This starts with overall corporate strategy, which is “to promote the financial wellbeing” of the bank’s customers. Feeding into this is ANZ’s purpose, which is “to shape a world where people and communities thrive”. One of the ways ANZ is bringing its purpose to life is through action on complex issues that matter to society and are core to the bank’s business strategy. ANZ is focusing its efforts on financial wellbeing, environmental sustainability and housing.

ANZ sets public sustainability targets which are approved by the Board Ethics, Environment, Social and Governance Committee. Impact and materiality are critical considerations for investors and other stakeholders, so the bank maps its material issues and sustainability targets to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Alongside the 17 SDGs are 169 targets aimed at solving the world’s most pressing sustainable-development challenges: ending global poverty, protecting the planet and ensuring human rights.
Since 2018, ANZ has enhanced the detail of this mapping in its annual ESG supplement.

“We are digging down under the goals to the relevant targets in our reporting,” says Anna Stewart, head of corporate sustainability at ANZ in Melbourne. “We do this to give stakeholders greater clarity on which of those targets we seek to have an impact on. We hope this will provide the ability to aggregate up information not only on what ANZ is doing but also the finance sector in general.”

Many of the SDGs have some relevance to ANZ and it aligns at least some of its targets with more than half the goals. A number of the SDGs fit especially well with the bank’s priority areas. SDG 11, sustainable cities and communities, maps to ANZ’s housing targets. Financial wellbeing is another focus for the bank and these targets tend to fall under SDG 1, no poverty. Environmental sustainability targets around renewable energy are also high on ANZ’s agenda, matched to SDG 7, affordable and clean energy.

“Another area of focus is gender diversity and equality – SDG 5. We have had gender targets in place for some years now. We also have employment targets for under-represented groups, such as people with disability, refugees and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders,” says Stewart.

The goals are broad but by mapping them to specific targets ANZ aims to address materiality. Stewart explains: “We are conscious of ‘SDG washing’ – it is easy just to align things to the SDGs, put the SDG logo on and be done with it. This is not our intention, which is why our approach is not just about reporting but also the targets we are setting.”

ANZ’s focus on housing provides an example of the path from aspirational goal to real-world commitment. Stewart explains that housing is a relatively new focus for ANZ in the ESG space and it finalised its first suite of public targets in the sector in 2018. “One of our primary aims is to increase housing supply,” she says. “We have a target to develop more affordable, sustainable homes for people. SDG target 11.1 is to ensure access for all to adequate, safe and affordable housing by 2030. There is direct alignment with what we are doing.”

To this end, ANZ has arranged three social bonds related to housing, one for National Housing Finance and Investment Corporation in Australia and two deals for Kainga Ora – Homes and Communities in New Zealand. Stewart says: “These are a real, direct example of how we are aligning our sustainability and strategic business objectives.”