Accountability

Accountability equals responsibility equals ownership. We know that ownership is the most powerful weapon an organisation can have.

This is why we’ve committed to measuring, tracking and reporting on all the actions we’ve set out to achieve.

If you have any questions, comments or feedback on our approach to sustainability please get in touch.

Measuring and tracking what we do helps us constantly improve our business practices. It also helps us stay aligned and true to our values.  

Here is how we stay committed and stay accountable: 

We’ve aligned our three-year plan with the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals. 

Inside the Trust we: 

• Measure and track how much waste we generate. This includes how much we send to landfill, how much we recycle and of course - how much we reuse!  

• We don’t stop at how much we create, reuse and dispose of, we also include what we dispose of on behalf of our customers. This includes any reusable and recyclable items customers drop off to the Te Aro Zero Waste centre and also to things like the old foil insulation we pull out of client’s houses. 

We’re Living Wage Certified 

We believe that to create a fair and equitable society all businesses should pay the living wage. Being Living Wage Certified means that when the cost of living goes up, so do the wages of those on the Living Wage.  

As part of the accreditation process, we encouraged staff to join a union and reviewed all of our external contacts. Retaining that certification means we review wages and contracts on an annual basis.  

For more information about the Living Wage Movement Aotearoa check out their website - Living Wage Movement Aotearoa New Zealand

We measure our Carbon Footprint

We have made a commitment to carry out a carbon footprint measurement that is consistent with the latest ISO 14064-1 international standard for carbon accounting.

Measuring our emissions means we can identify what changes we can make to reduce our footprint and where our actions can have the most impact. We have and will continue to report on our positive and negative impact.

As our business has grown our emissions have also grown. Although we are making changes to reduce our emissions, at the moment we cannot eliminate all the carbon we produce.  

We don’t offset our emissions at the moment. We were offsetting 100% of our emissions from 2017-2019. From 2019-2021 we offset 120% of our emissions.

Read our Ekos Carbon Inventory Report for 2022-23

View our Ekos certificate for our Carbon Footprint for 2022-23.

You can find out more about our certification body, Ekos, at www.ekos.co.nz