Farmlands Co-operative has committed to reducing emissions by a minimum of 30% by 2030, after receiving carbonreduce certification from Toitu Envirocare.
At a presentation last month at Farmlands’ Wairakei Road support office, Christchurch, Toitu Envirocare (formerly Enviro-Mark Solutions) confirmed the rural supplies and services co-operative had achieved the necessary criteria.
This involved measuring Farmlands’ carbon footprint and putting in place targets and initiatives to help reduce it.
Farmlands reached out to Toitu Envirocare, a subsidiary of Farmlands Partner, Manaaki Whenua, to assist in measuring the co-operative’s environmental impact in early 2020.
Toitu’s certification will act as the cornerstone of an internal organisation sustainability programme, while Farmlands’ Growth and Innovation team will support shareholders in achieving sustainable goals within their own businesses.
Farmlands’ Director of External Relations, Mark McHardy says certification is very important for the organisation in reducing its environmental impact.
“The certification forms the foundation of our internal drive to improve our carbon footprint. It starts with our staff and if we can tick off the easy wins first, we will set ourselves up to continuously improve,” Mr McHardy says.
Toitu Technical Advisor/Product Specialist, Andrew Mackenzie is confident that Farmlands will be able to achieve the sustainability goals put in place under the Carbon reduce Certification.
“Farmlands has put in the right sort of goals for their footprint, ambitious but achievable. The Certification requires a yearly audit, so we are consistently following the data and keeping on top of how the emissions are tracking,” Mackenzie says.
Farmlands chief executive Peter Reidie says while the dream is for shareholders to produce outputs with an environmentally friendly, sustainable backing, it needs to start within the co-operative.
- To find out more on Toitu Envirocare’s Carbonreduce Certification, see: www.toitu.co.nz/what-we-offer/carbon-management
