We’re excited to announce that Excel Digital is now a Toitū carbonzero certified organisation! This makes us Wellington’s first carbon neutral printing company. New Zealand is transitioning to a low carbon economy and we are pleased to play our part. Whoop!
This is a massive change for the team here at Excel Digital and one that we are particularly proud of. From our research we are the first ‘digital-first’ printing organisation in New Zealand to be Toitū carbonzero certified, the first printing organisation in Wellington to be certified and the second in New Zealand!
Why Toitū carbonzero?
At the start of 2021 we did a stack of research into the printing industry and sustainability. We wanted to understand where we could make changes to our sustainability practices as a business. We already had a comprehensive environmental management system in place, but we knew we could do a lot better. At the end of the day, carbon reduction is where we need to see substantial change to contain global temperature rise to within 2 degrees. We realised that reducing our emissions was the right thing to do, and that it would also be of value to our team and customers. We then partnered with Toitū Envirocare as a member of their carbonzero programme to help us with our carbon journey. Toitū Envirocare is the leading organisation in New Zealand when it comes to helping organisations measure, manage, verify and reduce their carbon emissions.
We realised that reducing our emissions was the right thing to do, and that it would be of value to our team and customers.
The run down
Over 2021 we have worked hard to measure our carbon emissions to become certified as a Toitū carbonzero certified organisation. This also means we became certified to the International Standard for “quantification and reporting of greenhouse gas emissions” ISO14064-1 allowing us to track our carbon reduction. We found that for financial year 2021 Excel Digital’s emissions for the year were 318.54 tonnes of carbon and we are committed to reducing this. While this is a low figure relative to some other organisations we know we have a responsibility to reduce our emissions. We have projects underway designed to create a reduction in the carbon footprint of our business. Absolute reduction to zero emissions isn’t yet possible for most organisations, so we have chosen to invest in sustainability projects here in Aotearoa and overseas through purchasing carbon credits. Carbon credits from these projects are used to compensate for our emission balance while we focus on reduction. As a bonus, the funds from purchasing the credits go to projects that help others de-carbonise. We are excited to be supporting the Mt Pleasant native bush regeneration project in Marlborough Sounds, and an international portfolio of sustainability projects.
Why we’re doing things differently from the rest of the industry
At the time of certification, we are the only printing company in New Zealand to be offsetting the embodied emissions associated with all the paper we print on. Paper is our largest raw material input and the largest emissions source for Excel Digital. We are not ‘responsible’ for the embodied emissions in the paper we use, as we don’t create these emissions ourselves. As a result, we aren’t required to offset these emissions to be certified as a Toitū carbonzero organisation. However, we believe the right thing to do is to offset the emissions associated with the paper we print on.
Our customers can have the confidence that we are doing what we can to reduce our environmental impact. Together, let’s reduce our emissions for the benefit of Aotearoa and our beautiful planet.
