Environmental Impact
What goes around
The challenge of shrinking our environmental footprint as our business expands is one we take very seriously. We’re committed to being carbon neutral by 2012 but our main focus right now is on reducing CO² emissions. We want to change behaviour, not just excuse behaviour - which is why we’ll use carbon credits only when we’ve reduced our footprint as far as possible. We reduced our CO² emissions by 9% in the last year.
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Click on the graph above or here to see more detail on the performance of our environmental indicators.
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But it’s not just about us.
While we’re committed to reducing our own environmental impacts, we know that we can make an even bigger impact by working with, and increasingly selecting, suppliers who also demonstrate a commitment to sustainability.
Green Star
Green Star NZ is New Zealand’s first comprehensive environmental ratings system for buildings. It is used to assess the environmental impact of offices, evaluating building projects against eight environmental impact categories, as well as innovation. Buildings can be awarded four stars (best practice), five stars (New Zealand excellence) or six stars (world leadership). Green features Green features include:
- The building is designed to allow more natural light into the building for comfort and to reduce electricity use.
- Highly efficient lighting that automatically adjusts to natural light levels, so less lighting is used near windows.
- A sophisticated underfloor air conditioning system, one of the first of its kind for an office building in New Zealand. The air rises as it warms and is extracted at the ceiling, saving power.
- Solar water heating.
- Rainwater is collected from the roof for flushing toilets and watering outdoor plants.
- Taps and toilets that use low levels of water.
- Environmentally-friendly products that carry the Environmental Choice label will be used throughout.
- Showers and storage facilities for cyclists and walkers, to encourage people to leave the car at home.
- Designated areas for recycling and waste.
Green outcomes
While there are obvious environmental outcomes like lower energy bills, water conservation and overall reduction in carbon emissions, there are also significant benefits for the company and our employees. We believe that better working conditions will result in greater employee productivity, less absenteeism, stronger employee attraction and improved employee retention.
Every action makes a difference
We’ve put a number of actions in place to reduce emissions and streamline our processes:
- 20 hybrid vehicles in our fleet
- Green Cabs is our preferred taxi provider
- Set up an intranet staff car-pooling notice board
- Reduced night-time lighting through day-time cleaning of premises
- Combined printer, copier and fax functions into single machines to reduce electricity consumption and allow two-sided printing
- Use video-conferencing instead of travelling for meetings
- Collect paper and cardboard in most of our sites for recycling
- Collect glass, tin and plastics for recycling at our main premises
- Recycle printer toner cartridges
- Use recycled paper for office printing
- Reduced paper thickness in pamphlets and brochures
- Use vegetable-based inks and papers from sustainable forest sources and environmentally-accredited manufacturers
- Utilise digital photography to assess damaged vehicles and property wherever possible to reduce travel
- Computer monitors and printers all Energy Star-rated
- Buy Meridian Energy carboNZero renewable electricity
- Use environmentally-friendly cleaning products and toilet tissues.
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