Awanui

Awanui reached out to us after being asked by their shareholders (NZ Super Fund, Te Pūia Tāpapa, and the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan) to map their organisational emissions and develop an Emissions Reduction Plan aligned with that of their shareholders. Since we began working with them in July 2021, we have supported Awanui in mapping their emissions inventory in accordance with the Greenhouse Gas Protocol: A Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard (2004) and ISO 14064-1:2018 Specification with Guidance at the Organization Level for Quantification and Reporting of Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Removals. Our support assisted Awanui to achieve the Toitū carbon reduce organisation certification. 

Awanui provide pathology services on behalf of District Health Boards for both hospital and communities across New Zealand. They employ over 2,100 people across Aotearoa – more scientific staff and pathologists than any other laboratory provider in the country. Every year they collect, analyse, and report over seven million patient results, and during the pandemic they were delivering around 40% of all COVID-19 testing in the country, the largest of any single service provider.

Across the country, Awanui operate an internal network of 200 couriers, 25 IANZ accredited laboratories, and have trained phlebotomists (someone who draws blood) working across 150 collection centres.

At the time they began working with us, Awanui had no sustainability or emissions expertise in their organisation and were facing a daunting task to collect the data required of them to meet the Toitū certification requirements. Following some initial meetings an internal team was set up to retrieve the required information, supported by regular weekly hours from our Emissions Consultant. 

On completion of their baseline year (FY2019), Awanui then committed to and completed mapping both their FY2020 and FY2021 footprints, the latter being the year the have set their reduction targets against. These targets are to reduce absolute GHG emissions resulting from imported energy by 70% by 2024 relative to base year, and to reduce absolute GHG emissions resulting from the combustion of fuel by 14.8% by 2024 relative to base year.

As a result of the emissions mapping work, Awanui have not only set themselves reduction targets in line with their shareholders’ ambitions, but they have used their emissions data to inform significant business decisions, including swapping their ICE fleet vehicles for hybrid alternatives and the implementation of vehicle tracking technology to identify inefficient driving styles to be corrected through targeted training; employing an energy auditor to identify areas of electricity consumption that can be reduced; and replacing all incandescent or fluorescent light bulbs with LEDs.

In addition, Awanui are now investigating the installation of solar panels and have begun a project to measure and minimise their volume of materials being sent to landfill, which are projects we are supporting them deliver while we continue to guide the mapping of their FY2023 inventory.