Waipā Networks is an electricity distribution business (EDB) based in the Waikato region of Aotearoa. The organisation owns and operates the local electricity network that supplies power to homes, farms, and businesses across communities including Te Awamutu, Cambridge, and surrounding rural areas. With a history stretching back more than a century, Waipā Networks plays a critical role in enabling economic activity and community wellbeing across the region by maintaining reliable infrastructure and supporting the transition to a more resilient, low-emissions energy system – a time of the most significant and rapid change to the global energy system in history.
Waipā engaged us in March 2024 to support the development of their first formal sustainability strategy through our Year One service. As a community-owned infrastructure provider operating in a rapidly evolving energy landscape, the organisation recognised the importance of taking a structured, long-term approach to managing its environmental and social impacts. They wanted a strategy that was practical, aligned with their operational realities, and through good governance was embedded across the organisation. In May 2025, Waipā Networks extended the partnership for a second year of support, engaging us for Year Two to provide ongoing strategy implementation support through our Part-time Sustainability Team (PST) service, as well as mapping their emissions.
In 2024, we supported Waipā Networks through a structured sustainability strategy development process that included stakeholder engagement with their staff, executive team, and board. This process resulted in a clear roadmap with defined impact areas, goals, and targets designed to guide action over the coming five years. In 2025 and into 2026, we have continued to provide ongoing advisory support to Waipā Networks through our PST service, to help translate their strategy into action.
We also supported Waipā through two years of emissions mapping (FY24 and FY25). Waipā’s emissions inventory and value chain is complex, so we identified a set of improvement projects to help strengthen data quality and reporting over time. To make the process more efficient and repeatable, we helped integrate their data into GreenHalo‘s emissions mapping software, enabling Waipā to manage and update their emissions inventory directly within the platform, building internal capability and reducing reliance on manual processes.
We’ve enjoyed working alongside Waipā Networks and expanding our knowledge of energy infrastructure. Our work together shows how a structured approach can help infrastructure organisations identify priorities and begin embedding sustainability into day-to-day operations.
If you’re interested in developing a practical sustainability strategy or strengthening implementation, get in touch.