here&now

New look for news&views

I’m Patrick, Savings & Loans’ Public Relations and Corporate Social Responsibility Coordinator. Part of my job is putting together news&views, our quarterly newsletter that helps members keep up to date with what’s happening at Savings & Loans and offers tips for managing their money.

You should all be aware of Savings & Loans’ commitment to reducing our environmental footprint. We’ve recently introduced electronic statements and thousands of members now receive their monthly or quarterly statements via the Internet. 

In line with this, news&views is now moving online. Members won’t receive a newsletter with their statement anymore and will be able to access all of the latest news from Savings & Loans through our website. Moving news&views online should save more than 4.5 million pieces of paper every year, which will go a long way to reducing our environmental footprint.

We want to make sure that news&views has the information you’re interested in. If you’ve got something to say about news&views, or have any ideas for a story, we’d like to hear from you.

Just leave your message in the comment box and we’ll collate all the feedback for our next edition.

In the meantime, have a look at the new look news&views at savingsloans.com.au/membernews

Electronic statements launch set

Hi everyone. I’m Sarah Cutbush, General Manager Marketing and Development at Savings & Loans. Among other things, I’m responsible for the credit union’s environmental initiatives and marketing material, including statements.

I’m really pleased that after a lot of internal testing, Savings & Loans will be introducing electronic statements (“e-statements” for short) for our members from tomorrow. This is going to be a big help in reducing our impact on the environment and making it easier for our members to take care of their accounts.

Over the past 12 months, we used more than 3.5 million pieces of paper to print our statements – that’s a huge amount no matter how you look at it. This is without a doubt our biggest use of paper. If as many of our members as possible access their statements online, we can put a big dent in the amount of paper we consume.

You’ll be able to sign up for electronic statements through a secure service in Internet Banking. Then, every month (or every quarter, depending on what sort of accounts you have) we’ll send you an email letting you know that a new statement is available. You then log on to Internet Banking to view or download and save your statement.

Statements will display in PDF format, meaning you can save them to your computer, search through them and back them up regularly. You’ll also be able to print your statement in case you need to provide it for a loan application, or anything similar.

Of course, all of your electronic statements will be saved on our system in case anything happens to your home computer.

There’s a lot more information in the Internet Banking user guide on the Savings & Loans website.

To celebrate the launch of electronic statements, we’re partnering with Conservation Volunteers Australia to plant 5,000 native trees on South Australia’s Hindmarsh Island. Staff will be heading down there in the next couple of weeks to get the project started and we’ll be sure to update you with some photos!

Sarah

Cycling might be just the thing we've been looking for

One thing I'll always commend the Savings & Loans staff on is the way that they embrace new ideas and the passion they have for getting behind worthwhile initiatives. The hundreds of hours they spend volunteering every year is obviously a great example of this, as is the enthusiasm everyone at Savings & Loans has shown to becoming more environmentally-conscious in the workplace: anyone caught leaving a light on in their office is very quickly brought back into line!

Sometimes the deep interest of our staff is unintended, but still very much welcome. When we started sponsoring the Savings & Loans Cycling Team we had no idea of the direction the team would take. In the past few years they’ve moved from a group of amateur riders taking on mainly state-based competition to a professional outfit that has just returned from racing in Japan.

On top of this, many of our staff have taken a keen interest in cycling – both in the recreational and commuting sense. We’ve had groups of staff members take on the Savings & Loans Coast to Coast, events with the Tour Down Under and the epic Around the Bay in a Day. There’s also a growing number of staff riding their bikes into work, which has more benefits than you might realise at first.

One of the cyclists at work sent me a link to a news story a month or so ago about a report that states cycling saves taxpayers more than $290 million a year in terms of health and traffic costs. Now these are obviously some big numbers and I haven’t had time to read the full report but even if the savings are half those listed, getting on the bike could become more important and common as things happen.

You only have to look at the popularity of the Tour de France to see how big cycling is in some parts of the world. And with names like Robbie McEwen and Cadel Evans making headlines here and overseas, it looks like things can only get bigger.

Australians seem to be catching on to the cycling bug, with events like the Tour Down Under and Herald Sun Tour bringing some of the best teams in the world to our shores. I know there’s been discussion lately about tensions in the ProTour, of which the TDU is a part, but I don’t think that will have a big impact on people taking up the sport recreationally.

Infrastructure is obviously an important factor in encouraging people to get use their bikes more. There just aren’t enough bike lanes and cyclists need to be on their toes (figuratively speaking) when riding through city streets. Also, I’ve often wondered what road designers think cyclists are meant to do when bike lanes come to an end – are they expected to turn around and go back to where they came from?

Workplaces need to make accommodation for cyclists, too. Obvious facilities such as bike racks and emergency tool kits need to be available, but if cycling becomes more popular in a workplace then extra changing room and locker facilities are also required. Maybe employers need to become more flexible with start and finish times so their staff can get to work a little later in the morning, or earlier so they’re not riding home in the dark?

