Wellington Zoo receives carboNZero re-certification

25 February 2016

We’re tickled green to receive our carboNZero re-certification in an official ceremony with Wellington City Council Mayor Celia Wade-Brown recently, since becoming the first zoo in the world to be carboNZero certified in May 2013.

Re certification process

Wellington Zoo Trustee Craig Ellison, Dr Ann Smith from Enviro-mark, Mayor Celia Wade-Brown and Wellington Zoo Chief Executive Karen Fifield

 

The ceremony, which took place at Wellington Zoo, was a wonderful opportunity to acknowledge our passionate Zoo staff members involved in the re-certification process, and the overall commitment of the Zoo to reducing our emissions.

As part of our carboNZero certification, Wellington Zoo has made a commitment to continually work on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Over the past four years, the range of sustainability initiatives we have implemented to reduce our power use and waste generation has helped us to continue reducing our emissions.

This year has seen turning old marketing billboards into bags sold in the Zoo shop; as well as new and existing light fixtures throughout the Zoo being upgraded to LED to reduce power consumption.  We’ve also recently installed 48 solar panels, which assists us in minimising our impact on the environment helping us do our part to fight climate change.

 

About carboNZero

CarboNZero certified organisations have measured their organisations greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions so they understand what their impact is on the global climate. They then make a commitment to managing and reducing their GHG emissions by creating an emissions management and reduction plan. Any remaining emissions that the organisation cannot avoid are then offset by purchasing verified carbon credits. Wellington Zoo chooses to offset what carbon they can’t reduce in native forest regeneration programmes.