Procurement & environmental performance
Staff sorting waste during a biannual skip audit. Image - Cissy Pan
Goal: Landcare Research’s corporate performance is exemplary, transparent and consistent with its Core Purpose.
We are committed to increasing the efficiency and sustainability of our procurement practices, and to minimising and mitigating the adverse effects of our activities on the environment. We report comprehensively on this via our sustainability web pages.
Our environmental performance
We maintain ISO 14001 environmental certification and carboNZeroCert TM certification (verified by AsureQuality) – both highlight our commitment to best practice.
We also monitor our performance against the Sustainable Business Council KPIs. We strive for continual improvement in our environmental performance and so set stretch targets, which are to improve on the rolling average across the previous five years or improve on the previous year’s performance if that is better than the 5-year rolling average.
A particularly noteworthy achievement was an 11.3% reduction in total greenhouse gas emissions compared to 2011/12; 2011/12 emissions were 12.7% less than in 2010/11. Increased monitoring and management of travel and energy use have been key to this achievement.
Collaborative procurement
We continue to collaborate with other CRIs and AsureQuality through the CRI Procurement Forum, and to support All of Government (AoG) initiatives. This year we benefitted from AoG procurement initiatives that were extended to include mobile voice and data, legal and recruitment services and electricity supply contracts. The Tahi Mobile AoG agreement will realise good ongoing operational savings for mobile data, calling and texts. Our AoG agreement for printing and copying enabled Follow -You Printing® to be enabled at our four main sites to reduce waste, allow staff to print anywhere and ensure privacy. This initiative has already demonstrated a reduction in paper usage and estimated operational cost savings of approximately $2000 per annum.
Environmental performance (Landcare Research parent only)
| For the year ended 30 June: | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 |
| Motor vehicle (km/FTE) | 1,138 | 1,660 | 1689 | 1181 |
| Domestic air travel (km/FTE) | 4,715 | 5,634 | 4,723 | 3989 |
| International air travel (km/FTE) | 9,738 | 12,224 | 7,756 | 7645 |
| Total energy (KWh/FTE) | 9,489 | 8,824 | 6504 | 6108 |
| Imputed CO2 (tonnes) | 2,611 | 2,656 | 2,318 | 2056 |
| CO2 offsets purchased | 2,825 | 2,679 | 2318 | 22001 |
| Avoidable waste to landfill (kg/FTE) | 1.25 | 2.12 | 2.52 | 1.93 |
| Water used (litres/FTE) | 27,013 | 29,743 | 18,758 | 17,817 |
| Native animals killed through by-catch | 0 | 21 | 0 | 1 |
1 Landcare Research pre-purchased a total of 2200 carbon credits (BHL Biogas Kinauni) through the carboNZero programme in June 2013.
The CRI forum is leading a large procurement project to achieve a syndicated contract for supplying lab consumables to CRIs, district health boards and universities. The project is due for completion in November 2013 and is expected to deliver significant savings.
Accidental by-catch of native animals
In 13 projects involving routine trapping of pests, 8533 target animals were caught, largely because of one project that involved intensive and recurring possum trapping. During this routine trapping, 270 non-target animals (3% of total captures) were caught – only two of these were native (two inshore seabirds caught as part of a kiore monitoring programme, one of which was released but the other had to be humanely killed).
Compliance
Our operations are subject to a broad range of legislation covering environmental, good employer (including EEO and Health & Safety), human rights, ethical and financial issues. There were no material instances of non-compliance in 2012/13.
