CARBON NEUTRAL
National Carbon Offset Standard and Carbon Neutral Program
CASE STUDY: National Australia Bank
NAB is a financial services organisation that provides a comprehensive and integrated range of banking and financial products and services, including wealth management with operations in Australia, New Zealand, parts of Asia, the United Kingdom and the United States.
NAB is committed to doing the right thing by its customers and the communities in which it operates. That’s why in 2007 it was the first Australian bank to commit to achieving carbon neutrality by 2010. NAB achieved this goal through a range of activities including energy efficiency, switching to less emissions intensive fuels and purchasing renewable energy and carbon offsets.
The NAB Group’s global operations reached carbon neutrality in 2010 and NAB’s Australian operations have been certified under National Carbon Offset Standard (NCOS) since this time.
The business case for obtaining carbon neutral certification
The drive to become carbon neutral came from NAB’s leadership team as well as its employees, customers, suppliers and the community. Carbon neutrality was relatively new terminology at the time, and there had previously been some confusion across Australian businesses as to what exactly this term meant and whether companies claiming that they were ‘carbon neutral’ were all taking the same actions. Australian Government certification via NCOS gave NAB an independent and credible basis from which to define its carbon neutrality.
Achieving carbon neutrality
Emissions Snapshot:
Scope 1: 12,291 tCO2-e | Scope 2: 130,096 tCO2-e
Scope 3: 74,092 tCO2-e | Total: 216,479 tCO2-e
Carbon footprint
NAB’s FY2015 Australian GHG emissions were 216,479 tCO2-e. This has been reduced from 255,154 tCO2-e in FY2011 and marks a 15 percent reduction in emissions from our first year of certification.
Emission reductions
NAB’s emissions reductions activities have varied from significant infrastructure installations to changes in equipment and fittings. They have include installation of a tri-generation system at one of its main data centres, solar panels on over 20 branches, and LED lighting installation. NAB also sets minimum Green Star and NABERS Energy requirements for new buildings and major refurbishments. Since NAB’s emission reduction program commenced in 2007, it has seen a 23 per cent reduction in Australian Scope 1 & 2 GHG emissions. This reduction comes despite an increase in demand on NAB’s data centres as customers move to connect digitally in a 24/7 environment.
Offsetting
NAB’s first carbon offset provider was a ceramic tile maker in South America that changed its fuel source from Amazon rainforest timber to agricultural green waste. The GHG reductions came from replacing a non-renewable with a renewable fuel source.
Since the first offsets project, NAB has purchased offsets from more than 30 projects in over 12 countries, and more recently this has included strategic purchase of domestic offsets, from Indigenous savannah burning in line with its vision to be the most respected bank in Australia and New Zealand. NAB has a portfolio approach and incorporates some projects with co-benefits—from health, education, additional environmental activities—in its portfolio. In the past couple of years, a key focus has been on renewable energy projects.
Benefits and outcomes of carbon neutral certification
NAB’s carbon neutral program has delivered significant cost benefits. If NAB had not undertaken the energy efficiency projects it has tracked since 2007, its energy costs would be approximately 50 per cent higher today.
Going carbon neutral is important to NAB teams developing environmental products. In addition to ’walking the talk’ and demonstrating that NAB is taking action and doing the right thing for its customers, learnings from NAB’s direct experience means that knowledge can be incorporated into the development of new environmental product and/or services.
NAB’s carbon neutrality has fostered a sense of pride amongst employees—it is a point of attraction for retaining talent, and of interest to new NAB graduates. It remains one of the most responded to actions NAB has taken as a bank in terms of employee feedback.
Challenges and learnings
NAB believes that transparency, external verification and certification are critical to the credibility of carbon neutral claims. This is certainly one of the more challenging components for achieving NCOS certification, however, this ensures that organisations are held to the highest possible standards.
NAB has a fantastic in house team who drive its environmental program, including its public reporting. This includes NAB employees and suppliers who helped move NAB’s environmental reporting to a cloud based software platform which supports current and future energy and environmental data capture, performance management and reporting needs. NAB also engages assurance providers to audit its carbon neutral position. This provides an extra level of certainty that NAB is reducing its environmental impact in a strategic manner.
“NAB is proud to have been the first NCOS certified Australian bank and to be leading Australian organisations to become carbon neutral and operate in a clean energy future.”
Want to find out more about other organisations who are carbon neutral?
www.environment.gov.au/climate-change/carbon-neutral