Sustainability commitments

bankmecu has made a series of commitments to sustainable development, which are included in bankmecu’s three year Sustainability Covenant with EPA Victoria. Progress against bankmecu’s Sustainability Covenant commitments are outlined in Chapter 1 ‘Sustainability commitments and performance summary’. 

In 2003 bankmecu became a signatory to the United Nations Statement by Financial Institutions on the Environment and Sustainable Development (UNEP FI). This commitment has been reflected in bankmecu’s Sustainability Covenant. 

Figure 10a: bankmecu’s reporting guidance

In 2010, bankmecu also became a signatory to UN Global Compact (UN GC) and UN Principles for Responsible Investment (UNPRI). These commitments are addressed in this Report.

For additional information about UNEP FI, UN GC and UN PRI refer to Chapter 1 'External commitments'.

Stakeholder feedback on the 2009/10 Report

To assist in the development of bankmecu’s 2010/11 Annual Report, bankmecu provided the opportunity for stakeholders visiting bankmecu’s website to offer their feedback by completing a Sustainability Strategy and Reporting Survey on-line.

The purpose of the questionnaire was to ascertain the views of key bankmecu stakeholders with respect to bankmecu’s 2009/10 Sustainability Report and sustainability performance to date. The questionnaire addressed the requirements of the AA1000 Assurance Standard.

Thirty-seven stakeholders contributed to the survey between 30 September 2010 and 13 July 2011. Questions specifically relating to the Sustainability Report received a lower response rate compared to the questions relating to bankmecu’s sustainability strategy, with the majority of questions only answered by eight respondents.

The key findings with regard to the 2009/10 Sustainability Report are shown below.

• Eighty per cent of respondents felt that the bankmecu report is of equal or higher quality compared to other sustainability reports.
• Seventy–eight per cent of respondents would refer to the report once a year or never. Twenty-two per cent would refer to the report once every three months or more.
• Sixty–three per cent of respondents rated bankmecu’s responsiveness, in terms of addressing their concerns, and adequately communicating their concerns in the report as moderate to very good and 37.5% rated bankmecu’s responsiveness as poor to very poor.
• The majority of respondents found the report moderate to very good in terms of completeness and for providing good coverage of material sustainability issues.
• Sixty-three per cent of respondents rated the balance of economic, environmental and social aspects of sustainability performance contained within the report as moderate to very good.
• The majority of respondents rated bankmecu’s coverage, completeness and performance of its material sustainability issues with regard to its economic, environmental, social and integrated performance as moderate to very good, with integrated performance receiving the lowest rating across all key areas combined.
• Fifty per cent of respondents found the report biased and 50% of respondents found the report unbiased.
• The aspects of the report rated highly included discussion/textual information, graphical presentation of information and case studies.
• Sixty-seven per cent of respondents prefer the report on-line, rather than a printable PDF or hard copy. The remaining respondents preferred a printable PDF.
• Seventy-eight per cent of respondents consider the value of independent verification important or very important.

Materiality assessment

Material information enables management and stakeholders to make sound judgements and take action to influence organisational performance. bankmecu conducted an internal review to identify bankmecu’s material sustainability issues. This included reviewing the findings of the Sustainability Report and Sustainability Strategy Survey, Customer Insight Survey and Staff Survey and other stakeholder engagement activities. For information on other stakeholder engagement activities conducted by bankmecu, refer to Chapter 3 ‘Stakeholder engagement’.

Senior Management met to discuss and determine any significant changes to bankmecu’s stakeholder materiality for the 2010/11 report that could have an impact on bankmecu achieving its objectives. The AccountAbility 5-part materiality test was utilised to determine which material issues were the most important to ensure the sustainability of bankmecu operations. This required balancing stakeholder concerns with the needs of the company to maintain its values and value approach to banking. Material issues identified by stakeholder groups were considered in relation to the factors below: 

• direct short and longer-term financial performance
• bankmecu’s ability to deliver on its strategy and policies
• best practice norms exhibited by peers
• stakeholder behaviour and concerns; and
• societal norms, particularly where linked to possible future regulation.

The material issues identified in Table 10a were deemed relevant and important during the 2011 materiality assessment conducted by Senior Management. 

Table 10a: Materiality issues identified and bankmecu's response

New material issues identified in 2011 included: 

• Regional community issues
• Becoming carbon neutral

Competition in the marketplace was modified to include lending slow-down / fees and charges. 

Issues of material importance are reflected in bankmecu’s Sustainability Covenant and future sustainability strategy.