Climate Positive Certification for Ākina FY22 reveals 67.19% reduction of tCO2e since 2018

Aerial photo by Look Up Look Down Photography on Unsplash

The climate emergency presents the biggest challenge of our time. At Ākina, creating positive impact is at the heart of the work we do with our clients and partners – so it’s important to us that our impact on the environment is positive too.

Our vision is of a sustainable, prosperous, inclusive New Zealand and world, and being climate positive helps us to move towards that. Being climate positive acknowledges the urgency of the problem, and demonstrates a commitment to being part of the solution. We know we’re only a drop in the ocean when it comes to global emissions, but if we’re serious about tackling the climate crisis, we believe we need to see action from all corners of business, government and society.

Ākina is proud to be certified Climate Positive Business Operations with Ekos. We have measured and offset 120% of our carbon footprint for the business operations scope 1, 2 and 3 CO2 emissions for the year measurement period 1 July 2021 to 30 June 2022 with certified carbon credits. These certified carbon credits are sourced from projects that grow and protect forests in New Zealand and the Pacific Islands and help to deliver climate resilience, waterways protection, erosion control, biodiversity conservation and community economic development.

Our emissions since our base year:

2018-2019: 69.79 tCO2e
2019-2020: 27.99 tCO2e
2020-2021: 42.32 tCO2e
2021-2022: 23.36 tCO2e

There has been a -67.19% reduction in emissions since our base year of 71.19 tCO2e in 2018/2019.

Business travel dominates the Ākina carbon footprint, and in our baseline year there was in particularly high amount of international travel. We have learnt from Covid-19 that it is possible to successfully conduct business online, and intend to use these learnings to reduce our travel and thus reduce our emissions. 

Our main source of emissions is linked to domestic flights, followed by staff commuting and fuel related emissions.

A large portion of the Financial year for 2021/2022 was taken up by COVID-19 lockdowns. Our staff in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, were in a lockdown from mid-August 2021 till December 2021, resulting in less commuting and business travel across the motu.

Anecdotally we found that staff were less likely to use public transport during heightened community transmission, with a lot of staff opting to work from home or using personal vehicles to commute into the office.

Like many organisations, we have seen a real fluctuation across the last few years as a result of the pandemic. Our challenge going forward will be to keep this number low, without nationwide lockdowns, and continue to be strategic and intentional with reducing our business emissions.

Learn more about our climate positive journey here:

Ekos helps develop and supports carbon projects that grow and protect permanent restorative forests in New Zealand and the Pacific Islands. Ekos connects carbon offset buyers with these projects by measuring business and individual carbon footprints, supplying certified forest carbon offsets, and providing carbon certifications (Zero Carbon, Climate Positive, Carbon Footprint Certifications). These forest carbon projects deliver climate resilience, waterways protection, erosion control, biodiversity protection and community economic development. Learn more about Ekos here.