Business Central September 2021

34 | Pan Pac’s plant in Whirinaki - minimising environmental impact. Having a positive impact in the Bay T T Karen Phelps REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT Pan Pac Forest Products A new report by Business and Economi- cResearch Limited (BERL) has found that Pan Pac Forest Products has a major positive impact on economic well-being in the Hawke’s Bay region. “Pan Pac provides hundreds of employment opportunities and generates significant value, in the form of GDP, tax revenues and exports. Moreover, Pan Pac is exemplary in that it adds value to the logs it harvests from the forests it manages,” says Pan Pac managing director Tony Clifford. “Pan Pac is an integrated forestry and man- ufacturing business, whereas virtually all other major forestry operators in New Zealand simply export logs.’ Established in 1971, Pan Pac is a Japanese owned, fully integrated forestry and timber products company located in Hawke’s Bay. Pan Pac grows, processes and markets for- est-based products to meet global customer demand. It has cutting rights to over 33,000 hectares of plantation forests, at five forest locations in Hawke’s Bay. In 2007, Pan Pac became wholly owned by Oji Green Resources, a fully owned subsidiary of Oji Holdings Limited. In December 2014 a subsidiary company, Pan Pac Forest Products (Otago) Limited, was established, a lumber business which oper- ates a modern sawmill, boiler, continuous kiln and drymill from a site at Milburn just south of Dunedin in the South Island. The BERL report, which updates and expands its 2016 analysis of the company’s economic contribution, assessed the compa- ny’s contribution to well-being in relation to both the Four Wellbeings stated in the Local Government Act and the United Nations’ Sus- tainable Development Goals. Social well-being results identified by the report were also connected to the fact that Pan Pac plays an important role in support- ing the life of its local community, including enabling the creation of the Pan Pac Mountain Bike Park and its support for the ECOED kiwi conservation programme. In 2019, it established the Pan Pac Environ- mental Trust, following the renewal of Pan Pac’s resource consent that authorises the discharge of processed wastewater from the Whirinaki mill to Hawke’s Bay. Tony says the trust adds to Pan Pac’s existing community support and sponsor- ship initiatives with Pan Pac contributing up to $100,000 per annum. The funding is split evenly between the two purposes of the Trust, being the offset of cultural impacts on mana whenua hapū, and to benefit the Hawke’s Bay community by promoting the enhancement, restoration and protection of the environ- ment more generally. Importantly, Pan Pac is just one of the trustees with the other seven trustees appointed by various stakeholders of Pan Pac. Last year’s recipients included $50,000 to Maungaharuru-Tangitu Trust to deliver the Whakatipu Kaitiaki (Raising Future Kaitiaki) wānanga programme to rangatahi from the Ahuriri hapū. On the environmental side, the Otatara Out- door Learning Centre received funding, as did a project to increase the propagation of the endangered Kākābeak/Ngutukākā through the development of a regional urban seed bank. Te Wai Mauri Trust also received funding to establish a nursery adjacent to Waiōhiki Marae. Tony acknowledges that inevitably operat- ing plantation forests and processing wood will have environmental downsides, but says that this is true for virtually every primary sector and industrial activity. “We know our environmental impact is not zero, but according to RMA definitions it is ‘less than minor’ and we are continually work- ing to further reduce this. “Ultimately at Pan Pac we are focused on creating a better future for people, communi- ties and the planet.” He says that Pan Pac puts effort into environmentally responsible sourcing for its lumber and pulp manufacturing operations, and into the management of its forests. Pan Pac has also taken major steps to minimise waste and emissions from its main operational site in Whirinaki. Tony says that the report also highlights some lessons for central and local govern- ment policy by recommending that central government should focus on how vertical integration of forestry and wood processing operations could be encouraged. It recommends that District and Regional Councils should accept that the national re- sponse to climate change will almost certainly result in a major expansion of forestry, and that their attention should be on how to max- imise the advantages for their communities from the expansion. Tony says that times are challenging for the forestry industry and predicts that rising electricity costs will have further impacts in the years ahead as prices continue to rise on the back of demand for example, from the increasing electric vehicle fleet, and the gov - ernment’s support for Tiwai Point aluminium smelter also causing uncertainty, resulting in a hesitancy from business to invest in electricity generation in New Zealand. “We know our environmental impact is not zero, but according to RMA definitions it is ‘less than minor’ and we are continually working to further reduce this.” Visit us online at www.goactive.nz | Email us at admin@goactive.nz | Reach us by phone on 09 555 7741 New Zealand’s most progressive Electrical Supplier New Zealand Owned & Operated Suppliers of Quality Electrical and Communications Products to Electrical & Data Contractors and Industries throughout New Zealand