Managing our business in a responsible way is key to our vision of becoming Australia's leading bank, trusted by customers for exceptional service.
Why is this important?
All organisations face challenges as they seek to address climate change, improve operational efficiency and use resources and natural capital more efficiently and sustainably.
Our environmental targets, assurance and certifications are helping us face these challenges with confidence.
What do we do?
Our environmental performance targets align to our Environmental Agenda focus areas and help us measure progress towards achieving environmental objectives. 2019 is the forth year of reporting for our 2020/2025 environmental targets for our global operations. To date, all of our environmental sustainability performance targets are on track to be achieved, with the exception of potable water withdrawal.
You can find more information about our 2020/2025 environmental performance targets and our 2018 environmental performance in our Sustainability Report (PDF, 2MB) and Sustainability Data Pack (XSLX, 866KB).
Performance against these targets is presented in the table below:
Measure |
2015 Baseline |
Target |
Target Date |
2019 Reduction |
Science-based GHG emissions (tCO2-e)1 |
87,565 |
▼21% |
2025 |
▼18% |
Energy Use (GJ) |
791,456 |
▼5% |
2020 |
▼12% |
Office Paper (tonnes) |
892 |
▼10% |
2020 |
▼43% |
Customer eStatements (proportion online only) |
34% |
▲to 50% |
2020 |
64% |
Water Use (Potable Water Withdrawal) (kL)² |
405,642 |
▼10% |
2020 |
▼5% |
Waste to Landfill (tonnes) |
2,518 |
▼5% |
2020 |
▼26% |
Data Centre PUE (Power Usage Effectiveness)³ |
1.4-1.6 |
≤1.5 |
2020 |
1.4 |
1. Data centre GHG emissions are excluded as there is currently no data centre science-based target setting methodology available.
2. Target applies to all Australian data centres only. Actual PUE figure reported (not percentage reduction).
Our assurances and certifications
We believe independent assurance and third party validation of our performance is important because it provides management and stakeholders with confidence in our reported performance data and information.
We undertake a range of annual assurance and third party certification processes to give our stakeholders confidence in the credibility of our approach and data reported.
Regulatory reporting
NAB Group is subject to a range of environmental regulation, including reporting requirements. The key regulatory requirements are as follows:
- the Australian National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Act 2007 (Cth) (NGER Act);
- the Australian National Environment Protection (National Pollutant Inventory) Measure (NPI NEPM);
- the United Kingdom's Carbon Reduction Commitment Energy Efficiency (CRC EE) Scheme legislation;
- the UK Energy Savings Opportunities Scheme (ESOS), which was introduced by the ESOS Regulations 2014.
Further information on these regulatory requirements can be found in our Annual Financial Report, in the social and environmental section of the Report of the Directors.
Assurance of our carbon neutrality
KPMG currently conducts limited assurance procedures over our carbon inventory in Australia, United Kingdom, New Zealand, Asia and the United States, and the progress we are making against our science based targets.
- Read more about our carbon neutral commitment and how we calculate our carbon inventory.
- Download KPMG’s most recent Carbon Neutral assurance report (PDF, 165KB).
The component of our Australian carbon inventory that must be reported under the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Act has been subject to reasonable assurance by KPMG.
KPMG has also conducted limited assurance over the following carbon risk disclosure information – (i) renewable energy disclosure; (ii) project finance sector segmentation and (iii) our environmental financing disclosure.
Third party certification for our carbon neutrality
In Australia, we have achieved certification under the National Carbon Offset Standard (NCOS) Carbon Neutral Program, for the emissions inventory we are monitoring and reporting for our Australian operations. We achieved our initial certification in December 2010 and re-certify our carbon neutrality annually. In 2016, we recommitted to be a part of the NCOS Carbon Neutral Program for a further five years.
You will find our latest annual NCOS public disclosure summary in the environmental section of the resource library.
Download KPMG's NCOS assurance report (PDF, 97KB).
Energy efficiency and renewable energy
We remain committed to reducing our environmental impact and we’ve undertaken a range of energy efficiency and renewable energy initiatives including:
- Implementing improvements to the way we heat, cool and light our buildings
- Installing energy efficient ATM's across BNZ
- Installing solar panels on 75 of our Australian buildings since 2014 (including 2,200 solar panels on one of our data centres), with a total installed capacity of 2,055 kW as at 30 September 2019.
Energy Efficiency Opportunities Reports
Discover more
Environmental approach
We're committed to understanding and managing the impacts and dependencies of our business on the environment.
Environmental products and services
We’re helping our customers take action for the good of the environment and their business.