Reporting responsibilities

Fungi in Westland beech forest. Image – Robyn Simcock.

Crown Research Institutes have a wide range of performance and reporting responsibilities under the Operating Principles of the CRIs Act 1992. These are monitored by the Crown Company Monitoring and Advisory Unit (CCMAU). The performance measures set out in summary on these two pages have been developed in consultation with CCMAU.

Under the CRIs Act, we have a statutory obligation to also present a set of audited financial accounts by the 30th September. Because of the length and detail of these accounts, we have presented these as a separate document to CCMAU (along with this document), which is available in full on our website. Our use of Capability Fund revenue is also covered in that report.

Approach to external verification

This year, we have not had our non–financial reporting externally verified. We were reluctant to make this decision but the significantly increased cost proved prohibitive, particularly considering some areas of our science are underfunded. Nevertheless we have continued to apply the same rigour to data management and quality assurance protocols, which have been the backbone of external verification in past years. More explanation of our reporting protocols and external scrutiny is available on our website.

Performance against targets

Publications & presentations		2007 Actual	2008 Target	2008 Actual	2009 Target
Commissioned reports		145	>145	200	150
Contracted reports to clients of the carboNZero & Enviro–Mark programmes (including the EnviroSmart project)		–	150	>229	–
Presentations about our work		300	>300	557	330
Publications on technical information		250	> 250	165	255
Peer–reviewed scientiﬁc papers – published & accepted for publication		320	>300	338	300
Keynote & plenary presentations		12	>12	18	12

Research application		2007 Actual	2008 Target	2008 Actual	2009 Target
Improved products, processes & services		47	>50	81	50
Patents granted		2	2	0	2
Licensing arrangements		1	2	2	3
Joint ventures		4	1	0	2

Use of databases & collections		2007 Actual	2008 Target	2008 Actual	2009 Target
Data sets & specimens supplied		>10,860	>6,970	>12,300	>10,000

Strategic relationships		2007 Actual	2008 Target	2008 Actual	2009 Target
Invited technical expertise (Includes staff invited to participate on NZ & overseas groups, meetings and workshops)		>85	>85	329	>150
Partnership initiatives (Includes collaborative projects, Envirolink projects, MoUs, secondments, co–locations)		>250	>90	365	>180
Revenue from public & private sector (Excludes FRST, MoRST, universities, Sirtrack)		$10.7m	$10.0m	$13.7m	NT

Environmental performance	2006 Actual	2007 Actual	2008 Target	2008 Actual	2009 Target
Total travel (km/FTE)1	21,340	17,750	<15,000	15,570	<15,000
Total energy (KWh/FTE)	9422	9220	–	9019 2	<8117
Imputed C02 (tonnes) from our activities	1763	1432	<1675	2389 3 (1729 4)	<2389
C02 offsets (tonnes) purchased	1625	1600	1675	2390 5	NT
Native birds killed through by–catch 6	9	0	<30	6	<25
¹ Includes motor vehicle, domestic and international air travel; targets exclude motor vehicle travel. ²Includes electricity, reticulated gas and coal. ³The sharp increase in imputed emissions is due predominantly to use of new emission factors for air travel adopted by the carboNZero programme to align to international standards. On 1 July 2007, the emission factor increased from 1 (based on carbon dioxide emissions only) to 1.9 (which also takes into account oxides of nitrogen and water vapour). More information can be found on the carboNZero website (www.carboNZero.co.nz) ⁴ Imputed CO2 emissions calculated using the old emissions factor; for prior year comparisons only ⁵ Includes 380 tonnes oﬀset by our carboNZero–certiﬁed electricity provider ⁶ Animal use is reported per calendar year, as required by MAF – = Data not collected. NT = No target. (Note: the number of performance measures required by CCMAU was reduced for 2009.)
Human resources	2006 Actual	2007 Actual	2008 Target	2008 Actual	2009 Target
Total staff	367	370	<385	394	408
– in science teams	275	273	278	288	295
– with postgrad quals	190	192	NT	225 1	50
– in science support	40	43	<49	46	NT
– in general support	53	54	<58	60	63
Sirtrack staff	28	32	33	44	42
Women (% of science team staff )	35%	–	>37%	34%	>40%
Women recruited (% of science team staff )	57%	–	>50%	40%	NT
Lost–time injuries	11	8.3	<4.0	7	NT
Days lost per time accident	19.5	8.6	<5.0	2.2	<5
Staff turnover	13.8 %b	15.5% b	NT	10% 2	8–10%
Turnover of key staff	–	–	<5%	–	<5%
¹ 25 science support and 11 general support staff also have postgraduate qualiﬁcations. ²Turnover for science teams = 8.3%, science support = 6.1%, general support = 21%.

Applying the GRI framework to our reporting

The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) framework provides an internationally accepted protocol for sustainability reporting, and Landcare Research is an organisational stakeholder. While we believe there are limitations to the overall applicability of GRI indicators to reporting by New Zealand–based companies, particularly environmental research organisations, we believe that in principle they are a useful guide to best practice. We have comprehensive management policies and monitoring systems covering all aspects of our environmental impacts and good employer responsibilities but have not reported on these here. More information is available on this website.