Dear Nick Thank you for your email regarding Westpac’s position in financing infrastructure projects alongside the Great Barrier Reef, and in particular the potential expansion of the existing port facility at Abbot Point, addressed to our Chief Executive Officer, Gail Kelly. As Head of Group Sustainability and Community I have been asked to respond directly to you regarding your raised concern. We understand that this is an issue which many care deeply about. Like you, we are concerned about issues such as biodiversity loss and the preservation of natural habitats, as well as the risks arising from climate change. We value your feedback and consider the views of all our stakeholders on an ongoing basis as we continue to refine our approach to these important issues. Over many years Westpac has developed a strong track record in sustainability and carbon solutions. We have a long history of being recognised for our leadership, this year we were ranked the World’s Most Sustainable Company in the Corporate Knights’ Global 100 ranking at the World Economic Forum and assessed as the most sustainable bank globally by the Dow Jones Sustainability Index. We take our sustainability credentials very seriously. Our focus has always been on anticipating emerging environmental challenges for our business and our customers and developing practical products and services in response. While Westpac does not comment on matters relating to specific companies or projects we do want to emphasise that we take a great deal of care to ensure that any projects we support within the natural resources sector comply with appropriate environmental controls. All large scale infrastructure projects are subject to comprehensive review under Westpac’s Sustainability Risk Management Framework. This would include assessment against the Equator Principles framework, a best practice voluntary environment and social risk assessment framework, of which Westpac was a founding member globally in 2003. As part of Westpac’s approach, we commission independent due diligence on high impact projects and work with our customers to ensure that environmental risks are identified and mitigated. If we are not comfortable with the risk profile of a project, we will not proceed with the transaction. Today, our focus is on developing solutions and working with customers to support projects that use clean energy technologies and that are making the transition to a carbon-constrained operating environment. This includes making available $8 billion in for lending and investment to the CleanTech and environmental services sector in 2014, well ahead of our target of making up to $6 billion available to this sector by 2017. During this period we also reported that 59% of our infrastructure and utilities financing in Australia and New Zealand was for renewable energy and hydro sources. This is data we have been publicly reporting for a number of years. We are closely monitoring the UNESCO review decision around the status of the Great Barrier Reef as a World Heritage site and ongoing discussions on a negotiated way forward for managing infrastructure development along the coastline in a sustainable manner. Westpac are determined to play a constructive and positive role in the transition that is needed and will work with all of our customers to make this happen. I hope that this is helpful in providing you with additional perspective on our views and approach. Please do contact me again if you have any further questions or concerns. Kind Regards, Siobhan Toohill
Posted on: Sun, 30 Nov 2014 07:33:34 +0000
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