Annual Report 2013 - Mainfreight

Environment
Mainfreight has always attempted to reduce
the environmental impact of its operations.
Our sustainability initiatives have often
resulted in reduced costs; so the bottom
line and the environment are both winners.
We measure the carbon emissions we
generate across our New Zealand and
European operations, and over time will
establish measurement across our global
operations.
We continue to lobby for the ability to move
more domestic freight by rail particularly
throughout New Zealand and Australia,
because it is generally believed that trucks
emit 4.6 times more CO 2 per tonne km
carried than trains. It is critical for the wealth
and productivity of all countries that rail
services improve not only to reduce carbon
emissions but also to improve the efficiency
of their domestic transport infrastructures.
In New Zealand, we continue to take the
opportunity to build more freight facilities on
rail-served land. We now have 13 rail-served
sites in New Zealand and importantly, these
sites are on the main freight corridors of
New Zealand. We also continue to push for
more New Zealand Government investment
in improving rail infrastructure, and the
Long-term environmental
practises are an ingrained
part of Mainfreight’s
culture and thinking.
viability of coastal shipping. Identifying rail
freight opportunities in Australia, the
United States of America and Europe
remains difficult but not insurmountable.
In Australia we are expecting to increase rail
usage to compensate for the ever increasing
shortage of owner operators willing to invest
in vehicles.
In seeking to reduce our
emissions, Mainfreight’s
initiatives include:
> > Moving capacity from road to rail and
coastal shipping
> > Route planning – using GPS in congested
international cities
> > Truck size management – using smaller
trucks for distribution within cities and
larger trucks between cities
> > Promoting off-peak distribution, particularly
between cities and from ports
> > Efficient driving techniques promulgated
through our driver training programmes
> > Vehicle maintenance guidelines for ownerdrivers
to promote efficient running of
their trucks
> > The conversion of gas and diesel powered
forklifts operating on our docks to electric,
and the use of manual pallet trucks to
replace forklifts where practicable.
It is important to note that through good
old-fashioned common sense, we have
been recycling office and depot waste for
25 years in New Zealand. We store and use
rainwater and recycle greywater for truck
washing, ablutions and irrigation. Where
possible, our new freight and warehousing
facilities in New Zealand and Australia are
built with environmental design principles in
mind; energy-efficient lighting and heating
solutions; and solar power installations
where feasible. Rain gardens are installed
as a feature of our landscaped grounds.
In Europe, the business has committed
to the Netherlands sustainable logistics
programme, with the objective of reducing
carbon emissions by 30% in 2012 from
levels recorded in 2007. For the Dutch
fleet, we achieved a carbon reduction of
27% in the 2012 calendar year, compared
to baseline 2007, while the Belgium
business reported a 22% reduction in 2012
compared to 2010, in a voluntary national
programme for sustainable logistics.
24 Mainfreight | Annual Report 2013