We are on the way to aligning our investment portfolio to achieve net zero emissions by 2050 or sooner.

Through BT Funds Management NZ Ltd (BTNZ), our investment arm, we reduced the weighted average carbon intensity of our international shares portfolio by 21%, our Australasian shares portfolio by 30%, our international listed property portfolio by 11% and our Australasian listed property portfolio by 43% compared to February 2019.* This includes the funds invested in the Westpac KiwiSaver scheme.

To help us continue on this path, we appointed Legal & General (L&G), one of the world’s leading responsible investment managers, ranked by the UN Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) and Shareaction, to manage one of our global equity strategies.

The mandate with L&G aligns with a 1.5˚C pathway, excludes the worst climate and biodiversity offenders and complies with a strict EU Paris aligned regulation.

We are actively engaged with policy makers, industry groups and the companies we invest in on climate and sustainability action and advocated for the introduction of a New Zealand Investment Stewardship Code this year. We joined these collaborative investor groups: the Investor Group on Climate Change, the Climate Action 100+ and Net Zero Asset Managers initiative. We also increased our exclusion to a wide range of fossil fuel activities and have also excluded companies deriving more than 50% of their revenue from the generation of electricity from thermal coal.

*We are working to increase measurement coverage across other asset classes as tools become available. Based on information provided by our external ESG research provider for scope 1 and 2. Accuracy, coverage, scopes and time of data for portfolios may vary and may not reflect the full portfolio holdings.