Our customers care deeply about nature: key results from our survey with Melbourne Biodiversity Institute

Last year, with the assistance of experts at the Melbourne Biodiversity Institute, we surveyed more than 2,500 of our customers. ¹

We wanted to understand their levels of awareness of nature issues, their levels of concern about these issues and to find out the amount of control they feel they can have to address their issues.

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What did the survey find?

Our customers feel connected to nature

• ‍‍Customers showed very high levels of awareness of nature issues, particularly surrounding pollution (91%), global warming (79%) and species extinction (72%).
• Our customers rated higher levels of connection to nature than the general public. For example, 96% of customers report enjoying spending time in nature, compared to 85% of the general public.
• 96% of customers said nature helps them deal with stress, compared to 75% of the general public.
• 83% of customers feel that they are a part of nature, compared to 63% of the general public.

Our customers are concerned about nature

• Only 29% of Bank Australia customers believe the state of Australia’s environment is ‘good’ or ‘very good’, compared to 65% of the general public.
• Our customers are concerned about nature issues, with more than 75% selecting ‘moderately’ or ‘extremely’ concerned about the issues shown in the survey.
• Despite high levels of concern about nature issues, more than 50% of customers said they feel like they had no control over nature issues such as land clearing.

Our customers support action on nature

• The majority of customers are already acting to protect nature or are willing to in the future. With 64% of customers regularly making an effort to reduce water usage at home, 66% avoiding or minimising the use of harmful chemicals and 62% of customers regularly prioritising buying locally grown produce.
• 84% of customers support Bank Australia introducing more nature policies.

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How are we taking action on nature?

Bank Australia’s nature and biodiversity strategy sets out our goals for a 2030 where nature is protected and recovering.

We’re the only Australian bank with a conservation reserve. Through our work regenerating and protecting the reserve since 2008 we’ve seen that nature repair takes time. That’s why it’s critical to protect what we have now and secure healthy ecosystems for the future.

Our nature and biodiversity strategy sets out what comes next for Bank Australia and how we’ll take action to increase engagement with nature and show leadership in the transition to a nature positive economy.

Taking action together through this strategy is one way that our customers – especially those who feel like they have little control over nature issues – can make a difference for nature.

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What’s our nature and biodiversity strategy?

Our nature and biodiversity strategy has 3 core action areas that we’ll focus on as we work towards a 2030 where nature is protected and recovering.

1. Awareness and engagement
   • Engaging with nature is good for our mental and physical health and helps us understand the ecosystems we all depend on - for our lives and our livelihoods.
   • Australia is home to some of the world’s most unique nature and biodiversity, but biodiversity loss has been accelerating and we urgently need to take action prevent the worst of the biodiversity crisis.
   • Bank Australia will work with our customers and partners to identify the best ways for us to discover, engage with and protect nature.
2. Products and services
   • Banks can protect nature and biodiversity through high integrity markets, and we’re working on product and services that enable us to lead the transition to a nature positive economy.
3. Leadership
   • We believe it’s our responsibility to protect what we have now and leave behind a healthy planet for future generations. That’s why we’ll be advocating for systems change that support a nature positive economy.

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Working together for nature and biodiversity

Protecting and restoring nature is just as crucial as climate action when it comes to a future where people and the planet thrive.

Banking can be a powerful force for good. Through our strategy, our customers are helping work towards a world where nature is protected and recovering.

We’ll continue to stay in touch about progress on our nature and biodiversity strategy, and with further customer surveys over time.

Find out more about the of the nature survey report
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