Of course, as well as the health benefits of getting more exercise – something many of us could take on board – riding a bike for transport rather than recreation could help relieve some of the pressure of rising fuel prices. It’s probably not practical for doing the weekly shopping (unless you attach a small trailer!) but for short trips it could be perfect. I’m sure we’ve all seen cyclists overtaking us as we’re waiting at traffic lights on the way to work!

Cycling to work obviously isn’t a possibility for everyone (or even in all seasons). I know that a 50km round trip in the wind and rain isn’t really appealing for most people, and your options are severely limited if you live in the outer suburbs. If you ride to work, what are some tips you can offer others?

If you don’t jump on a bike to commute, what do you think could make you change your mind?

Looking back on 2007

At the start of this year I posted some predictions for what would happen in 2007. With the end of the year approaching fast, it’s time to see how accurate my predictions were.

• The global public will become more aware of the damage we’re doing to our environment and will make even more positive changes to protect it. Pressure will be put on businesses to act, but the changes will take time to filter through.

I think the importance of taking care of our environment is really starting to sink in with people. Big businesses are starting to take note, and governments are beginning to enforce and encourage people to be more sustainable. While it’s true that every little bit helps, we won’t start seeing big improvements to our environmental impact until we significantly shift our main industries – something that will take decades to do an economically-viable way. The recent change of government may also help speed up the rate of change.

• Carbon trading will begin on a small scale, with national and international plans to be considered. Governments won’t be involved in the initial carbon trading schemes, but consumers will recognise green businesses.

The Australian Climate Exchange launched in July and Australia is moving closer to setting firm targets for reducing our carbon emissions.
It’s promising to see more businesses and consumers taking up ‘green’ products. We’ll be launching some new green products early in the new year, so stay tuned.

• Sea levels will continue to rise and more of the Artic and Antarctic regions will disappear, possibly forever.

The risk of rising sea levels leaving millions of people homeless is greater than ever. The repercussions of this would obviously be severe, both for the people directly involved and the countries that would need to care for these ‘environmental refugees’.

• Technology will push change in the finance industry and consumers will have more control over how they interact with their financial institution.

We’re already starting to see technology move quickly, with trials underway around the world into the possibility of using mobile phones instead of credit or debit cards. More people are using SMS technology and Internet Banking to stay in touch with their credit union or bank, and I can only see this increasing as technology develops.

• Big banks will realise what credit unions have known for years: the way to make people happy and loyal is to offer them high levels of customer service and give them the attention they need.

I think this change is being made very quietly as banks start to realise just how important being friendly and open is to people. They finally seem to see the value in opening new branches – something we’ve been doing consistently for years!
Credit unions will always have an advantage over banks when it comes to great service – we don’t exist to make profits for shareholders, just provide excellent products and services to our members.

• Business leaders will open lines of dialogue with their staff to improve morale, customer satisfaction, efficiency and, ultimately, profit. Businesses will change to suit their staff, rather making everyone follow one model.

Employers are almost being forced to do this by the market. With unemployment at the low rate it is at the moment, employees are in a fantastic position to create working environments that suit them. Businesses also need to understand what’s important to people – I mean, what will a prospective employer say when an potential employee asks about their carbon footprint!

• Both Adelaide-based AFL teams will do better than last season!

One out of two isn’t bad! The mighty Power moved from twelfth at the end of the 2006 minor rounds to second in 2007, while the Crows fell from second to eighth. I think it’s best to forget about the finals…

Look out for my predictions for next year early in 2008.

Until then, I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas surrounded by family and friends.

Greg

Adelaide lags in public transport

It was interesting to read yesterday that more people drive to work in Adelaide than any other Australian capital city, especially given my post on Friday about Savings & Loans’ first Green Day.

I can’t say that I’m particularly surprised by the findings, given Adelaide’s geography and the fact that our metropolitan area spreads so far north and south of the CBD. This ‘urban sprawl’ is compacted by the fact that we have a population of just over a million people, making it very expensive to provide public transport services in these areas.

I’m happy to say that Savings & Loans’ staff use public transport more than other Adelaide residents. A survey we ran last year showed 38.1% of our staff use public transport to travel to work, while the figures in today’s article state that only 9.9% of locals do the same thing.

As well as encouraging our staff to use public transport, we benefit from having a large proportion of our workforce based in Adelaide’s CBD – somewhere that is relatively easy to access via public transport. Having said that, we still have 25% of our staff driving to work alone – and I have to admit that I’m one of them.

With the strange hours I sometimes work and the number of functions and meetings I attend after hours, it would just be impractical to catch the bus or train everywhere. But I’ve taken steps to reduce my impact on the environment – I drive a Smart Car and use Savings & Loans’ partnership with Carbon Neutral to offset its carbon emissions.

I can’t see a time when we’ll all use public transport and get rid of our cars, but I hope we’ll start to drive ourselves less and less.

Greg