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Our mortgage portfolio is by far the largest source of our emissions – over 90% of our emissions come from the energy use of the homes we fund through loans.

• The graph above shows our trajectory for reducing the emissions from our mortgage portfolio aligned with our science-based target to 2030, and then to our own net zero target by 2035

Science-based targets for real estate are calculated on a per m² basis, which means we’re tracking how many kilograms of CO₂-e there are from each m² of floor space we fund.

It’s also good practice to track what this means in absolute terms – based on our projections of how many homes we’ll be funding in 2030, we estimate that we’ll need to reduce our absolute emissions by 49% by 2030, down to a total of 50,000 tonnes CO₂-e /year by 2030.

To reduce emissions from our mortgage portfolio, we’ll be supporting customers to decarbonise their homes via clean energy upgrades like onsite renewables, energy efficiency and going all electric.

We’ve offered our Clean Energy Home Loan since 2020, so we have some experience in encouraging and supporting customers to make energy-efficiency improvements. An increasing number of households have solar and, as the grid decarbonises, emissions from electricity are decreasing.

This means that we want to put a greater focus on electrification, and working out how we can support households to get off gas and cut their emissions. We've started this work by launching our Electrify Your Home pilot program.

We’ve also got a lot of work to do on our data, which we explain in more detail below.

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Our commercial real estate portfolio is smaller than our mortgage portfolio, but we’re still planning to reduce emissions.

• The graph above shows our trajectory for reducing the emissions from our mortgage portfolio aligned with our science-based target to 2030, and then to our own net zero target by 2035

Science-based targets for real estate are calculated on a per m² basis, which means we’re tracking how many kilograms of CO₂-e there are from each m² of floor space we fund.

It’s also good practice to track what this means in absolute terms – based on our projections of how many homes we’ll be funding in 2030, we estimate that we’ll need to reduce our absolute emissions by 58% by 2030, down to a total of 2,000 tonnes CO₂-e /year by 2030.

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To estimate these financed emissions, we’ve taken the number of properties we fund and the state they’re located in, and multiplied them by average floor space and emissions estimates per state.

These emissions estimates are from sources including: average household scope 1 and 2 energy consumption per state from the Australian Energy Regulator, average commercial building use from Energy Star and Sustainability Victoria, and emissions factors from the National Greenhouse Accounts Factors for emissions factors.

According to PCAF’s data quality scoring, these estimates have a data quality score of 5 (where 1 is best quality and 5 is lowest quality). So long as we’re only using averages, we won’t be able to see how the actions our customers take are cutting our collective emissions. We know that to track progress against our targets over time, we’re going to need better data.

We’re working on a plan to improve our data over the next few years as a key way for us to be able to know whether we’re on the right track to meet our science based target.

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We’ve also set validated targets related to emissions from our operations. Even though emissions from our operations contribute less than 2% of our total emissions, it’s important to make sure we’ve got our house in order.

We’ve set targets to:

• continue purchasing 100% renewable electricity for our operations through 2030 – we’ve been doing this since 2019, and we plan to keep doing this until 2030 (and beyond)
• reduce our scope 1 and 2 emissions by 42% by 2030 (from a 2021 base year*)

      - Our scope 1 emissions are from vehicles and some gas use in our buildings – we’re planning to switch our company vehicles to electric         and reduce gas use

       - Our scope 2 emissions are already 0 because we run on 100% renewable electricity

• reduce our scope 3 category 1 – 14 emissions by 42% by 2030 (from a 2021 base year*)

-    These are the emissions in our value chain like staff commute, flights, hotels, working from home and key suppliers

See the full wording of our validated 2030 science-based target.

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