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Caring for our environment

 
As New Zealand's primary thermal electricity generator, Genesis recognises the need to understand and reduce the impact of our activities on the environment. Our current focus areas are emissions – helping New Zealand transition to a low carbon future, and environmental management, especially around water & wildlife. In 2018 we released our Sustainability Statement and Sustainability Framework, which contain further detail about our overall approach to sustainability.
Genesis is taking action to reduce emissions while balancing climate change considerations, New Zealand's increasing energy demand profile and the need to make sure our customers have a reliable energy supply. Information about our compliance with Emissions Trading Scheme obligations can be found here and details of our carbon footprint from our emissions are contained in the Annual Report.

Transitioning to a low carbon future

 
We have seen an reduction in coal use and more than a reduction in our overall carbon emissions over the past ten years. 

But we are very aware of the part the energy sector plays in New Zealand’s transition to a low carbon economy, so we are committed to doing more. To that end, we have committed to not use any coal after 2025 to generate electricity in normal market conditions, with the intention to phase out coal use completely by 2030.
 
Genesis has developed an Environmental Management Framework which utilises a number of different business systems to manage the company's environmental impact. The framework has been tailored to suit the specific nature of our business, legislative requirements and our stakeholders' needs.

Environmental effects are managed via the Genesis Environmental Management Framework and vary depending on whether the activities are associated with its hydro generation sites at Tongariro, Waikaremoana and Tekapo, its thermal generation site at Huntly, or wind generation at Hau Nui.
Environmental mitigation and initiatives
Further information

Managing our internal impacts


As well as addressing the emissions from our energy generation, we’re also conscious of the impacts of our own offices, staff travel and other operations. To that end we have set a goal to reduce and offset our non-generation emissions, with a specific target around transition of our entire light vehicle fleet to EV/hybrid by 2020 and 50% of our truck fleet by 2025. We will build on existing initiatives around our own building energy monitoring and waste management, as well as encouraging use of our shuttles between the Auckland and Hamilton offices, and EV and hybrid pool cars at and between our sites. Sustainability was also a consideration in the building and fit out of our new Hamilton office, Kenehi on Bryce, including a large solar array to help power the building.

We’re working with our customers to put control in their hands and give them greater visibility of their energy usage, through apps like EnergyIQ. Through our new sustainability framework we will be working on adding specific carbon information into our online energy monitoring tools, so customers can see the impact of their energy choices on their carbon footprint. We’re also working with around 100 customers in the South Wairarapa on our Local Energy Project, testing out new renewable energy and energy monitoring technologies.
 

Genesis |Local Energy Project in NZ