Energy Mix Is Key To Urban Sustainability

We are committed to improving environmental sustainability performance in the cities where we operate. We actively support our customers and suppliers in this regard and are committed to delivering sound environmental outcomes in our workplaces and branches.

ANZ’s activities in the energy sector need to meet international performance standards, as expressed in our Energy policy. When considering financing the energy sector, we support customers in examining lower carbon options and our decision-making framework is influenced by explicit thresholds of carbon intensity of energy production. High emissions production proposals go directly to our Reputation Risk Committee for consideration. Our Energy policy also includes a target to increase our lending to lower carbon emission generation by 15–20% by 2020[1].

To see our full suite of sector and other policies, go to anz.com/governance.

Responding to Regulatory Environments

An important development this year was the introduction of the Australian Government’s ‘Clean Energy Future’ package, which came into effect on 1 July 2012.

In preparation, we established ANZ’s Carbon Working Group to ensure that both ANZ and our customers were well prepared for its impacts, able to manage any risks, and benefit from opportunities of the new legislation.

We have notable experience in this. In response to the New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme and other international carbon markets we have an established Energy and Emissions Trading desk. Through the trading desk we assist our clients in managing their liabilities arising under such schemes.

We also work with our customers to reduce energy and other resource consumption across their businesses by financing more efficient plant, equipment and buildings.

Implementation of Our Environmental Management System in Asia

In our own workplaces, we continually seek to identify, control and improve our environmental impacts. Our Environmental Management System (EMS) provides a structured approach to assessing the operational impact of our physical footprint on the environment and helps set targets to improve our performance.

Following a successful pilot in Singapore in 2011, we have continued to roll out the EMS across our operations in Asia during 2012, with a focus on Cambodia and India. The continued expansion of the EMS across Asia has included the extension of our online environmental reporting, which now captures data from over 30 countries, thereby improving our ability to manage our global environmental performance.

Further implementation of our EMS across our global business in 2013 will enable us to establish a group-wide baseline for our energy use and associated GHG emissions with improved granularity to set targets for global reductions going forward.

Improving Our Performance

We monitor, set targets and report progress annually on a number of environmental impact areas relating to our Australian and New Zealand operations, including: energy, greenhouse gas emissions, water, paper and resource efficiency.

Our Australian operations account for over two thirds of our global GHG emissions. In 2012 ANZ reduced absolute GHG emissions from our Australian operations by over 5% against the 2011 year baseline. This was achieved through implementation of a number of operational improvements in our property portfolio and reductions in corporate travel.

In 2012, energy savings at our headquarters, the ANZ Centre in Melbourne, made the largest single impact in reducing emissions from our commercial portfolio. Since moving into this building we have reduced our GHG emissions by over 15% against our 2010 baseline.

Further savings have also been achieved through the relocation of our Queensland head office to a ‘6-Star Green Star’ building in Brisbane’s central business district. Our rolling refurbishment program across our bank branch network has continued in 2012, and has included the installation of a range of energy efficiency measures that have further contributed to our GHG emission reductions.

After energy use in our commercial buildings, GHG emissions associated with air travel represent our next greatest emissions source. In 2012 we reduced our global air travel emissions by approximately one quarter, achieving associated cost savings of over $15 million, through minimising non-customer-related travel, coupled with the continued rollout of virtual communication technology, notably telepresence video-conferencing.

Travelling to see customers is a critical part of our service. In New Zealand, ANZ leases over 700 vehicles and in 2009 we commenced a program to lease only four-cylinder vehicles. By the end of 2012, all remaining six-cylinder vehicles in our New Zealand fleet will have been replaced with four-cylinder models, improving the fuel efficiency of our vehicle fleet, reducing our GHG emissions and delivering cost savings of approximately $0.5 million per annum.

We remain committed to maintaining carbon neutrality across our global business, with a priority on reducing our footprint, supported by the purchase of international offsets to compensate for unavoidable carbon emissions. Carbon offsets purchased by ANZ are accredited to the Australian Government’s National Carbon Offset Standard (NCOS).