2010
We launched our very first Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP). Our RAP has resulted in community leadership programs, traineeship programs, acknowledgements of country in every branch and a partnership with CSIRO. We’re now on to our 4th RAP that takes us to the Stretch level.
2011
While Rihanna found love in a hopeless place, we found love as the first customer owned bank in Australia. Pre-2011, we were still a credit union so this was pretty exciting for us.
2011 (again)
We became carbon neutral! This means we’ve been measuring, reducing and offsetting our greenhouse gas emissions ever since.
2012
We became the first Australian member of the Global Alliance for Banking on Values (GABV).
2015
Like a mid-life crisis but really good, we had a mid-decade rebrand and became Bank Australia. After bringing together credit unions and mutual from across the country for decades, it was a long time coming but this was the year it all happened.
2016
An exciting year because we issued our first paperless mortgage. If you’ve got a mortgage, you might know that it can involve pages and pages of documents to sign. Dialing that back to 0 pieces of paper (and 0 trees cut down!) was a major moment.
2018
Do you know what a sustainability bond is? This is the year we launched our very own one. The three-year, $125 million bond included assets that help achieve three of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals: reduced inequalities, sustainable cities and communities, and life on land.
2018 (once more)
We launched our new Responsible Banking Policy, becoming the first bank to have a position on not lending to the live animal export trade and intensive animal farming.
2019
Do you know how difficult it is to find a home if you require specialist disability accommodation? This year, we became a founding member of SDAA (Specialist Disability Accommodation Alliance). And we were the first bank in the country to lend to customers for specialist disability accommodation. We’re pretty happy to be supporting specialist, modern accommodation in Victoria, NT and QLD.
2019 (really has been a big year)
We completed the first cultural heritage survey at our Conservation Reserve in August. This is the first time the Berengi Gadjin Land Council have undertaken a voluntary cultural heritage survey, purely to understand the cultural significance of a space – all their other requests have been for compliance before things constructions. The survey identified some amazing sites like scar trees and a women’s area.
What a decade, right?!
