carboNZero Participant organisations - participant status expired
Participant organisations are small businesses and organisations with a greenhouse gas inventory or carbon footprint less than 50 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2e) that are taking action to reduce their emissions. These organisations are not certified. The participant option is no longer available and has been replaced by the Small Enterprise Certification Programme.
Expired: clients who were on the Participant programme which is now replaced with the Small Enterprise Certification programme, and have not re-certified.
- Attitude Foods - expired
- Fleetworks - expired
- Footprint Adventures - expired
- Helipark New Zealand - expired
- Kingswood Skis - expired
- Quakebake - expired
- REMAX - Craig Lowe - expired
- Sean Weaver - expired
- Sempre Avanti NZ (SANZ) - expired
- Spark PHD and Spark Activate - expired
- SPX Consultants - expired
- Squiz - expired
- SWITCH espresso - expired
- The Workflow Group - expired
- tika merino - expired
- UMR Research - expired
- Wright Communications - expired
Attitude Foods
Attitude Foods makes a variety of delicious food products, including organic dukkahs, mustards, olives, infused oils and sweet and savoury sauces. Sustainability is an important consideration for the overall operations, so participating in the carboNZero programme was a natural, and achievable, inclusion to the business. Based on Waiheke Island (near Auckland), Attitude Foods has participated in the carboNZero programme for several years. Owner Rosie Kaplan says, 'I love that my - albeit small - involvement in the carboNZero programme contributes to forest regeneration projects [for offsetting emissions]. More people are reading labels, so my packaging mentions our participation in the carboNZero programme. My aim is to get people thinking more about carbon emissions and sustainabilty.'
Fleetworks
'FleetWorks is the bespoke Fleet Management Company that has achieved a first in New Zealand by becoming a carboNZero participant. And we’re proud of it too. FleetWorks recognised that advising organisations to reduce emissions and become more environmentally friendly was only part of the solution. Yes we could provide more environmentally friendly transport solutions. Yes we could recommend adopting sustainable approaches and policies. It isn’t a good look to be preaching change without having first done it yourself. So the team at FleetWorks decided to follow the carboNZero path. FleetWorks' team of Graeme, Brian, Anne, Sajid, Andrew and Liyana all contributed to achieving the goal and making change part of our working lives. Over the next few years our clients, and future clients, will face huge challenges in meeting transport needs and environmental concerns. By adopting carboNZero FleetWorks can assist and advise based on actual experience.'
Footprint Adventures
Footprint Adventures provides unique adventures to New Zealand festivals and events. Adventures range from a short weekend away to two weeks, and are exclusively for 5 to 10 people. Footprint Adventures is one of New Zealand's first tourism companies to put its hand up to be accountable for the carbon emissions that its business will generate. 'We called ourselves Footprint Adventures to reiterate the company's carbon neutral goal to "take photos, but leave no carbon footprint". Footprint Adventures are proud to be a participant in the carboNZero programme and to be New Zealand's first adventure company to add a carbon emission surcharge to the cost of each of its boutique adventures. The surcharge paid by tourists will then be passed onto Landcare Research to invest in native forest regeneration and renewable energy projects. Adventure activities, tour itineraries, transport and even accommodation options have all been selected using criteria to gauge the best choices in terms of keeping CO2 emissions to a minimum. Footprint Adventures is also working to identify opportunities to include the planting of native tree saplings as a regular feature of our adventures. As the company grows, it also plans to reinvest in technology that has the least impact on the environment, such as low emission petrol and hybrid or electric vehicles.'
HeliPark New Zealand
At HeliPark New Zealand (formally known as Mt Potts Backcountry) we realize that the concept of environmentally friendly heliskiing may sound like an oxymoron but we love the snow and want to do our bit to preserve it. We became a participant in the carboNZero program as we believe many of our clients share our concerns for the environment. Our current environmental program includes offsetting unavoidable helicopter emissions, using a really quiet helicopter and Mt.Potts Lodge, HeliPark's base, runs on renewable hydro power. We're also composting, recycling and using locally sourced produce where practical.
Kingswood Skis
Kingswood Skis is a boutique, hand-made snow ski manufacturer based in Lyttelton. 'We make fat skis for off-piste skiing and have pioneered the use of sustainable bamboo for ski cores. Kingswood Skis won two Sustainable Business Awards for the Southern Region of the Sustainable Business Organisation in 2007 - one for our product and one for our process. We take sustainability into account with every decision we make in both our personal and business lives. Having our factory near our home means we can walk to work. We are proud to sponsor snowpool.org.nz, a ride-sharing initiative for skiers and snowboarders. Measuring our emissions was the most valuable part of participating in the carboNZero programme. Knowing where our emissions come from helps us to make better decisions in the future. Our aim is to continue reducing emissions each year. Offsetting what we can't reduce is the most positive solution available and we're pleased to be able to do it.'
