As a company that is driven to help you to realise the true value of water on site, it is important that we also take steps to improve our own performance as an organisation – and measure our progress.
For that reason, it is great news for all of us at Watersmart that we have achieved net carbonzero certification by Toitū Envirocare, which sets the benchmark for impartial and transparent verification and certification of greenhouse gas assertions, environmental management systems and energy management systems.
The certification means that we are now measuring the emissions we create and offsetting them to ensure we are not having a harmful impact on the planet, certified in accordance with ISO 14064-1 or ISO 14067.
“Achieving this certification matches our company purpose to protect the environment we have,” says Eliot Olsen, our co-founder and Technical Manager. “Toitū has helped us to accurately measure our emissions and then put in place strategies to manage, reduce and offset our impacts.
“We started work late last year to figure out what was required, and then we met Toitū to make a plan to measure and collect data from around all our business activities. This included freight movements, the amount of petrol, diesel and power we use, all our transport – everything we do. Toitū then put this data through their calculator to give us a confirmed figure on our emissions that is externally audited, before we were able to move ahead towards offsetting and certification. It is particularly pleasing for us that some of the carbon credits we’re involved in through the programme involve installing potable water filters, as it relates back to what we do in our work. Compliance with the programme is independently verified annually to maintain certification.”
The next steps for us in this area will include activities to reduce our emissions. We are already looking at our vehicle fleet to transition to hybrid vehicles.
Exciting times
