A range of sustainability initiatives have been undertaken over recent years and effort has been ramped up this year with the development of an NZDF “Sustainable Practice Action Plan” and the appointment of Dr Graeme Benny as NZDF’s “Sustainability Champion”.
“We all have a part to play, not only being friendlier to the environment, but in doing things better and more efficiently. It’s about reducing our impact on the environment and at the same time being safer and more cost effective in our business practices. We’re aiming to integrate sustainability across NZDF. We’ve already started doing it and it’s making a difference” says Dr Benny.
NZDF became a partner agency in the Govt3 Towards Sustainable Practice public sector leadership programme in 2005 and has integrated sustainability considerations into a range of projects over recent years, such as:
“NZDF is improving its business practices by making them more environmentally and socially sustainable.”
- Energy efficiency improvements at existing camp and base facilities
- Energy efficient design of new and leased buildings such as Defence House in central Wellington and new barrack accommodation at Trentham
- Waste recycling
- More fuel efficient and climate friendly models introduced into the NZDF vehicle fleet, and
- More sustainable products introduced into the NZDF office products catalogue.
As a single agency, NZDF is the largest energy user and greenhouse gas emitter in the public sector. Within the Govt3 programme NZDF therefore has an important role in contributing to Government’s goal of making New Zealand more sustainable.
The focus of the current programme is to improve our practices in buildings and other facilities, procurement, waste minimisation, water conservation, transport and managing greenhouse gas emissions. “Initially we’re keen to improve our information in these areas and develop the capacity of our people to make effective change,” says Dr Benny. “Already we’re seeing significant improvements in the monitoring of energy use in buildings as well as fuel use across all NZDF vehicles and platforms. But in order to successfully manage these issues we need our people to be aware and committed to improvement”.
Over coming months NZDF will be promoting the programme and working to further integrate sustainability into current policies and business practices. “Sustainability within the Defence Force is not a short term project. It will become business as usual and will benefit us all,” Dr Benny says.