Hon Chris Carter
Minister of Housing
Hon David Parker
Minister Responsible for Climate Change

23 March 2007 Media Statement

Government applauds businesses acting on climate change

The government is applauding businesses that are making a positive contribution to tackling climate change and improving environmental sustainability.

Westpac today launched the Green Home Loan – an initiative that helps homeowners to make their houses more energy efficient and environmentally friendly. Contact Energy, Insurance Australia Group, Meridian Energy and Bank of New Zealand have all recently made moves to develop more sustainable business practices.

Housing and Conservation Minister Chris Carter, who attended the launch of Westpac’s initiative in Auckland today, said the scheme was a great example of how businesses could support New Zealanders to be more sustainable and reduce their environmental impact.

“I congratulate Westpac on their innovation. By helping homeowners to make better decisions about how they build, improve and use their houses, Westpac is also helping preserve New Zealand's natural heritage,” Chris Carter said.

"Our environment is very much a part of the experience of living in New Zealand. I am delighted to see businesses shouldering some of the responsibility of nurturing it, and helping their customers do so too."

As part of the Westpac scheme, home loan customers are given a voucher booklet that contains heavily discounted environmental products such as solar hot water heaters, insulation and energy-efficient appliances, courtesy of several New Zealand businesses.

Climate Change Minister David Parker said Westpac is one of many examples of a business in New Zealand recognising the increasing importance of factoring sustainability initiatives into its work.

“There are now growing numbers of businesses in New Zealand taking positive action through sustainability initiatives. BNZ recently revealed plans to go carbon neutral by 2010, and insurance company IAG NZ has announced it aims to be carbon neutral by 2012. Contact Energy has undertaken to reduce emissions from all of its non-generation activities as far as possible, and then pay to offset the remainder through Landcare Research’s CarboNZero certification scheme. Meridian Energy is now a certified Carbon Neutral electricity generator for their electricity generation as well as their administration,” David Parker said.

“There has been a strong shift towards sustainable business practice in New Zealand over the past year. This demonstrates that businesses are increasingly seeing that it makes both environmental and economic sense to be green.”

The development of Westpac’s Green Home Loan scheme was supported by the Ministry for the Environment as part of its sustainable industry programme.

ENDS