Budgeting Services and are looking for further opportunities to give back. Most recently, the branches have rallied together to collect toys for families who can’t afford to buy Christmas presents for their children.

10,000 children's dreams shared to inspire action to make NZ a better place

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$1.26 million fundraised for New Zealand's Rescue Helicopters

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