Emissions & offsets
Lake Tekapo. Image – Morgan Coleman.
Landcare Research has been carbon neutral since 2005
For 2015/16:
- We report production of 1530 tonnes of CO2e equivalent to 26.89 tonnes per $million revenue
Data for emissions and offsets does not include tenants sharing our Auckland, Palmerston North, Hamilton, Lincoln and Dunedin sites. We do not record travel data for tenants or subsidiary staff, and energy consumption data is allocated pro-rata according to our staff / tenant staff ratios. Our subsidiary Enviro-Mark Solutions is a tenant at our Lincoln site but occupy a different building in Auckland. The subsidiary company reports their environmental performance on their website. (On 1 July 2013 carboNZero Holdings merged with the Enviro-mark programme to become Enviro-Mark Solutions Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary.)
Following best practice and audit recommendations from the carboNZero verification process, we have continued the improvements to the reporting accuracy of emissions data for our energy consumption, rental cars, taxi travel, short and long haul air travel, and other greenhouse gas emission emitting activities such as helicopter use and refrigerants, as these often account for a significant percentage of our imputed CO2 emissions.
Offsets
Landcare Research purchased 1400 credit from Positive Climate Care 9.75 MW Bundled Wind Power Project Activity (Savita Oil Technologies and its group companies in the state if Maharashtra, India) and 100 Hinewai Reserve (Permanent Forest Sink Initiative) credits through Enviro-Mark Solution's carboNZero programme. The total, 1500 credits, partially offsets our greenhouse gas emissions as these are provisional on the audit verification. Now that our emissions have been verified, October 2016, we will purchase the remaining 30 credits from the Hinewai Reserve initiative to fully off set our emissions.
