Kiwibank today released its 2022 Sustainability Report, which demonstrates the progress the New Zealand-owned bank has made over the past year against its purpose and sustainability goals.

Kiwibank Chief Executive Steve Jurkovich said being a purpose-led, B Corp certified bank means keeping the aspiration to positively impact Kiwi, Aotearoa and the New Zealand economy at the forefront of all decision making.

“The actions we’ve taken across key areas of focus including financial education and sustainable finance has made for a very busy year but that’s all part of strengthening our commitment to be the bank that balances performance and purpose.”

Key highlights of the report include:

Supporting New Zealanders to take action to secure their financial future by:

• Launching Co-own, an alternative option to traditional home ownership where friends and family can team up to get on the property ladder sooner.
• Supporting Māori housing aspirations by making it easier for customers to access a Kāinga Whenua Loan Scheme.
• Supporting 452 customers to avoid over $6.7 million in spend on gambling with its voluntary gambling block.
• Through a partnership with Banqer, enabling 55,401 school children to have access to quality financial education.

Delivering sustainable finance to improve Kiwi businesses by:

• Establishing a sustainable finance team to bring sustainable finance offerings to customers - rewarding innovative sustainable action in our financing deals with businesses.
• Partnering with Cogo to make sustainability accessible to small and medium business customers.

Operating as a purpose-led business by:

• Reducing carbon emissions by 22%.
• First bank in Aotearoa to use cards made from recycled plastic.
• Building an unbeatable culture by having a flexible working environment, quarterly wellbeing days, and extended supported leave – a simpler more flexible option that encompasses traditional sick leave, compassionate leave and domestic leave.

Understanding our impact

Mr Jurkovich said when it came to climate action the bank had a clear goal to reduce its impacts.

“To help us meet our climate action target of reducing our travel emissions by 20% by 2025, we took steps to allocate carbon budgets for travel for each executive member’s team. Kiwibank is prioritising travelling for the right reasons and using technology resources as much as possible while also working to convert 100% of our fleet to electric vehicles.

“It’s important to keep lifting our game and to do that we have to understand all the ways we can reduce our carbon footprint. Our goal in 2025 is to reduce carbon emissions by 40% and be carbon neutral. Being mindful of things such as air travel is something that everyone across Kiwibank can do to help reach our goal.

“We know more New Zealanders want to partner with a bank that is modern, progressive and purpose led. We’re incredibly proud of our mahi over the past 12 months and look forward to having even more impact for our people, our community and Aotearoa in the year ahead.” Mr Jurkovich concluded.

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