Our Commitment
As a company we are an integral part of daily life in New Zealand and we’re acutely aware that our every action, good and bad, has a marked impact on the wellbeing of our communities — today and in the future.
At Contact, sustainability means making every decision, every action, count for the long run. It means using Our Tikanga to make the best decisions for today and tomorrow. Decisions our kids would be proud of. It’s about making sure we look after their future, New Zealand’s future.
Renewable, reliable energy, responsibly delivered
In recent years we’ve invested in building our renewable, flexible and reliable generation portfolio which has helped us to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions from generation by 62% since 2012. We have developed new geothermal power stations, which, alongside our existing geothermal and hydro power stations mean that our generation is now more than 80% renewable. We maintain thermal generation options for when the market needs extra energy, and we’ve also got New Zealand’s only gas storage facility which adds flexibility to our portfolio. We also hold resource consents for other geothermal projects should the need for further electricity in the market be required.
Positively part of our communities
Looking after our ecosystems
New Zealand is rich in natural resources and intricate ecosystems which sustain thriving and diverse species, environments and communities.
Our operations can have wide-ranging impacts on water, rivers, birds, animals and plant life. The range of different impacts in different regions means that we have site specific management plans for local biodiversity. Across our sites in 2020 we caught 2,009 pests, planted 30,806 trees, transferred 489 eels downstream in the Clutha catchment (including 54 migrant eels), and transferred 7.5kg of elvers upstream of the Roxburgh Dam. Contact has also planted more than 125,000 native trees over the last three years. Since our restoration and protection programmes began, we have protected over 130 hectares of land. This includes planting, fencing and an increased focus on pest management. We continue to support local community groups such as Kids Greening Taupō to help build awareness and love for our environment in the next generation.
Climate change is a significant global issue with the potential to adversely affect the environment, people and the economy. Through our investment of around $1.7bn in building our flexible, reliable and renewable generation portfolio, Contact’s generation is now more than 80% renewable. This has resulted in a 62% reduction in our Scope 1 greenhouse gas emissions since 2012 and a 7% reduction in our Scope 1 emissions in the last year.
Water
In 2010 we built the award winning Wairākei bioreactor to help us reduce our impact on the Waikato River. The bioreactor turns hydrogen sulphide, which is harmful to freshwater ecosystems in high concentrations, into harmless dissolved sulphate particles using natural enzymes. This was an innovation developed by our team right here in New Zealand.
Financial Sustainability
We have more than 63,000 shareholders and 1,000 bondholders around the world including many Kiwi families, investment firms, professional investors and superannuation funds. Each of them rely on us to deliver sustainable financial returns now and into the future.
Increasingly investors are focusing on climate change and its potential impact on the environment, people and business. In recognition of this and our commitment to sustainability, Contact has undertaken market leading sustainable finance initiatives. In 2017 Contact was the first company in New Zealand to establish a Green Borrowing Programme, in 2019 we set up a sustainability linked loan and in 2020 we became the first company in the Asia-Pacific region to list our bonds on Nasdaq’s Sustainable Bond Network.