June 2011 (pdf) - Port Nelson

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Port Nelson Limited report. June 2011. Page 10 meet the client Yealands Estate Winery Few wineries in New Zealand can list plastic bottles, baby-doll sheep and guinea pigs as part of their operating history. These are just some of the innovations at Marlborough’s Yealands Estate Winery, although Marketing Assistant Hayley McCairns says using guinea pigs to keep the grass down between the long rows of grapes was short-lived, as the fluffy rodents were picked off by hawks. Undeterred, owner and founder, Peter Yealands imported a ancient breed of miniature baby-doll sheep to eat the grass without damaging the vines. Hayley says the ‘lawn mowers’ at the estate are an example of a wider philosophy of environmental sustainability. Yealands Estate Winery was established by Peter and Vai Yealands in 2002, and at over 1000 hectares is New Zealand’s largest private family vineyard. “Peter sees himself as a sculptor of the land - taking the ridges and gullies and creating smooth contours,” Hayley says. “He used GPS technology to plant grapes, in even rows stretching north to south.” Grapes were planted in four areas: the hilly terraced Seaview and Flaxbourne vineyards, and Grovetown and Riverland on marshland that was drained, leaving the surrounding wetlands and wildlife intact. The high sunshine, wind, cool nights and low rainfall of Marlborough present challenges, but result in unique fruit characteristics with very intense flavours. ‘An ideas man’ Peter Yealands is not your run-of-the-mill winery owner. He admits he’s not driven by money, he’s an ideas man who is breaking new ground on sustainability in wineries. The grass grazing sheep are not just cute, they’re an alternative to pesticides or tractor mowing, potentially saving over $1.3 million a year in diesel use and spraying. There are also solar panels and wind turbines to help provide power, recycled glass and cardboard is used in the packaging, heat energy from refrigeration is recovered and recycled, grape leaves and stalks are composted for vine mulch, rainwater is harvested and on-site wastewater is treated and reused. As a result of these measures Yealands has been awarded carboNZeroCert status - one of the very first carbonzero enterprises in New Zealand. Export lead Yealands export 90 percent of their branded wine. It is bottled at Wineworks Marlborough and then transported to Port Nelson in containers for a range of export markets. Wine is also shipped from the winery in tanks for bottling overseas. Although Yealands exports to about eighteen countries, wine shipped from Port Nelson is usually bound for Australia. Last year, Yealands shipped around 50 containers through Port Nelson, this year they are looking to increase that to 60 to 80 containers. Hayley says transporting their wine by sea fits well with the winery’s drive for sustainability. “There are only two ways to ship wine across the world, by air or by sea. We can transport a lot more wine at one time by sea, and we can ship to our different distributors in the country of import,” she says. “It does take a bit of coordinating and getting the timings to match, but the freight forwarders do a good job arranging the shipments, and it’s a more economical way of shipping for everyone involved.” What’s that tune? Never short of innovative ideas, Peter Yealands told the sustainable living website ‘Good’ that he is looking at playing music to his vines. He’s not sure how the grapes will respond to music, but he’s been looking in to the technology that sends sound down a laser. He also adds that his wife thinks he’s mad and says she’ll leave him if he does start playing music to his vines!
Port Nelson Limited report. June 2011. Page 11 Noise Management Plan in Place Port Nelson's long-term commitment to the management of noise is now set out in the Port Noise Management Plan. This sits alongside the Noise Mitigation Plan that lays out the port’s obligations to residents under the terms of the Port Noise Variation. Both plans have now been ratified by the Noise Liaison Committee and the Nelson City Council, and can be viewed at the council or on our website. Environmental Officer Thomas Marchant says meeting the objectives of the Noise Management Plan is now part of all port operations: “Noise minimisation is now embedded in our staff training, it is considered at regular staff meetings, it’s taken into account when we are buying new plant… it is part of everything we do here.” environment update Calling new members A big thank you to Sue Thomas, Albert Hutterd and Bruce Robertson, the three residents’ reps on the Port Nelson Noise Liaison Committee. Over the last two years they have worked as the contact point between the port company and residents, as the measures of the Port Noise Variation have been put in place. Albert Hutterd and Bruce Robertson are now joined on the committee by the new residents' rep Raewyn Newnham. ISO update Our environmental measures came under close scrutiny in March in our annual ISO 14001 audit. Alex Daniel (far left) from Verification New Zealand spent a day with Environmental Officer Thomas Marchant, checking out everything from training manuals to log yard dust control. Alex was impressed with what he saw. “Port Nelson has good systems in place and these are well maintained,” he said. “The environmental standards are also evolving according to the organisation’s needs.” The report from the auditor suggested that we shift our focus from auditing the Codes of Practice to create and implement a systemwide internal audit schedule, and that we update and review the relevance of the environmental objectives and targets that we have in place. Port Nelson remains the only ISO 14001 accredited port in New Zealand. Hush glass, anyone? It’s now the turn of Stage 3 residents, those on the outer limits of the Noise Contour Map, to be offered assistance with noise mitigation. The terms of the Noise Variation entitle them to request technical advice and be considered via recommendation from the Noise Liaison Committee for financial assistance with acoustic treatment of their homes. Property owners in the Stage 3 zone have recently been sent a letter from the port company outlining this process. Environment Committee If you were born in 1994 you’d be leaving school and heading out into the big world. Our Environmental Consultation Committee dates back 17 years too, and has also come of age in its own way. With port noise issues now handled by its own committee, the Environment Committee can take a wider focus as an information sharing group with an interest in what goes on at the port. The committee meets quarterly, and at its first meeting for this year, held in March, the guest speaker was long serving member Paul Sheldon from the Nelson City Council. Paul gave a presentation on the council’s new State of the Environment Report, covering air quality, fresh water, biodiversity, the marine environment and the iwi perspective. The star in the report is air quality, where there has been a steady improvement since restrictions were imposed on backyard burning, open fires and older log burners. The council is now moving to a ‘report card’ system that will give more immediacy to the information in its reports. RePort is Green Nelson has come a long way on air quality since this photo was taken in July 2001. In line with our environmental policies RePort uses elemental chlorine free paper produced from sustainably managed forests. RePort is printed with vegetable based inks.
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June 2011 (pdf) - Port Nelson

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