Environment

Rationale

APS Management lead by General Manager, David Karam, have a keen sense of social responsibility and are focused on addressing social inequality and climate change within the company, community and individually. Steps have been implemented in 2019 to target being carbonzero and go beyond that and reach a double carbon positive outcome by 2025.

These steps include maintaining Toitū carbonzero certification and a commitment to deliver our projects in a sustainable way to minimize our impact to the environment improvements; look for opportunities to streamline APS activities through more efficient use of resources and a carbon positive focus by further enhancing the associated four conservation properties through native bush regeneration, re-establishment of wetlands and intensive pest eradication.

Sustainability focus has been:

• Toitū carbonzero certification to establish base line carbon footprint

• Gold sponsorship and presentation at the NZ Sustainable Development Goals Climate Summit in September, 2019 at the University of Auckland

• Membership of Greenstar (NZGBC) New Zealand Green Building Society

• New Project-generated waste management plan with emphasis on recycling and waste minimisation through partnerships with Green Gorilla and Resene

• Eco-Decorating partnership with Resene to minimize the impact of painting on our waterways and efficient use of water and resources

• Working with suppliers to eliminate the use of materials containing red list chemicals which are harmful to users and have an impact on the environment

• Installation of Hungry Bin worm farm for APS Head Office in Auckland to increase awareness of minimizing food waste to landfill

Already we have been involved in assisting in environmental changes which we are passionate about and are looking at ways we are able to further build our involvement in the future.

Top management commitment

APS Management have a long-standing commitment to engaging in sustainable and social equitable business practice. Toitū carbonzero certification will provide opportunities to be accountable and target and reduce our operational carbon footprint on an ongoing basis. APS’s commitment goes beyond alignment with Paris Agreement by achieving Toitū carbonzero certification in 2019 and double carbon positive by 2025.

Having a framework to drive behaviour changes in our company is crucial, as is measuring the effects of these changes. In the next few years we will be looking at working towards ISO14001 certification. ISO 14001 is a standard that sets out the requirements for an environmental management system. The aim of the standard is to improve an organisations environmental performance through more efficient use of resources and reduction of waste.

APS have a history in promoting a strong Health & Safety code and focus and have now embarked on focusing on finding more sustainable practices and products in Project management and completion that would minimize the impact on the environment. Through measuring our carbon footprint we hope to offer a metric whereby APS and our clients can ascertain the impact of the project based on product choice and methodology.

APS - Going above and beyond carbon neutrality

Emissions measuring business experience (PDF, 2Mb)