-Barbara Nebel, thinkstep-nz

This month we introduce you to three New Zealand companies that use different tools to edge closer to a low-carbon economy. Manufacturers Red Stag and Hynds Group and logistics provider FoodCap are making progress against the Government’s new Emission Reduction Plan (ERP). But first, a recap on the ERP.

The government released the ERP in May 2022. The plan contains the strategies and policies needed to move all industries, including manufacturing, to a low-emissions economy over the next three decades. It will ensure we reach our national goal: net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

In June issue of NZ Manufacturer, on Page 20, we explained what the plan contains  https://issuu.com/mediahawkesbaylimited/docs/nz_manufacturer_june_2022

The ERP affects manufacturers across Aotearoa New Zealand

In this article we look at how Red Stag, Hynds Group and FoodCap are managing their products, tackling their carbon footprints and transforming their business models to reduce their environmental impacts. We also see how they are benefitting from these activities commercially.

Red Stag: reducing the environmental impacts of its operations and products

The ERP encourages businesses to understand and reduce the environmental impacts of their products and services.

Rotorua-based timber company Red Stag is already doing this. The company uses on-site biomass boilers to turn wood waste into steam for its drying processes and is a net exporter of renewable electricity to the national grid.

Red Stag uses sustainability tools like Life Cycle Assessment and Environmental Product Declarations to create and promote more sustainable products. Before we see how Red Stag is doing this, let’s look at what these tools involve.

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)

LCA measures the environmental footprint of a product over its life cycle – from sourcing (and potentially growing) its raw materials, to making the product, to using and disposing of the product at the end of its life.

LCA can measure many types of impact, including the amount of energy used, the amount of carbon emitted (carbon footprint) and the impact of other emissions generated (say, in polluting waterways). There are LCAs for many manufactured products, from jet engines to cups to computers.

Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs)

An EPD is a verified, publicly available document that summarises a product’s environmental footprint. EPDs start life as LCAs. There are EPDs for many manufactured products including paint, building products and food.

The Emissions Reduction Plan hints that the government may consider incentives for companies to create EPDs.

Red Stag has published an EPD for its sawn and planed timber products. Sister company Red Stag Wood Solutions has published an EPD for its cross-laminated timber. Both EPDs are registered with EPD Australasia, the International EPD® System’s regional partner.

These LCAs and EPDs are helping the Red Stag Group reduce its products’ environmental impacts and set benchmarks to keep improving. The tools are also helping the company market its products’ environmental credentials (greenwash-free zone!) and stand out from competitors such as producers of steel and concrete.

Procurement managers and rating systems such as Green Star in local and international markets trust the information an EPD contains.

Pic Caption:

Hynds has designed and built its flagship precast facility at Pōkeno to sustainable design principles to minimise its environmental impact.

Hynds Group: setting a Science Based Target to reduce carbon emissions

The ERP has many sources of manufacturing emissions firmly in its sights, including transport, energy, buildings and waste.

Manufacturer Hynds Group is tackling these sources, and others, across its business. The family-owned business operates sites across New Zealand and is a leading manufacturer of concrete infrastructure and plastic pipes for the water and waste markets.

Hynds has measured the carbon footprint of its business and set a strategy, with targets, to reduce emissions. It has also commissioned an LCA calculator to quantify the impacts of its products.

The company’s climate ambitions include setting a science-based target (SBT) that will give its emissions reduction plan global meaning. SBTs are based on the latest climate science.

They define the rate at which an organisation needs to reduce its emissions (‘how fast’) and the depth of reduction needed (‘how much’) to meet the goals of the 2015 Paris Agreement.

The Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) independently assesses and approves SBTs. We have an SBT at thinkstep-anz.

Hynds’ sustainability programme has helped the business identify opportunities to cut emissions and reduce costs, including energy costs.

It has highlighted business risks, helped the Hynds team plan for possible changes in legislation, including carbon taxes, and is strengthening relationships with major customers, including Auckland Council and Watercare.

Food Cap: using circular economy to preserve value and reduce pollution

The ERP sets a goal of creating a thriving circular economy (one that keeps materials in use for as long as possible) and bioeconomy (one that reuses biogenic materials) by 2050.

FoodCap International is a New Zealand-based company with markets in the USA, United Kingdom and Scandinavia. The company produces circular economy packaging solutions to transport and store food. Its business is based on the three circular economy principles: keeping products and materials in use, designing out waste and pollution, and regenerating natural systems.

The company’s FishCap packaging solution for fish and seafood is made of lightweight, durable foamed resin. It is 100% recyclable and eliminates single-use polystyrene waste. Regulators are banning polystyrene for environmental reasons and retailers are investigating alternatives.

Customers can purchase FishCaps or lease them as part of an ‘end-to-end logistics system’. They can reuse the FishCap many times.

FoodCap’s circular economy thinking is helping the business reduce its environmental impacts. These impacts include the carbon associated with manufacturing and the waste created at the end of the products’ life.

Product design and materials are obviously important. So too is outsourcing manufacturing to facilities located close to customers.

In addition, the company’s business model (buy/lease and reuse) ensures it recovers much of the value it adds to its materials and keeps intangible assets like intellectual property and branding ‘circulating’.

Red Stag, Hynds Group and FoodCap are helping make the low-carbon economy a reality in Aotearoa New Zealand. We know there are many other manufacturers doing the same. It’s this vision and hard work that will take our new Emissions Reduction Plan from plan to action.