Quakebake
Quakebake is a small artisan certified-organic baker which creates biscotti, gingerbreads, cakes, slices and savoury crackers, with some products being glutenfree or containing indigenous ingredients. 'Quakebake products are affordable indulgences, suitable as gifts or simply to enjoy. Taking part in the carboNZero programme is a natural extension of being a certified organic producer. The benefits of operating an environmentally responsible business will go further than just helping a little to stabilise climate change. Taking action now will lessen human impacts in other areas such as deforestation, which causes loss of biodiversity in plant and animal life, and pollution from exhaust fumes, and slow down depletion of natural resources. Obviously there is some time and labour commitment necessary; for example, keeping records like weight and destination of courier deliveries of Quakebake products, in order to calculate fuel consumption and carbon emissions. However, it provides a real incentive to plan a business with climate change in mind. I have fitted my place out with modern equipment which has low energy ratings and where possible from a New Zealand manufacturer (e. g. baking ovens, refrigeration). Other features include, solar-heated water, double glazing and proper insulation of the building. Having done this I have enjoyed pleasing cost savings, which can only grow in years to come. Furthermore, sizeable advantages from product marketing have yet to come through, but there are a growing number of customers who appreciate the efforts of a carbon neutral business; some of my customers explicitly say it swayed their purchase decision my way.'
REMAX - Craig Lowe
'Working in real estate means that a certain impact on the environment, mainly from driving and from producing marketing material, is unavoidable. In light of the recent proliferation of news regarding the increasingly serious threat of global warming we have decided to do our small bit to reduce our waste and offset our carbon emissions through participating in the carboNZero programme.
As a team we have agreed to:
- Use 100% recycled paper and card in our outsourced marketing material whenever possible and in all printing done in the office.
- To recycle all paper and card and packaging in our office, and to reuse paper as scrap or note paper before recycling.
- To recycle all our printer toner cartridges.
- To recycle computer parts when they expire.
- To only buy second-hand computers.
- To use rewritable CDs when burning data for short-term use.
- To use only natural light in the office when possible.
- To turn all computers and other office equipment off at the wall each night.
- Where possible to support green initiatives and other businesses that have environmentally friendly systems and procedures.
- To offset all unavoidable carbon emissions (caused by car use and any air travel as well as necessary power usage) by purchasing carbon credits. We support tree plantation because it creates jobs, has sound conservation benefits (such as providing habitat for native birds), and converts greenhouse gas to oxygen.
We are really happy about our participation in the programme. The carboNZero team is very helpful and make the process easy. We are looking forward to further reducing our emissions this year.'
Sean Weaver
Dr Sean Weaver is Principal of Carbon Partnership and a Senior Lecturer in environmental studies at Victoria University of Wellington. His work currently focuses on climate change mitigation projects both in New Zealand and Vanuatu, and international climate change policy at the UNFCCC. He established and leads the Vanuatu Carbon Credits Project, which is an international collaboration to help the Vanuatu Government build capacity to access carbon finance for sustainable development in the forest and energy sectors. He also leads a project exploring carbon and ecosystem services finance for Māori forest-owners in Southland.
Even though his work is directly involved in reducing emissions and protecting carbon stocks, he is committed to ensuring that the work has a low carbon footprint. The emissions that he and his team cannot avoid for these projects (e.g. air travel) he offsets by purchasing carbon credits from the carboNZero programme.
SPX Consultants
SPX Consultants specialises in obtaining resource consents for major infrastructure projects. SPX are committed to promoting sustainable best practice options to clients and advocating higher environmental standards as opposed to minimum compliance standards. In February 2007, SPX decided to 'walk the talk' with regards to achieving carbon neutrality. 'With the help of the carboNZero programme, we reduced our emissions by implementing duplex printing, using dual computer screens to cut down on printing, avoiding the use of air conditioning and holding teleconferences, where possible, to reduce national or international air travel.' SPX Director Kevin Oldham said, 'We found the carboNZero programme simple to work with and implement, and it really did also cause us to review and question our actions. We have modified these as a result to reduce our carbon footprint before offsetting.'
