Carbon footprint assessment
Orion was the first electricity network in New Zealand to undertake a full carbon footprint assessment of its activities, and international environmental consultant MWH believes no other network operator in the world has completed such a comprehensive assessment.
Our top priority is the efficient and effective management of our electricity network, and we aim to promote safe, efficient and environmentally aware use of electricity in our community. Over the years we have built an impressive record of working to minimise our impact on the environment, resulting in many environmental awards.
Our assessment of Orion's carbon impact was carried out by environmental consultants MWH, and our approach to the assessment was not the norm.
We widened the scope beyond that typically used by most organisations - namely electricity use, fuel use and waste from office-based activities. Instead, we also measured emissions from the servicing of our network, and 'embodied carbon' in the materials used in our electricity network such as lines, cables and transformers.
Key findings of MWH's carbon footprint assessment of Orion:
- An annual carbon footprint of 9,800 tCO2e - excluding electricity losses over our network, which result from the heating up of lines and cables as electricity passes through them.
- This is equivalent to around just one tenth of one percent of the emissions produced during the generation of electricity in New Zealand each year.
Despite being a small contributor to carbon emissions in the electricity industry, we wish to further reduce our environmental impact. MWH made a number of recommendations to Orion for environmental improvements. We are now taking steps to implement these, and they are included as targets in our 2009 Statement of intent.
View the full report of MWH’s carbon footprint assessment for Orion.
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