Our environment is important to us and the animals we share our world with. Wellington Zoo leads the way in caring for our environment, and helping you to do the same.
CarboNZero Certified Zoo
Wellington Zoo is the world’s first Toitū net carbonzero certified zoo. We’ve worked really hard to make some big changes that have reduced our environmental impact. We are continuing to:
- Reduce – our waste and our use of power and water.
- Reuse – we compost and reuse building materials.
- Recycle – our waste, rainwater, concrete, shop products.
- Plant – thousands of native trees.
Turning our carbon emissions into native forests
We buy carbon credits for carbon emissions that we can’t reduce completely. Our carbon credits help regenerate native forest in Hinewai Reserve, a native biodiversity restoration site on Banks Peninsula.
Green Zoo Green You
We're committed to being a Green Zoo, and helping you to be a Green You.
We think carefully about how we build new structures and products we buy.
We use forest-friendly wood and paper products that are FSC approved (Forestry Stewardship Council).
We reduce, reuse, recycle and compost.
We use energy efficient lighting and heaters.
We collect over 300,000 litres of rain in water tanks for bathrooms and cleaning.
We share our stories so you can join our environmental efforts.
You can do all of these things in your home too. Although, you might not need quite so much water as us!
Wellington Zoo position on climate change
Wellington Zoo firmly believes the science that shows there is an imminent threat to wildlife and wild places due to human-induced climate change. We are committed to United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 13, Climate Action – to take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.
As a conservation organisation, Wellington Zoo has a responsibility to constructively engage in discussions about climate change and to commit to climate action to reduce our own impact on the planet. As the world’s first Toitū net carbonzero certified Zoo we are continually working on identifying and implementing ways to reduce our carbon emissions. We measure and report our greenhouse gas emissions, set emissions reduction targets, and work with suppliers to reduce their emissions. We believe that curbing greenhouse gas emissions and reducing other environmental pressures e.g. deforestation will help nature to better cope with climate change.
Many millions of people and their livelihoods, as well as animals and their habitats, are already suffering from the impacts of climate change. The effects are felt from mountain tops to coral reefs and from the tropics to Antarctica. Some of the most iconic species at Wellington Zoo, including Tuatara, Red Panda and even the Kiwi could be severely affected in the future unless we act now.
It will take an unprecedented global effort to control production of greenhouse gases worldwide, however we believe we must all act together to reduce climate impacts and protect people, animals and the environment.