Squiz (New Zealand operations)
Squiz is an open source software development company, and the developer of the enterprise web content management system MySource Matrix. The company's New Zealand office initiated a sustainability drive in 2005, which has since been picked up by Squiz's offices in Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra and Hobart. Patrick FitzGerald, Squiz NZ Managing Director, says that the carboNZero programme has been a straightforward, low-cost way for the company to understand and begin minimising its carbon emissions. Squiz has since introduced measures such as reducing air travel through using more virtual meetings, and sending text reminders to staff who forget to turn off workstations at the end of the day. Other measures to reduce the company's environmental footprint include recycling and reusing office materials, energy efficiency, active participation in the Sustainable Business Network and Greenfleet, and responsible purchasing. The company won awards in the 2006 and 2007 Sustainable Business Awards, and is continuing to explore ways to minimise its environmental footprint.
SWITCH espresso
SWITCH espresso is a boutique Cantabrian coffee roaster supplying 100% organic and fair trade coffee to cafes, corporate clients and organic retail outlets. In the two years since start-up it has won national awards both years running for its coffee roasting. SWITCH espresso is a lifestyle choice for its business owner Hamish Evans. Hamish isn't merely committed to producing a great tasting coffee, he wants his SWITCH espresso company to reduce its negative impact on the environment and ensure the Planet's future survival for generations to come. Therefore, SWITCH espresso joined the carboNZero programme to round off its desire to be a socially and environmentally conscious coffee roasting company. By using the carboNZero programme small business calculator in the past year it appears SWITCH espresso has emitted 15.3 tonnes of CO2. To offset this Hamish has purchased carbon credits that will go towards native forest regeneration. In addition to working with Landcare Research to measure and offset unavoidable emissions, the team at SWITCH espresso are undertaking other footprint reducing initiatives:
- Ensuring spent coffee grounds used in daily operations are given away to be reused for compost
- Recycling and reusing boxes and packaging materials where appropriate
- Encouraging staff to use transport to work that will not have an impact on the environment, i.e. walking and cycling.
- Purchasing, where possible, merchandise made from organic materials or material that can be reused or recycled, i.e. refillable pens, organic cotton T-shirts
- Making recyclable or biodegradable cups available for serving coffee (in progress)
- Looking into options for biodegradable bags (in progress)
- Using coffee sacking that the green beans arrive in for promotional materials or giving them away to people who wish to reuse them for their own use
The Workflow Group
The Workflow Group is a consulting and training company focusing on solving our clients' workflow challenges through individual workflow coaching. The emphasis is on clearing space and mind to allow the person to focus on the stuff that matters. Delivered through one-to-one coaching it results in clients saving time, money and stress and delivering on the promises they make to their internal and external customers. 'Sustainability and taking responsibility for what we create has always been a big part of The Workflow Group operations and so participating in the carboNZero programme was a natural part of a number of initiatives to minimise the overall impact on the environment. Although avoiding emissions is our first focus, it is great to be able to offset the emissions we do currently create.'
tika merino
'tika merino is proud to participate in the carboNZero programme. The carboNZero website has excellent tools that helped us understand our carbon emissions and made it easy to develop action plans that will minimise our impact on the environment. For our unavoidable emissions, tika merino purchases carbon credits that support regeneration of native forests in New Zealand. At tika, we want our customers to feel good about how and where our apparel is made. Being 100% New Zealand made and participating in the carboNZero programme are just part of our commitment to delivering a sustainable and environmentally friendly line of apparel.'
UMR Research
'UMR Research joined the carbonZero programme because, as a leading market research company that has undertaken considerable research in the climate change and energy efficiency area, we recognised the need to go further than we had previously in mitigating our carbon footprint. The recycling and energy efficiency measures we employed at work were simply not addressing our major environmental impact - air travel. As researchers, clients require us to travel extensively around New Zealand, so we found that the carbonZero programme provided a solution to an unavoidable problem by enabling us to purchase offsets and requiring us to monitor our impact. The spinoff for us is that our clients recognise our commitment to the carbonZero programme as a positive, which is also good for business since they respect our aim to minimise air travel where we can.'
Wright Communications
'Wright Communications is New Zealand's only public relations consultancy specialising in corporate responsibility and sustainability communications. We empower companies to become better corporate citizens. Involvement with the carboNZero programme centred on taking responsibility for our own carbon footprint so it can be actively managed going forward. Many of our clients are also pursuing carbon neutrality, so it was essential to understand the process first hand. Having completed the programme, we are in a strong position to share our understanding and assist clients with reduction strategies and reporting requirements. Some of our own actions through the programme have included:
- Purchasing a low-emission Smart Car for staff travel to client meetings
- Turning computers and office equipment off at the end of each business day
- Appointing a sustainability strategist to assist our clients and our own business
- Joining the Sustainable Business Network
- Purchasing a duplex printer
- Recycling newspapers, office documents, used toner cartridges, and mobile phones
