The built environment contributes up to 15% of New Zealand’s greenhouse gas emissions and up to 50% of waste to landfill. We want to lead the way in reducing those numbers to zero and have developed a plan to do this: Our Low Carbon Mission. As a result, we have become one of New Zealand’s first net carbon-zero certified building contractors.
At the same time, we don’t want to stop there; we aim to become the leader in low-carbon construction whilst providing our clients with the highest quality construction to the LT McGuinness standard.
Our Low Carbon Mission has three pillars:
The plan addresses our direct impact and significant positive improvements through using lower embodied carbon materials and construction methods, and passing on this experience to our clients and construction partners.
Early in 2020, we engaged Toitū to audit our carbon footprint. As a member of the Toitū programme, we have committed to measuring our emissions annually, reducing our emissions and, from 2022, offsetting the remaining emissions.
We do not see offsetting as the end of the road; however, the offsets do help reduce our impact in the short term, especially in areas where the market and technology have not yet caught up with our needs.
The audits found that the biggest contributors were our vehicle fleet, air travel and our electricity use. To reduce these we have set policies and we are constantly looking at other areas where we can improve.
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LT McGuinness has partnered with Neocrete, a company producing an exciting new type of concrete that combines sustainability and high performance. Their innovative additive D5 Green increases the strength and durability of concrete whilst also making it more waterproof.
The increased strength means that less cement can be used, which can reduce the embodied carbon by 20-40% compared to standard concrete. We have been trialling this product over the last two years, and we are aiming to target the use of mixes with 50% carbon reduction.
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