Each year on 1 March, communities across Australia roll up their sleeves and take part in one of the country’s most recognisable environmental initiatives where volunteers work in small groups to remove rubbish from local parks, beaches and streets. Clean Up Australia Day is a community event reminding everyone that caring for our environment is a shared responsibility that requires collective action year-round.
Clean Up Australia Day was first established in 1990, when Ian Kiernan founded Clean Up Australia to encourage everyday people to care for their local environments. What began as a grassroots effort quickly became a national movement, empowering millions of Australians to take practical action against pollution and environmental degradation. The message has always extended beyond a single day of picking up litter. The organisation works year-round with communities, governments and businesses to promote sustainable living and long-term environmental solutions.
According to Clean Up Australia, Australia now produces around 2.5 million tonnes of plastic waste each year, roughly 100 kilograms per person. Yet only about 13% is recovered, while 84% ends up in landfill.
Even more troubling is the impact on marine ecosystems. Each year, an estimated 130,000 tonnes of plastic enters the ocean from Australian consumption alone. Scientists warn that by 2025, 99% of seabirds worldwide are expected to have ingested plastic, a stark indicator of how deeply pollution is affecting natural systems. These figures highlight a critical environmental challenge that cannot be solved by governments or individuals alone, it’s a collective coordinated effort by whole communities.
What can you do at home? Reduce, reuse, repair, recycle, recover. Starting with these five simple actions can be a practical way to stop litter ending up in our environment and keep more waste out of landfill.
To get involved in Clean Up Australia Day you can register a new clean-up, join an existing one (use the official interactive map to search by postcode or suburb) or donate at https://www.cleanup.org.au/. Clean-ups can be registered any day of the year.
Mutually valuable banking for people and planet
As a member focused, values-driven organisation, acting responsibly and ethically is at the heart of our operations. We are committed to the ongoing promotion and creation of mutual value and strive to make a positive impact for our members and the communities we are part of. It is this sentiment that underpins our Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Strategy - Mutually valuable banking for people and planet.
We are always looking for ways to minimise the impact our business operations have on the environment.
Our head office was recently refurbished to improve efficiency and wellbeing and as part of our commitment to waste reduction, we repurposed much of our existing furniture. Remaining items were made available to staff or donated to Barnardos Australia’s child and family centres and Planet Ark’s City Recycling program. Newly installed water systems, upgraded lighting and presentation technology were selected to reduce resource consumption and improve energy efficiency. This complemented the office’s comprehensive four-bin recycling system for dry-waste, organics, recyclables, and paper - to help prevent contamination, reduce waste and minimise landfill.
We have also undertaken a Greenhouse Gas Assessment to better understand our emissions and identify reduction opportunities, completing our submission to Climate Active, an Australian Government program driving voluntary climate action. Last year, we offset 1,847 tCO2-e using 80% Verified Carbon Units (VCUs) and 20% Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs).
Through our ESG Strategy, we have delivered a number of impact initiatives including recycled PVC cards and environmentally conscious collateral, accessible and inclusive service enhancements, our Essential Worker Home Loan, Green Car Loan, Green Upgrades Loan, Worker Support Benefits and our Responsible Banking Policy.
