Guided by our vision to become Australia’s most-trusted wellbeing company, Australian Unity is committed to measuring the impact of our products, services and operations through environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria.
As one of Australia’s original social enterprises with a history dating back to 1840, we seek to create social impact value as we tackle some of Australia’s biggest challenges—like helping people get better access to healthcare, creating infrastructure to cater for an aging population, supporting living in place, building financial resilience and minimising our environmental footprint.
The 'Our Impact 2023' report documents our impact on the community and the environment, with a particular focus on social impact—an area that's been close to our hearts since our very beginning.
Using our Community & Social Value Framework (developed in conjunction with social impact specialists, Social Ventures Australia), we’ve been able to value in terms of dollars the positive impact we’ve had across our key areas of impact—lifelong wellness, economic empowerment and strong communities.
Read more about how we deliver community and social value, how we value our impact and our ESG efforts in our latest Our Impact report.
Read Our Impact 2023 report
As a mutual founded more than 180 years ago, positive change is in our DNA. We've created jobs in the Great Depression, supported free education and measured Australians' wellbeing—among other initiatives. Today, we’re one of Australia’s largest member-owned wellbeing organisations.
Our impact historyAs a member-owned wellbeing company, the desire to create positive social impact is at our very core. From our very beginning, we've recognised our responsibility to do the right thing and contribute to the social and wellbeing challenges our community faces—both now and in the future.
Measuring our social impact shows we “walk the talk”. It helps us to measure our performance as a wellbeing company. It holds us accountable and identifies ways in which we can run our business, better. It helps us to drive positive change. And it shows our customers, employees, investors and stakeholders that our products, services and operations can achieve positive outcomes.
Our CSV Framework acts as our "north star", helping us to make the decisions that drive the greatest positive social impact—and then giving us the ability to measure that impact.
It helps us to create a sustainable portfolio by allowing us to objectively measure and forecast future impact value across our businesses; make robust commercial and strategic decisions based on social return on investment; and identify new opportunities for social and commercial growth.
By enhancing our capacity to attract like-minded investors, the CSV Framework is key to driving capital funding and investment which underpins business activities that deliver deep community and social value.
And by enabling us to report—in actual dollar value—our impact when it comes to the wellbeing needs of our customers and community, the CSV Framework helps us to demonstrate our transparency and accountability to current and potential customers and employees.
Our alignment with the UN Sustainable Development Goals
Read more about the UN Sustainable Development Goals at sdgs.un.org
Read Our Impact 2023 reportWe have a long-standing commitment to support better access to healthcare for individuals and the community.
Our diverse range of services, programs, private health insurance coverage and partnerships with other leading healthcare providers enable us to provide healthcare and services in innovative, more convenient and more effective ways to suit each person's needs.
We also create healthcare infrastructure across Australia through our property investments and development activities, providing our communities with increased choice and flexibility, and reducing the growing demand on Australia’s public healthcare system.
Our flagship HPT project is the $1.1 billion development of the Herston Quarter in Queensland— delivering an additional 182-bed specialist rehabilitation hospital and world-class health services to over 100,000 patients per year in a broader health precinct comprising more than 30 health facilities, medical research institutes, university facilities and student accommodation venues.
Poor mental health is one of the biggest health challenges faced by Australians today. More than two in five Australians aged 16-85—some 8.6 million people—have experienced a mental disorder at some point in their life, and one in five have experienced a mental disorder that’s lasted longer than 12 months (ABS 2022).
At Australian Unity, we’re investing in mental health services and partnerships to deliver much needed support to Australians experiencing poor mental health. Through the delivery of multiple mental health services and programs (MindStep, Healing Minds and the Beyond Blue Support Service), we aim to help Australians access support when they need it most.
Australian Unity Wellbeing Index research shows our financial position significantly influences our wellbeing.
It’s why we’re committed to supporting Australians to strengthen their financial security and resilience, so they can feel empowered and confident about their future. This commitment extends to assisting our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and those experiencing economic disadvantage.
We do this by designing tailored initiatives, products and services, as well as providing meaningful and rewarding employment opportunities across our health, wealth and care businesses.
We’re passionate about building financial resilience and ensuring wealth products and investment opportunities are accessible to everyone—as a mutual organisation, it's in our blood.
Through our diverse products, we help our customers and members improve their financial wellbeing at every life stage, from funding their health, education and retirement needs to managing the “complex stuff” like tax and estate planning.
We’ll continue to work towards greater economic inclusion in our community, collaborating with the not-for-profit sector to create ethical financial products, literacy programs and support services, and making these accessible to people experiencing financial hardship.
A lot can happen in 10 years. Which is why it’s important to plan for the future and save for all of life’s stages. Since 2020, Australian Unity’s 10Invest investment bond has been helping Australians do exactly that.
A low cost and tax-effective product, 10Invest helps people to plan for their future goals and aspirations by harnessing the power of compound interest over a period of ten years. The bond is a simple, online and accessible investment bond that offers tax effectiveness not available through traditional savings and investment products
As part of our commitment to reconciliation, we actively identify, foster and build mutually beneficial relationships with Indigenous businesses that lead to positive social and economic outcomes.
In the past 12 months alone, we’ve spent $3 million on procuring goods and services, such as office supplies, from Indigenous suppliers.
Australian Unity’s Indigenous procurement generates $13.44 million in value to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander businesses and community.
Southern Cross Pacific is an Indigenous-owned security company that has been providing security services to Australian Unity’s Melbourne head office. They were chosen as the security partner for Australian Unity due to their experience and quality service and their focus on enhancing the welfare of Indigenous communities.
Through partnering with Southern Cross Pacific, Australian Unity is helping to provide meaningful employment opportunities for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People. Additionally, Southern Cross Pacific invests a portion of their profits back into community initiatives, such as scholarships, youth programs and training services.
As a member-owned company with more than 180 years’ experience in providing care and services, we know how important community is when it comes to our individual and collective wellbeing.
It’s why we actively design and foster strong communities to help support health and wellbeing through the infrastructure we build, our approach to delivering services and care, and our investments in new technology and innovation.
We recognise and champion the role of the private sector in addressing our nation’s growing social infrastructure challenges. While this is traditionally the domain of government and the not-for-profit sector, we believe we have a duty of care to lead solutions that deliver the most impact on our community.
From tackling the lack of suitable and affordable housing to meeting the demands of an aging population and making healthcare more accessible, we’re striving to build strong communities through our innovative products, infrastructure developments and solutions.
At Australian Unity, we drive our social infrastructure efforts with a community or 'place-making’ lens—creating solutions that deliver positive health, community wellbeing and value-for-money outcomes by integrating care, clinical and medical services and other human services into purpose-designed built form and in accessible areas where people can live, work and play.
How we create social infrastructure
Our Specialist Disability Accommodation (SDA) Fund is one of our key social infrastructure initiatives aimed at supporting “living in place”.
As highlighted by the Aged Care Royal Commission, 42 young Australians living with disability are required to enter aged care each week due to the lack of suitable accommodation—often after a long stay in hospital.
The SDA Fund looks to rectify this by investing in high-quality, accessible housing that provides fit-for-purpose accommodation for those living with a disability.
Learn more about our Specialist Disability Accommodation Fund
