|
Our commitment
The long-term success of business and the viability of our communities and the planet are threatened by a variety of environmental issues including climate change, water scarcity and biodiversity loss. We believe that we have an important role to play in positively influencing the long-term sustainability of the planet by reducing both the direct and indirect environmental impacts of our operations.
A comprehensive environmental strategy is in place to help us mitigate our impact on the environment and build NAB’s ability to affect and positively influence change.
Our environment policy
Our environment strategy is guided by a Group Environmental Policy which sets a global reference point for our environmental commitments and management practices.
The policy covers the following areas:
-
Global commitments including adoption of the Equator Principles and making our operations carbon neutral by September 2010
-
Compliance with relevant environmental laws and regulation
-
Environmental management and performance – what we are doing to minimise the direct and indirect impacts of our operations
-
Public reporting to raise awareness of environmental issues and progress towards policy goals
-
Engagement with employees and the community on environmental issues, and
-
Governance for delivering our environmental policy and commitments.
Responding to climate change
As a large global company it is our responsibility to play a part in addressing the unprecedented challenges of climate change, and to help our employees, customers and suppliers do the same.
In response we have developed a specific climate change strategy which focuses on five elements:
-
Leading by example to reduce our carbon footprint and make our operations carbon neutral by September 2010
-
Encouraging our people to take action on climate change
-
Providing advice to our customers
-
Building partnerships with suppliers and government, and
-
Continuing to better understand risks and opportunities associated with our lending decisions and operations.
In June 2009 we published our second Carbon Neutral Update which reports progress towards our September 2010 commitment and outlines what we are doing in the Australian geography to reduce our carbon footprint. It also provides information on our other four climate change strategy elements.
Employee engagement
We are continuing to develop our employee environmental awareness and behaviour change program. Our aim is to ensure environmental considerations are integrated throughout the organisation.
Already more than 600 employees across the business are involved in a viral-like green team community. These employees are taking action to reduce our environmental impact through implementation of education and behaviour change activities. Volunteering their time on a regular basis, they have been instrumental in supporting campaigns like Earth Hour and Ride to Work as well as encouraging our people to reduce waste and improve resource management at work.
To encourage sustainable travel, an interest free public transport loan is available to employees based in Melbourne and Sydney, and some 800 bike racks are installed across Australia.
Research conducted in February 2009 shows employee awareness of environmental initiatives occurring at NAB has increased from 74% in February 2008 to 80% this year. More employees are also practising certain green activities in the workplace. Compared to last year, a higher proportion are printing double sided (87% compared to 79%), recycling bottles/cans (80% compared to 72%), recycling paper (80% compared to 74%), avoiding printing by using soft copies (78% compared to 71%) and using teleconferencing.
News and reports
Please also visit the National Australia Bank Group website for extensive information about our corporate responsibility commitments and reporting.
|
