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Sustainability at Heartland

Heartland is dedicated to sustainable practices which minimise its environmental impact, positively contribute to its communities and enhance the lives of its people and customers. Heartland’s sustainability strategy is built on three key pillars:

1. Social equity
2. Environmental conservation
3. Economic prosperity.

Download Heartland's 2021 sustainability update, or continue on to learn more about some of the organisation’s main achievements in the sustainability space.

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Social equity

Caring for Heartland’s people, customers and community

The Manawa Ako internship programme has completed its fifth intake, virtually this year due to COVID-19. Manawa Ako was established in 2017 through Heartland’s partnership with the InZone Education Foundation and is designed to provide opportunities for the next generation of Māori and Pasifika to experience working in the financial sector and a corporate environment.

Heartland supports its new and future leaders through leadership programmes dedicated to new people leaders, networks to support women as they grow in their careers, emerging Māori leaders, and aspiring leaders under 35. 

• The Rangatahi (Youth) Advisory Board is a group of employees aged 35 and under whose purpose is to diversify the perspectives of Heartland’s Senior Management Group, and ultimately the Board, by providing unique insights on our people and customers to enhance Heartland’s strategic initiatives. Women make up 57% of the board.
• Kia Eke is a support network and talent development programme for women at an earlier career stage.
• In 2021, 14 employees graduated from Hīkina, Heartland’s Māori leadership programme with Indigenous Growth, and are continuing to build leadership experience through the delivery of initiatives developed during the programme to support Māori at Heartland.
• Annually, Heartland identifies employees to participate in the Rotary Young-Person Leadership Awards – a programme designed to help people under 28 to develop teamwork and communication skills and fulfil their potential as leaders.

Heartland has various committees to enable its people to contribute to its inclusive culture.

• Diversity & Inclusion Committee
• Rainbow Committee
• Manawa Whenua (our network for Māori employees and allies)
• Kainga Pasifika (our Pasifika committee)
• Growing Families group (our group for employees who are parents and caregivers of young children and growing families)

We are dedicated to creating a workplace that is welcoming and inclusive for all people, including becoming New Zealand’s first Hearing Accredited Workplace in 2020, and becoming Rainbow Tick Accredited in 2021.

Heartland has an equitable recruitment strategy, recruitment policy and practices to ensure an equitable hiring process, including training for hiring managers and people leaders on unconscious bias, among other topics.

Heartland’s commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion extends to ensuring we are providing fair pay to our people. In New Zealand, some of the ways we do this is by being a Living Wage Accredited Employer, and through our participation in Mind the Gap pay gap reporting.

• We know that the Financial and Insurance Services industry gender pay gap is 31%, and as at 31 January 2022 our gender pay gap is 23%. While this is lower than the industry average, we are committed to reducing it and our ethnic pay gaps further. Our reporting on ethnic pay gaps is limited to those who choose to identify as Māori or Pasifika. We have work underway to gain a greater understanding of ethnic representation at Heartland, and hope to provide a more accurate representation of ethnic pay gaps over time.
• Gender pay gap: the gap between the median pay of men and women across all New Zealand roles at Heartland is 23%.
• Māori pay gap: the gap between the median pay of non-Māori and Māori across all New Zealand roles at Heartland is 25%.
• Pasifika pay gap: the gap between the median pay of non-Pasifika and Pasifika across all New Zealand roles at Heartland is 25%.

Current pay gaps are as at 31 January 2022 and will be reported on an annual basis in our Annual Report. Heartland’s pay gap reporting includes pay for all New Zealand employees, including base pay and discretionary payments.

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Environmental conservation

Acting as kaitiaki of the natural environment

Heartland is dedicated to reducing our direct impact on the environment, creating business practices that support good environmental outcomes, and creating an internal culture of environmental awareness and conscientiousness.

As a member of the Climate Leaders Coalition, Heartland is measuring and publishing its GHG emissions and has set a reduction target of 35% over the next five years.

• Mandatory GHG emissions reported for FY2020 were 955 tCO2e. This is an absolute reduction of 17% from the 1,157 tCO2e reported for FY2019, plus a significant reduction per business unit once the growth in the overall business is considered.

• The reduction can be attributed to both the initial activities in our emissions reduction plan, as well as the inadvertent reduction in our travel emissions due to COVID-19.

• Read more about our GHG reduction progress in the articles below

Heartland’s vehicle fleet is the single biggest contributor towards its overall GHG emissions. In FY2022, it began the phasing out of its petrol- and diesel-engine fleet, beginning with the replacement of all internal 4WD vehicles (equating 23% of the total fleet) with hybrid alternatives.

• The first of the new hybrids were delivered in January and February 2022, with the remainder expected to arrive by June 2022.

• The 4WD vehicles being replaced are the highest polluters in Heartland’s current fleet. The remaining 77% of the vehicles (2WD petrol cars) will be considered for replacement with hybrid and electric vehicles in the second half of 2022.

Other achievements in environmental conversation are listed below.

• In FY2021, Heartland contracted for certified renewable energy for all New Zealand electricity consumption

• The Heartland Green Team was established in 2020, consisting of Heartland employees who are keen to spearhead sustainability initiatives, both internally within the company and externally to suppliers and customers.

• Through digitalising the signing of documents by customers, Heartland has made the following potential impact:

  o   328,004 sheets of paper saved

  o   39 trees protected

  o   132,854 L of water conserved

  o   13,390 kg of CO2 emissions averted

  o   878 kg of waste avoided

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Economic prosperity

Creating sustainable economic outcomes for our stakeholders

Heartland recognises the importance of positive contributing to the New Zealand and Australian economies, enhancing economic outcomes for customers through digitalisation, and creating sustainable economic value for shareholders.

In FY2021, digitalisation was a significant focus for Heartland, most notably:

• developing a self-serve online home loan application, reducing the cost of onboarding and thereby providing cost-savings for customers in the form of market-leading rates
• building multiple app features designed to create a frictionless in-app experience and save customers valuable time and energy.

Total shareholder return (TSR) was 128.9% over the last five years (17 February 2017 – 17 February 2022) compared with the NZX50 Index TSR of 80.7% in the same period. In FY2022, Heartland declared an interim dividend of 5.5 cps (1.5 cps up on the first half of FY2021), despite the economic challenges presented by COVID-19, including the RBNZ restrictions on dividends by banks.

Maximum loan-to-value ratios (LVR) were increased on Heartland’s New Zealand and Australian Reverse Mortgage products – the first time LVR limits have increased since 2004, providing customers with increased opportunity to live a more comfortable retirement.

Other achievements and initiatives in economic prosperity are listed below.

• The Heartland team developed a financial literacy programme targeted at New Zealand school leavers, seeking to bridge gaps in financial literacy. Over 270 students and school leavers were introduced to this app during FY2021.
• In response to COVID-19, Heartland launched a product called Heartland Extend designed to give Business and Consumer loan customers the flexibility to increase or decrease their repayment amounts to reflect their current situation. Over $188m was loaned to customers and businesses through Extend as at 30 June 2021.

 

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