ANZ joins Qantas Future Planet Program

ANZ today announced it has joined the Qantas Future Planet Partnership, a market leading program which partners with businesses to reduce their environmental impact and increase investment in projects such as the protection of wildlife habitats and rainforest preservation. This partnership follows ANZ recently increasing its commitment to fund and facilitate low carbon and sustainable solutions, lifting its original target of $10 billion by 2020, to at least $15 billion by 2020. ANZ Head of Sustainable Finance Katharine Tapley said: “Bringing together business leaders under the Future Planet Partnership allows us to work collaboratively to address some of society’s biggest challenges, including climate change and social and economic disadvantage. “We are more likely to meaningfully contribute to building strong, stable economies and communities, and a clean environment, working with like-minded organisations rather than on our own,” Ms. Tapley said. Initial commitments under the ANZ partnership agreement include:

• Regular forums with government stakeholders, NGOs and Australian listed companies to explore how the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals can help shape business strategy.
• ANZ to source a portion of its premium carbon offsets through Qantas. These projects have been verified to the highest international standards for emissions reductions, environmental outcomes and community benefits.

Since 2010, ANZ’s global business operations have been net carbon zero. During this period its carbon footprint has been reduced by more than 63,000 tonnes in Australia alone. It has also introduced a science-based target to reduce its own global operational emissions, and a target to increase consumption of renewable energy in its Australian premises. Qantas Future Planet has offset more than three million tonnes of carbon emissions over the past ten years – the equivalent of taking 1.1 million cars off the road.