The bank releases its 2022 Sustainability Report
Kiwibank has released its 2022 Sustainability Report, showcasing the progress the New Zealand-owned bank has made over the past year to deliver on its purpose and sustainability goals.
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“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,” Kiwibank CEO Steve Jurkovich said.
The purpose-led, B Corp certified bank has helped Kiwis secure their financial future by:
- launching Co-own, an alternative option to traditional homeownership where friends and family can team up to get on the property ladder sooner
- making it easier for customers to access a Kāinga Whenua loan scheme to support Māori housing aspirations
- introducing voluntary gambling block to help 452 customers avoid over $6.7 million in spend on gambling
- enabling 55,401 school children to have access to quality financial education through a partnership with Banger
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The bank delivered sustainable finance to improve Kiwi businesses by:
- establishing a sustainable finance team to bring sustainable finance offerings to customers
- partnering with Cogo to make sustainability accessible to small and medium business customers
Kiwibank also reported operating as a purpose-led business by:
- reducing carbon emissions by 22%
- becoming the 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
When it comes to climate action, Jurkovich said Kiwibank had a clear goal to reduce its impacts. The bank’s goal is to reduce carbon emissions by 40% and become carbon neutral by 2025.
“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,” he said. “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.”
