SCCU announce a Sustainability Action Plan, furthering their commitment to care for the places they call home

Southern Cross Credit Union (SCCU) has announced its plans to deliver on a new Sustainability Action Plan (SAP) to address environmental, social and economic challenges that exist today, responding to feedback from the community and customers.

The plan, which outlines their ambition to support sustainability initiatives, partner with experts and reduce their footprint is designed to evolve as progress is made. Built on the existing business strategy, SAP follows the same principals as the SCCU mission to ‘make things easier’ and focuses on sharing the journey in the hopes that their path can help pave others. “Everything can feel overwhelming, particularly with a topic like sustainability. We want to bring people along the journey, involve them, make any learnings we discover accessible and celebrate the small wins” says Toni Anstiss who is leading the sustainability focus within SCCU.

Developed in partnership with Sustainability Advantage, the plan has four themes:

Engaging All People

Through engagement, shared-learning, collaboration and open communication we strive to partner for environmental and social good, influencing change and embedding a culture of sustainability that extends beyond our team.

Managing Our Impact

Adapting our operations to reduce carbon emissions and constantly looking at ways to improve of process and procedures to ensure we are acting responsibly and playing our part to manage our impact on the environment.

Developing Sustainable Finance

By providing individuals, families, businesses and groups’ with financial products and services that reward sustainable choices and we aim to improve financial wellbeing.

Acting With Integrity

Acting as a responsible business goes beyond our role in finance. We seek to better understand, work with and engage our suppliers, partners and customers to ensure ethical practices are upheld.

Already having made significant advances in-house including a recycling program that has reduced waste by a massive 88%, CEO Stuart Edwards says “The sustainability plan formalises what has always been a part of our identity. Caring for our community at SCCU goes beyond just people, it’s where they live, where they grew up and where their kids play. We don’t support coal mining and have always looked to partner with those who can have a real impact, whether that be practical or educational. We know there’s a long way to go and want to be part of the change to help influence those around us to make conscious choices, that benefit us all and future generations”.

Following the year that was, SCCU surveyed customers to better understand where priorities had shifted, and where sustainability fits in “It’s a great sense of achievement to know that we are heading in the right direction and that our customers want to come on this journey with us. Being influencers in environmental stewardship means we are action takers, we are proactive in our sustainable practices, efforts and what we focus on. As the saying goes, “Actions speaker louder than words”. says Toni Anstiss

As a first step SCCU has launched a Sustainability landing page which includes a downloadable overview of SAP, what’s been achieved so far and an open invitation for those looking to follow along, to sign up.

https://www.sccu.com.au/sustainability