ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY
At pH7 we’re committed to ensuring our business is constantly reducing its impact on the environment. We do this through a range of initiatives that we’ve implemented but also a commitment to constant improvement.
COMMITED TO A SUSTAINABLE BUILDING
Our new building will be New Zealand’s first industrial building to achieve the 6-Star Green-Star rating. In order to achieve this rating, the building has incorporated the most up to date and sustainable building practices including:
- 31.50 kWp solar array system on the roof (63 x 500W solar panel)
- Electric car charging
- Fuel efficient car parking provisions
- LED lighting throughout with sensors to adjust light levels as required to minimise power usage
- Rainwater collection used to irrigate gardens, outdoor hoses and toilet flushing
- Part cement substitution with fly-ash to reduce embodied carbon in the concrete
- 3,275m2 of native planting and 9,900m2 of exotic planting, plus an urban ngahere (forest) on the adjacent site to promote biodiversity
- Water efficient fixtures
- Carbon neutral build with carbon credits used to off-set carbon that could not be eliminated during the build process.
COMMITTED TO REDUCED FOSSIL FUEL USE
We are transitioning our company vehicles and manual handling equipment from petrol and diesel to electric / hybrid. By 2022 we have achieved the following:
- All fork hoists and stock picking equipment are electric
- 40% of our company car fleet is electric with the remaining vehicles transitioning to electric or hybrid as they come up for replacement
- New video conferencing suite to reduce requirement for travel
COMMITMENT TO REDUCING WASTE
Like all businesses we produce a lot of waste, whether it’s plastic pallet wrap, cardboard or paper the stream is continuous. Ultimately, the best approach is to reduce or eliminate unnecessary packaging. To this end our purchasing manager is working with manufacturers to find ways of eliminating the use of single use plastic where we can. In the meantime we are separating and recycling as much as possible to reduce the volume of waste going to landfill. Currently we recycle:
- Clear plastic wrap
- Cardboard
- Paper
- Bottles / cans / plastics
COMMITTED TO THE FUTURE
While we’ve made a good start, we recognise that we still have a long way to go. Our next step is to measure the amount of carbon we’re responsible for generating and then taking steps to reduce what we can and off-set the rest.