The world's most sustainable bank named - and it's Aussie

Westpac has been ranked the world's most sustainable bank, according to the recently published 2017 Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (DJSI) review.

Retaining its position for the fourth consecutive year, this is the 10th time Westpac has received the global sustainability leadership position.

Westpac NZ chief executive David McLean says the accolade recognises the strong culture around sustainability issues that permeates every aspect of the Westpac business.

"Some people think sustainability is purely about environmental initiatives, but it's also about addressing social and economic issues.

"So, while we're doing things like reducing our carbon footprint and increasing lending to clean technology businesses, we're also focused on improving New Zealanders' lives through initiatives like our Managing your Money community workshops," McLean adds.

This year, Westpac achieved a DJSI score of 94%. S-P Dow Jones Indices and RobecoSAM, a sustainability investment specialist, rated Westpac's performance strongest in the following areas:

• Corporate citizenship
• Business risks and opportunities
• Environmental and social reporting
• Climate strategy
• Anti-crime policy
• Materiality
• Labour practices.

McLean continues, "Just last night, we hosted the fifth annual Women of Influence Awards with Fairfax Media as a way of promoting the achievements of leading women."

"Similarly, we also champion diversity within the bank and now have more than half of our leadership roles held by women.

The DJSI RobecoSAM Corporate Sustainability Assessment is a global evaluation of how companies manage and perform in social, economic and environmental divisions.

The Assessment reviews business management practices, such as climate change mitigation, corporate community investment, and environmental performance.

Representing the gold standard for corporate sustainability, DJSI is an index for tracking sustainable organisations based on RobecoSAM's annual analysis of financially material Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) factors and S-P DJI's index methodology.

Every year, RobecoSAM assesses the world's largest organisations with its Corporate Sustainability Assessment (CSA), which uses a consistent, rules-based methodology to convert an average of 600 data points per company into one overall score.

This score determines inclusion in the DJSI.