Sustainability

Napier Port is committed to operating our business in a sustainable way

While we’re delivering for our customers, we’re focused on ensuring that in everything we do, we consider the impact on the land, sea and air around us. 

In this way, we aim to protect the harbour so that it can continue to thrive and be enjoyed for generations to come.

We’re on a journey of continuous improvement and we work hard to improve our environmental, social and economic performance by identifying and managing risks and finding opportunities to use our resources more efficiently.

Through new environmental monitoring and measuring programmes, we’re growing our understanding of the complex environment we operate in.  The more we know, the better equipped we are to find more environmentally-friendly solutions for our business.

We’ve been measuring our fuel consumption, waste volumes and carbon footprint, and we’re working hard to reduce all three.

In the year to 30 September 2021, our total carbon emissions were 10,221 tonnes or 0.00174 tonnes/CO2e per tonne, up from 8,341 tonnes or 0.00165 tonnes/CO2e per tonne in 2020. The increase in emissions correlates with an increase in annual cargo volumes, with the majority of the increase relating to increased fuel usage for generators to keep refrigerated containers cool while stored on port awaiting shipment. Our peak season extended longer and refrigerated containers resided longer on port as a consequence of global shipping disruption. This disruption also required increased container handling movements, increasing heavy plant activity and fuel consumption. We expect infrastructure improvements over time combined with new technology to enable us to contain emissions as trade volumes increase.

Finding energy-efficient solutions

We’re continuously reviewing our operations and looking at ways to improve efficiencies to minimise and reduce our footprint.

We’ve installed an electric vehicle recharging station, and have begun the transition to electric vehicles as we replace our fleet of light vehicles.

After a successful trial at Napier Port’s Thames Street II depot, the first LED light tower was erected on-port this year. This is the first step in a staged roll-out that will see all our light towers converted to LED in the future. The LED technology is specifically designed for demanding operating environments like ports, and comes with a fully-automated service which brings both cost savings and safety improvements. Consuming just 580 watts, LED lighting requires less than half the energy of traditional HID lighting while producing 60% more light, and requires little maintenance.

Waste management

As part of our journey toward sustainability, we are committed to finding ways to reduce, reuse, recycle and repurpose our waste.

Our long-running partnership with local firm BioRich saw 3,327 tonnes of waste bark from our log yard repurposed into mulch last year, to be used on orchards, gardens, and planting projects around our region.

In the year to 30 September 2020, we sent 165 tonnes of waste to landfill and recycled 14 tonnes. We are making a concentrated effort to reduce the volume of stony bark that goes to landfill. But we’re not stopping there – as our sustainability work progresses, we will be exploring more innovative ideas for reducing waste and lessening our impact on the environment.

14 tonnes
of waste recycled