Our approach to Corporate Responsibility
When we talk about corporate responsibility we talk about 'doing the right thing' as short-hand for what is a complex agenda. It encompasses everything from managing the social and environmental impacts of our business, understanding and responding to stakeholder priorities, being prepared to make short-term trade-offs for the sake of longer-term future gains, and have a real commitment to accountability and transparency.
'Doing the right thing' – or corporate responsibility – doesn't sit in isolation to our businesses' core activities. It is, in fact, at the heart of our core business strategy, with a view on driving value over the longer term.
Importantly, this values and principles-driven approach is adding value by reducing risks, enhancing efficiency, positioning us as a preferred employer and contributing to improved customer service.
Our Principles for doing business
The first step in our corporate responsibility journey was to refocus on what we believe in and what the bank stands for, and to make it publicly available. 'Our Principles for doing business' sets out how we aim to conduct ourselves across our business in the areas governance and ethics; employee practices; customer practices; care for the environment; community involvement; and supply chain management.
The Principles are also aligned with the significant global initiatives which promote responsible business practices: for example, the UN Global Compact; ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work; OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises; and the CAUX Round Table Principles for Business.
Our Principles apply across the entire Westpac Group and we report our performance against them annually through out financial and non-financial reporting.
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Our approach to reporting
Westpac's non-financial report – or Stakeholder Impact Report as we call it – sets out Westpac's non-financial performance across more than 110 indicators covering the environmental, social and governance aspects of our business.
The Stakeholder Impact Report is firmly aligned with our financial reporting, providing all of our stakeholders with the 'full story' on our performance, both financial and non-financial.
Our Stakeholder Impact Report is based on the 2006 – "G3" – Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Guidelines. The GRI guidelines – in the form of principles and indicators – aim to provide comparability and consistency between sustainability reporting, worldwide. We supplement this with two sector-specific frameworks for financial institutions: Social Performance Indicators for the Financial Industry (SPI-Finance) and Environmental Performance Indicators for the Financial Industry (EPI-Finance).
We continue to complement these frameworks with additional, specific indicators to ensure we capture the most material issues for our stakeholders. These are developed through our continuing engagement with stakeholders.
Most crucially, the Stakeholder Impact Report is independently assured and verified against the AA1000 Assurance Standard. This comprehensive process provides credibility around the content of the report and ensures the report is produced according to a strict set of guidelines, ensuring that: material issues are reported; that these issues are broadly understood by the organisation; and that Westpac is responding to these key issues.
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Governance
Our formal governance structure ensures that corporate responsibility is part of the way we do business.
At its heart is a Board Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability Committee which reviews the social and ethical impacts of our policies and practices and oversees initiatives to enhance Westpac's corporate responsible practice. The Committee is on an equal footing with other established Board Committees.
More broadly, our approach has always been to ensure that responsibility for delivering on our commitments sits with each and every employee. We feel quite strongly that it is people dealing with issues on a day-to-day basis who are best positioned to understand the risks or develop innovative solutions.
Learn how we engage with our stakeholders and how key sustainability issues are managed across our business.
Commitments
We are members of or signatories to a number of multi-stakeholder and international organisations and agreements dedicated to raising corporate responsibility performance.
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