EPA halves emissions in two years
The latest Toitū carbonreduce annual audit of the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) shows it has reduced its emissions by 49 per cent on the previous year’s audit.
This is also 54 per cent lower than the baseline set in 2017/18, the first year the EPA was certified in the scheme.
EPA Chief Executive, Dr Allan Freeth, says the result has been achieved through staff awareness campaigns and a review of the travel policy.
In July 2018, the EPA signed up to an environmental certification programme with Toitū Envirocare (previously Enviro-Mark Solutions) to measure, manage, and minimise our environmental impacts.
Through this programme, we are already working towards three of the requirements of the government’s new Carbon Neutral Government Programme:
- measure, verify and report our organisations’ emissions annually
- gross emissions reductions targets and longer-term reduction plans for the next decade, and
- introduce a phased work programme to reduce our organisations’ emissions.
The Carbon Neutral Government Programme requires the public sector to achieve carbon neutrality by 2025.