Staff Reporter
Auckland, December 10, 2020
Bank of New Zealand (BNZ) has released its first sustainability report and has announced changes to its lending policy and ambitious targets to work with Small-to-Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to reduce New Zealand’s carbon emissions.
Chief Executive Angela Mentis said that the Bank, would in the next five years, deliver $10 billion in sustainable finance and will embed a focus on helping intensive carbon emitting customers to transition to new ways of doing business.
She said that a stronger ESG framework will be launched next year and increase investment in businesses and projects that deliver carbon reduction and sustainable benefits.
Environmental protection
“BNZ has also committed to supporting half of all its SME customers (around 100,000 businesses) to adopt and use a Digital Climate Change Toolkit to measure, reduce and report on their emissions by 2025. We are clear about what we stand for. BNZ is a bank that protects the environment, works with its customers to reduce emissions and supports the long-term improvement of the social and financial wellbeing of all New Zealanders,” she said.
Ms Mentis said that in reporting the impacts BNZ was demonstrating its plans to reduce emissions and support New Zealanders, and signal to the market the types of businesses that it wants to work with to grow the New Zealand economy in a sustainable way.
Two Principles
As part of its delivery or sustainability targets, BNZ is committing to two principles that it says are important to the long-term future of New Zealand: Kaitiakitanga, to accelerate the just transition to a low emissions economy, that supports the regeneration of the natural environment; and Manaakitanga, to grow the long-term social and financial wellbeing of all New Zealanders.
Ms Mentis said it was important that BNZ’s sustainability strategy reflect a Te Ao Māori worldview that ensures that the Bank takes an interconnected, long-term and intergenerational view of the way its people work and engage with customers and stakeholders, and the Bank’s impacts on communities and the environment.
Kaitiakitanga: Supporting transition
In addition to the $10 billion sustainable finance target, BNZ will introduce an updated and enterprise-wide ESG framework in 2021, embed sustainability risk as a material risk category and roll out climate risk training for all staff within the next two years.
“It used to be that lending decisions considered a narrow range of economic factors, but new ambitious targets will hardwire sustainability into how we work. We are serious about changing the way we work and the people we do business with for the benefit of New Zealand and its people,” Ms Mentis said and added that she is excited to work with SMEs to tackle Climate Change.
She said that BNZ will partner with Sustainable Business Network and provide a Digital Climate Change toolkit to its SME customers. The simple self-assessment tool works through an easy-to- follow step by step ‘climate action journey’ of advice and support.
It will then be tailored to the specific motivations and conditions of each business and connect them to good quality existing information, tools and resources.
“SMEs are the lifeblood of the New Zealand economy. They must have a place in a new low carbon economy. The toolkit will be a vital initiative to make it easy for SMEs to increase the sustainability of their operations and have a significant impact on carbon emissions,” she said.
Manaakitanga: Growing social and financial wellbeing
BNZ’s Sustainability Report outlines initiatives and targets that the bank will focus on to ensure New Zealanders can benefit from the acceleration in digital technology and support those in vulnerable circumstances.
Ms Mentis said that Covid-19 has changed the economy dramatically and put pressure on businesses and individuals.
“The future is digital and it is important that no one gets left behind as the country recovers. BNZ will build on initiatives such as its dedicated Over 70s phone line and BNZ’s Scam Savvy to support people to feel safe and capable online and participate in an increasingly digital world. The Bank will also step up its support for people in vulnerable circumstances,” she said.
“Everyone can have a moment of vulnerability; it just takes an unexpected life event. We will partner with social organisations across the country to tackle some of the toughest issues we face such as domestic and economic abuse, inadequate housing and access to finance to support families and job seekers,” she added.
Good Loans initiative
Since 2014, BNZ’s Good Loans initiative has partnered with a number of community organisations to offer people on limited incomes fee-free, low-interest and no-interest loans. When Covid-19 hit, BNZ worked with its Partner, Good Shepherd NZ, to extend its Community Finance Programme, allowing $5 million of no-interest loans to be accessed by families that were financially impacted by the pandemic. The Bank also launched a domestic and economic abuse team and received Living Wage Accreditation this year.
The above Report was sponsored by
