Westpac hasn’t been doing too shabby as of late. Last week it announced the New Zealand business has once again outperformed its Australian parent with a 41 percent boost in earnings. And perhaps proving that profitability doesn’t have to come at the expense of sustainability, Westpac also cleaned up at last night’s 2011 NZI National Sustainable Business Network. Westpac was named Sustainable Business of the Year and also took home the People’s Choice and the Trailblazer Large and Corporate Business awards.
Author Sustain Team
Every year the Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes Review (DJSI World) provides a global analysis of corporate sustainability leadership across 57 sectors, capturing the top 10 percent of the biggest 2500 companies worldwide. Following this year’s assessment, 41 companies will be added to the list while 23 will be deleted. Of note when it comes to the top ranked is PepsiCo, Samsung Electronics and BMW, which is the only company in the automotive industry to be listed in this family of indexes every year since it was established in 1999.
We may have been slow off the mark here in New Zealand to adopt them, but QR (Quick Response) codes are finally making their move, popping up everywhere from outdoor advertising to shampoo bottles. Now, in a more ethical application of the technology, Kiwi company All Good Bananas has announced all its bananas will come equipped with a code, helping connect shoppers with the growers of their fruit — the first time the technology has been used in such a manner in New Zealand.
Showing how widespread sustainability initiatives have spread, everything from banking to architecture was honoured at last night’s Northern Sustainable Business Network (SBN) Awards and even new kid on the directories block Localist managed to score some brownie/greenie points with the judges.