• Business finance for green equipment increased by 59% between April and June 2023
• Businesses in South Australia, NSW and Tasmania are leading growth
• CEO and Founder of car leasing company, CarBon, said the finance option is helping his business make immediate reductions to its carbon emissions.

NAB’s business finance for green equipment surged 59% in the last three months* with many businesses taking advantage of government incentives to upgrade equipment while also reducing their carbon footprint.

The same data shows significant demand for energy efficient agriculture equipment, with finance growing 226%, followed by solar upgrades and electric vehicles, both up 129% and 32% respectively.

NAB Executive for Business Metro Julie Rynski said NAB is working closely with many of its customers to support their transition towards a lower-emissions future.

“There’s an increasing appetite from our business customers to better understand how they can cut their emissions,” Ms Rynski said.

“Recent NAB research shows around one in five SMEs strongly intend to make an investment to improve the sustainability of their business over the next two years.

“Business owners know the value of making smart investments, and in today’s economic environment they’re being extra careful about where they put their money, yet many are choosing to prioritise their climate transition.

“Schemes such as the instant assist write off and proposed small business energy incentive may be helping eligible businesses squeeze the most out of each dollar, driving investment into things like energy efficient farming machinery and electric heating and cooling systems.”

Top states leading growth in financing green equipment include*:

• South Australia is up 380%
• New South Wales up 89%
• Tasmania up 58%
• West Australia up 33%.

“As electric vehicles become more affordable in Australia, many business owners are choosing to invest in sustainable transport by electrifying their fleet,” Ms Rynski said.

“In January we were funding electric vehicles from seven manufacturers, today it’s 12. Tesla still dominates, although we’re seeing a growth in popularity of other brands such as BYD and Volvo.”

CEO and Founder of car leasing company CarBon, Scott Gillespie said NAB’s business finance for green equipment is helping his business make immediate reductions to its carbon emissions while supporting the move to a more sustainable commercial transport model.

“We’ve used the finance option to fund a range of commercial electric vehicles to be used as long-term EV subscriptions for customers from local councils, the construction industry, and last mile delivery,” Mr Gillespie said.

“The transport sector creates a significant percentage of Australia’s emissions, and without intervention it’s projected to be the country’s largest source of emissions by 2030. We will continue to transition our existing fleets of traditional diesel and petrol vehicles over to electric.”

More information:

• *Comparison period: April – June ‘23 vs Jan – Mar ‘23
• More information on business finance for green equipment can be found here
• NAB’s business insights report on why sustainability matters for business can be found here
• Green equipment refers to the categories of vehicles and equipment that NAB has determined are eligible to be financed under its Equipment Finance Green Asset framework. The categories of vehicles and equipment and the criteria which apply to those categories have been developed by NAB and are subject to change.