Community and Environment

Building stakeholder trust

Each year we support hundreds of community initiatives through partnerships involving our people, in-kind support and financial contributions.

While the reputation of financial institutions remains low, we are committed to building community trust.

We have started by improving communications with communities, customers and our people, and are responding to what we hear in a more meaningful way.

We have introduced initiatives to improve our environmental performance and have taken steps to become more transparent and accountable for our actions. As a result, from 2003 we will conduct 'quadruple bottom line' reporting to measure our performance against financial, community, environmental and governance targets.

Northern Bank employees volunteer to help boost children's confidence in numeracy in Time 2 Count

The Australian program that offers employees up to two days' paid leave a year for community work is being extended through the Group.

Community activities included:

	using the Australian branch network for the first time to raise awareness and funds for a community partner (the Ovarian Cancer Research Foundation and Australian Red Cross Bali Appeal)
	more than 600 Technology staff spending a day volunteering with 12 community groups (photo below shows a treeplanting day for Parks Victoria)
	providing flexible loans to assist drought-affected Australian farmers
	Time 2 Count, Northern Bank's award-winning numeracy program, led to the development of other numeracy initiatives such as Maths in a Bag for pre-school children
	Wealth Management's Community Day, involving over 1,000 staff in activities ranging from financial planning for charities to tree planting
	Bank of New Zealand supported Heart Children NZ's street appeal and BNZ Heart House
	Yorkshire Bank's Charitable Trust Educational Awards Scheme supported over 160 schools with educational programs targeting the arts, music, science and conservation
	Clydesdale Bank continued to support youth development through basketballscotland
	National Irish Bank brought together community partners to create a drama to educate young people about homelessness

Listening

National staff contributing to their community through a local treeplanting initiative for Parks Victoria

We also listen through our Community Consultation Forum, chaired by the Reverend Tim Costello. The Forum was strengthened during the year to ensure regular, direct interaction with senior management.

The Forum's priorities:

	issues related to problem gambling and access to cash in gaming venues
	responsible use of credit card offers to customers
	support for community-based no interest loans schemes that provide access to small levels of credit for lower income consumers

Use of a previous initiative, the National Concession Card Account for government concession card holders, has also increased.

Environment
Communities expect major companies to be responsible for their environmental performance and we are responding to the challenge.

Our conservation efforts have helped protect New Zealand's endangered kiwi population

Docklands, our new Australian headquarters from the end of 2003, will provide a focus for environmental improvement. It is on track to be one of Australia's first commercial buildings to achieve a four-star energy rating. Our challenge is to match our performance to the building.

An Australian Environmental Champions program is encouraging staff to initiate ways to reduce paper, energy consumption and waste going to landfill.

Northern Bank improved its environmental ranking due, in part, to its continual reduction in energy and water consumption and greenhouse emissions. It has also signed an agreement to supply 80% of branches with renewable energy (wind power). Similar agreements are being investigated for Clydesdale, Yorkshire and National Irish Banks.