30 | HBAL proud of Level 2 certification A repurposed shipping container offers secure parking for up to 12 bikes. REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT Hawke’s Bay: Hawke’s Bay Airport 021 207 7040 www.hallconsulting.nz trish@hallconsulting.org HR consultant for Hawke’s Bay businesses. HR consultant Trish Hall provides human resources support and solutions to businesses in Hawkes Bay. In January last year Hawke’s Bay Airport Ltd (HBAL) became one of the first airports in New Zealand to achieve Level 2 Certification under the Airport Carbon Accreditation programme. As the international gold standard for airport carbon management, the certification recognises the HBAL’s commitment to emissions reductions, climate change mitigation and sustainable development. There are six levels of certification. Level 2 requires the airport to show that it has made meaningful change in its carbon emissions. Since 2018 HBAL has reduced it average emissions per passenger by 12%. Acting CEO Stephanie Murphy says as part of HBAL’s de-carbonisation plan, the airport has over forty initiatives designed to reduce carbon emissions. “Replacing our Fire & Emergency vehicles has been key. “For our ‘airside’ fire service team we have transitioned to a hybrid Outlander and battery-electric vehicles for airfield response. “We’re also replacing all our carpark lighting equipment with LEDs, some of which has been completed with a plan of works for the rest. We have also switched our electricity supply to Ecotricity, which is carbonzero certified.” Improvements also have been made to recycling and waste diversion from within the terminal. Achieving Level 3 Certification requires the HBAL to look beyond its own operations, and work with its partners such as tenants and contractors to help bring their emissions down. “We’ve been working to get a ‘point-in-time’ snapshot as to what our partners emissions are so that we can then look at what activities can be influenced to reduce the emissions. By doing that it becomes a ‘whole of airport’ approach.” In April last year HBAL opened the Willis Legal Bikeport, a collaboration between Willis Legal, HBAL, EECA (co-funder) and Hawke’s Bay Trails. Located in a repurposed shipping container the initiative is designed to offer secure undercover parking for up to 12 bikes, and includes a bike maintenance station for assembly and repairs, charging capability for e-bikes and additional bike racks and seating outside. “As more people choose cycling over other transport options the Bikeport will make it easier and more convenient for cyclists to access the airport,” says Stephanie. “We’re also in the process of looking at EV charging infrastructure, which is a project that our Sustainability Project Lead Michelle Duncan has been working on with EECA over the last year or so.” Looking forward, HBAL’s key initiative is a large-scale airside solar farm that will be positioned in the western side of the runway and produce 25megawatts of electricity. Still in the early planning stages, the project will be the first large scale solar PV installation located on ‘airside’ land in New Zealand, allowing HBAL to be the first in New Zealand to generate more renewable energy than it consumes. It will also provide significant renewable energy to export back into the local network and supply other local homes and businesses. “We’ve completed a feasibility study with Vector Powersmart and we’re now in discussions with a party to join us as a joint venture partner in the project. That will enable us to jointly fund the next stage, which is the detailed design work.” Stephanie says another step in HBAL sustainability journey involved engaging thinkstep-anz, to help with a materiality assessment. This involved surveying as many stakeholders as possible to understand which sustainability issues are the most important. “The results will be used to refine our sustainability strategy, making sure we focus on the issues that our stakeholders care most about, and have an impact on HBAL’s business.” HBAL has made a pledge to be net zero by 2030 and Stephanie says that’s about implementing initiatives to reduce fossil fuel usage. “Any residual carbon emissions that can’t be eliminated we will off-set by purchasing certified carbon credits.” T T Richard Loader
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