Sustainability is an essential part of who we are as an organisation, and in this last year we made key decisions and investments to ensure we are fulfilling our duties as a responsible bank. This includes achieving Climate Active certification for becoming carbon neutral, and also ensuring our community investment directly addresses the changing needs of our customers and the wider society.
Becoming a more sustainable bank
Great Southern Bank became carbon neutral in FY21, after we offset an estimated 7,600 tonnes of carbon emitted during the year. This was achieved through partnerships with international renewable energy projects in India and savannah burning projects managed by First Nations rangers in Arnhem Land. In the coming months and years we will increase our work in this area as we look to address and reduce our own emissions as a bank. We will also examine our own home lending activities, building our understanding of the impacts of climate change on our customers’ homes.
Supporting communities
We dedicated $1.3 million to ensure better social and economic outcomes at a time where many issues have been exacerbated by COVID-19. This investment is part of our Financial Inclusion Action Plan, which addresses the key challenges that housing affordability, family violence and digital exclusion present to financial security.
As part of our work we were privileged to partner with some great community organisations, working with Women’s Information and Referral Exchange (WIRE) and Micah Projects to support progress in addressing family violence. This year we also funded a specialist Financial Counsellor at Micah Projects’ Brisbane Domestic Violence Service, and partnered with Uniting VicTas to help our customers when they experienced vulnerability.
Our work on the Connected Futures project with the Australian Red Cross and Infoxchange won a global Shared Value Award for improving the digital and financial capability of people being excluded in an increasingly digital world.
Committed to our teams
We continue to build a committed workforce with strong – and further improving – engagement results.
Last year
- we achieved accreditation as an ‘endorsed employer for all women’ through Work180, highlighting our ongoing commitment to supporting gender equality, inclusivity, diversity and flexibility.
- around 60% of our team members are women, with 54% of senior leadership positions held by women including the majority of our executive team (66% women). We are committed to achieving and maintaining an equal gender split at our leadership levels.
- we continue to invest in training and development through initiatives such as our mentoring program.
Awards
Throughout the year we gained significant independent recognition for our efforts to help customers, winning awards including:
- Most Recommended First Home Buyers Loan - DBM Australia Financial Awards
- Exceptional Everyday Account - Everyday Snap Account, Mozo Experts Choice
- Best Bank Account Award - Everyday Snap Account, RateCity Bank Account Awards
- Best Kids Saving Account - Youth eSaver, RateCity Bank Account Awards
- Best Regular Savers Account - eSaver Reward, RateCity Bank Account Awards
- Best Mutual Lender - RFI Group Australian Lending Awards