Heritage Bank Switches HQ To Renewables

Heritage Bank announced on Friday its Head Office building in Toowoomba, Queensland is now running on 100% renewable energy.

Heritage has roots dating back to 1875 and says it’s one of the largest customer owned banks in Australia.  It recently adopted an Environmental, Social and Governance Policy framework that sets out a range of ways the bank is to operate in a more sustainable way. Among its activities is the popular low-hanging fruit of energy efficiency – fitting low energy lighting in its buildings.

Another step Heritage Bank has recently taken is to subscribe to Ergon Energy’s Clean Energy Program for electricity supply at its Head Office building.

“By signing up to the Clean Energy program, we are promoting the use of renewable energy and helping reduce our reliance on fossil fuels,” said Heritage Bank CEO Peter Lock.

About The Ergon Energy  Clean Energy Program

Available to both residential and business customers, subscribers pay an extra amount on their electricity bills that goes towards the purchase of renewable energy certificates from GreenPower accredited electricity generators.

GreenPower, which has been around since 1997, is a national program but managed by the NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment. Between 2005 to 2020, more than 19 million megawatt-hours of GreenPower accredited electricity had been sold to households and businesses.

In the case of Ergon Energy, the green power comes from wind, hydro and biomass (sugar mill waste) in Queensland.

For residential customers, Ergon’s GreenPower accredited energy costs anything from an additional $10 a quarter (10% supply) to $100 a quarter for 100% supply. For businesses, the current cost is an additional 6.22 cents per kilowatt-hour more than the current applicable business tariff.

Heritage notes its Head Office complex uses around 1.5 million kilowatt hours of electricity a year, so this would be costing approximately $93,300 extra for the first year.

“Taking a more sustainable approach is increasingly important in everything we do, and that applies both to how we operate our business as a whole and to how we use our natural resources,” Mr Lock said.

Other (Cheaper) Renewable Energy Options

Heritage Bank is one of a number of major Australian financial institutions making the switch to renewables in one form or another, and it’s great to see them doing so.

But GreenPower is only one way of going about it – and it should be kept in mind that electricity supply generally is becoming greener as more renewable energy enters the mix, and renewables-based electricity is cheaper.

Some businesses take a more direct approach by installing commercial solar systems on their buildings. To generate the equivalent of what Heritage Bank’s Toowoomba HQ consumes annually would require a ~900kW system. What the payback would be (if such an installation is even viable) is hard to say without knowing what Heritage is paying for electricity, but it should be fairly rapid.

Another option is what’s called a “Power Purchase Agreement” or PPA. This is where a business contracts directly with a renewable electricity generator for whatever amount of supply – and usually this is cheaper than the current mains grid supply rate.

What led to the GreenPower choice as opposed to an on-site (or off-site) solar installation or a PPA isn’t clear. But as Heritage Bank is in the business of bucks, it’s assumed various options were considered and numbers were crunched.