Seven good news sustainability stories in manufacturing in 2022
-Dr Barbara Nebel, thinkstep-anz
As 2022 draws to a close, it’s time to spread a little Christmas cheer. Here are seven good news stories that show the progress the manufacturing sector made this year to become more sustainable.
- We have a national Emissions Reduction Plan
In June the government introduced New Zealand’s first Emissions Reduction Plan (ERP). The ERP sets the context for sustainability in New Zealand.
It contains the strategies and policies that will make our Zero Carbon Act 2019 happen and move all industries, including manufacturing, to a low-emissions economy over the next three decades.
‘Carrots and sticks’ will encourage (and require) manufacturers to cut greenhouse gas emissions in the products they make, the heavy transport, freight, energy and buildings they use, and the waste they discard.
Our June article provides more information. NZ Manufacturer June 2022 by Media Hawkes Bay Limited – Issuu
- Manufacturers are measuring their products’ environmental impacts
We’re encouraged to see more manufacturers, in more industries, investing in Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) for their products and packaging. LCA measures a product’s environmental footprint: from sourcing (and maybe growing) the raw materials, to making the product, to using it and disposing of it at the end of its life.
LCA can measure many impacts, including the energy and water used and the carbon released (the product’s ‘carbon footprint’).
Food manufacturer Comvita has commissioned an LCA. The company wants to understand how to reduce the carbon footprint of its honey at all stages of the product’s life cycle.
- Manufacturers are communicating their products’ environmental impacts
The list of registered Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) for New Zealand-made products continues to grow strongly. 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 products including vehicles, building products, and food.
In 2022, EPDs registered with EPD Australasia, the International EPD® System’s regional partner, include Red Stag’s EPD for sawn and planed timber products and Red Stag Wood Solutions’ EPD for cross-laminated timber.
- Manufacturers are tackling climate change
In the past year, food manufacturer Synlait increased the capacity of its electrode boiler at its Dunsandel site to provide more renewable process heat. It also converted a boiler from coal to biomass.
Fisher & Paykel Healthcare continued to collaborate across its supply chain to reduce its Scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions. (One source of these emissions is the goods and services a manufacturer buys.)
The manufacturer encourages suppliers to reduce emissions, ideally with a Science Based Target (SBT) that meets the goals of the Paris Agreement, an international treaty on climate change. In the 2022 financial year, 20 suppliers set SBTs or equivalent targets.
DB Breweries, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare, and Synlait became ‘early adopters’ of the national Climate Leaders Coalition’s new Statement of Ambition.
The Statement, launched in June, commits signatories to go ‘further and faster’ to reduce climate change, adapt to the impacts and move to a low-carbon economy.
- Manufacturers are reporting on climate change risks and opportunities
Climate change has financial, physical, and economic impacts on businesses. Identifying and disclosing the risks and opportunities involved makes them easier to manage.
Reporting also promotes financial transparency and makes it easier for investors and others to hold businesses accountable for reducing emissions. Fletcher Building, Zespri and Ravensdown are three manufacturers who are reporting on their climate change risks.
- Manufacturers are helping New Zealand ‘build greener’
Manufacturers of building and construction products are reducing ‘embodied’ carbon in their materials and products. Embodied carbon is the carbon generated to extract, transport and process the materials that make up a product, and manufacture and distribute the product itself.
Regulations and certifications are hastening the move to lower carbon products. For example, the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment’s Building for Climate Change Programme proposes regulations to cap ‘embodied carbon’.
In 2022 the New Zealand Green Building Council (NZGBC)’s updated its Green Star certification for commercial buildings. The certification now requires the industry to reduce embodied carbon by at least 10% compared with a ‘reference’ building.
In November we released our joint thinkstep-anz / NZGBC ‘embodied carbon calculator’. This free tool helps the industry calculate and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
- Manufacturers are venturing into circular economy
The approach continues to be a cautious one, with manufacturers generally focussing on entry-level circular economy activities like recycling waste.
For example, GIB® manufacturer Winstone Wallboards recycles gypsum from waste plasterboard for use in agriculture. When it opens its new plant in Tauranga in 2023, the manufacturer will recycle waste plasterboard into new plasterboard.
In the coming year, we hope to see manufacturers developing truly circular products. This will involve changing manufacturing strategies and processes to create better, longer-lasting products that reuse resources.
The benefits include reducing supply chain risks and uncovering new business opportunities such as leasing products.
We’re encouraged by what we’re seeing – and hope this momentum continues in 2023. We wish all our readers a safe, enjoyable, sustainable Christmas and New Year.
