Climate Leaders Coalition celebrates 3.6m tonne reduction in greenhouse gas emissions

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The company that owns Eastland Port, Eastland Generation and Gisborne Airport says it is “proud” to have been involved in a collective effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The Climate Leaders Coalition (CLC), of which Eastland Group is a signatory, this week launched its fifth anniversary Snapshot Report, which reveals signatories have collectively reduced their emissions by 3.6 million tonnes since joining the Coalition.

“We are proud to have been part of this journey over the past four years, contributing to the collective emissions reduction of 3.6 million tonnes,” Eastland Group chief executive Matt Todd said.

“This achievement reflects our commitment to sustainable practices, even amidst challenging economic conditions and business disruption, including our region’s bad run of weather events.

“Our continued investment underscores our commitment to combating climate change and building a more resilient future for New Zealand.

“Some of the ways we are reducing our emissions is through our EV-first policy, where we prioritise EVs and hybrids where possible and investigating innovative emission-reducing technology for our geothermal power plants.

“Together with the Climate Leaders Coalition we are setting a higher standard for climate leadership in the business community.”

Despite the increased use of diesel generators to maintain power while damaged infrastructure was repaired and other pressures during the region’s severe weather events, the group’s greenhouse gas emissions remained the same as last year.

Meanwhile, its EV-first policy for its non-commercial fleet saw the percentage of non-fossil fuel travel almost doubling in the last year, making up more than 20 percent of kilometres travelled by the whole fleet.

The CLC was launched in July 2018 with a mission of having business chief executives leading the response to climate change through collective, transparent, and meaningful action on mitigation and adaptation.

The Coalition has 88 signatories who collectively create around 32 percent of GDP, have a collective turnover of $126 billion and employ more than 213,000 people.

“The business movement for climate change has come a long way since we launched in 2018,” CLC convener and Spark chief executive Jolie Hodson said.

“I’m really proud of what the Coalition has achieved over the past five years in the context of tough trading conditions and inflationary pressures, not to mention Covid-19 disruptions.

“The combined emissions reduction achieved by our signatories between the time they signed up to the Coalition and now is 3.6 million tCO2e.

“That’s a cumulative 29 percent reduction and equivalent to the average annual emissions of 270,000 New Zealanders.”

Other Coalition fifth anniversary highlights include —

100 percent of signatories working within their value chains, including suppliers and customers, to reduce their scope 3 emissions —  compared to 60 percent in 2018-19.

85% of signatories have a 1.5 degree-aligned emissions reduction pathway for scope 1 and 2 emissions. The remainder are working on moving to a 1.5 degree-aligned target or waiting on updated guidance from the Science-Based Targets initiative.

97 percent of signatories have identified and measured their current significant scope 3 emissions — up from 35 percent in 2018-19.

83 percent of signatories are now disclosing their climate risks and opportunities — up from 21 percent in 2020.

Signatories have trebled the number of EVs and hybrids in their vehicle fleets to 3353 and are trialing a number of New Zealand and world-first EVs like EV passenger ferries, diggers, fire engines, jetboats and tipper trucks.