Commonwealth Bank Continues Its Commitment To Earth Hour

Commonwealth Bank Continues its Commitment to Earth Hour

25 March 2010: With Earth Hour fast approaching, Commonwealth Bank has reaffirmed its commitment towards a sustainable environment.

On Saturday March 27, the Commonwealth Bank Group will switch off more than one million lights in support of Earth Hour. To address its impact on the environment, Commonwealth Bank has set a target to cut its carbon emissions by 20 per cent by June 2013, measured against 2008-09 levels.

Commonwealth Bank Executive General Manager, Tristan Wills, said the Group's participation in Earth Hour is just one way the Group can demonstrate its commitment to the environment.

"As one of Australia's largest organisations, we are committed to proactively reducing our environmental footprint and to raising awareness of environmental issues by reaching out to our 10 million customers and 40,000 staff.

"Setting a carbon reduction target helps us address our direct impact on the environment and creates opportunity for further operational efficiencies," Ms Wills said.

The Group has taken several practical steps to help achieve this target, including:

* Promoting the use of paperless statements since January 2008 which has resulted in more than 1.5 million customers with deposit accounts and over 400,000 with credit card accounts making the switch to online statements; * Recycling EFTPOS terminals, resulting in up to 98 per cent of materials being recovered and used to manufacture other items;
* Automating overnight shutdown of over 36,000 desktop computers across the Bank;
* Consolidating commercial spaces to provide higher levels of energy and water efficiency;
* Developing a fleet upgrade policy which specifies the most efficient vehicles and fuel to use;
* Supporting Clean Up Australia Day, providing support to over 7,000 Clean Up sites across the country.

For more information on what Commonwealth Bank is doing to help support a sustainable environment visit commbank.com.au

Earth Hour is on Saturday, 27 March at 8:30pm (local time).

ENDS

George Pank
Commonwealth Bank
Ph: (02) 9118 1731
Email: [email protected]


SOURCE: Commonwealth Bank of Australia