Sustainability

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, Aotearoa New Zealand’s future.

Renewable, reliable energy, responsibly delivered

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We're committed to a sustainable energy future for Aotearoa New Zealand. To us, this means balancing our commitment to renewable energy, while maintaining reliable access to energy for our customers.

We have invested in building our renewable, flexible, and reliable generation portfolio and our generation was more than 90% renewable in FY23. We maintain thermal generation options for when the market needs extra energy, but are helping to shift this market demand with our time-of-use plans; encouraging customers to use off-peak power and reduce demand on fossil fuels.

A clear path to zero emissions

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Climate change is a real global challenge already impacting our communities, our economy and our environment. We’re committed to taking real steps to address climate change, with a clear path to achieve net zero emissions from our generation operations by 2035.

Positively part of our communities

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The nature of our business means our operations can sometimes impact on the environment and the people who live within it, so we work hard to be a good neighbour and a positive part of the communities we live and work in.

Looking after our ecosystems

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We rely on Aotearoa New Zealand’s natural resources including freshwater and geothermal energy to generate electricity. We take our responsibility to care for these natural resources seriously, not just in the interests of our own business but to ensure future generations of New Zealanders can enjoy them too. It’s all about balance and we’re working to maintain that every day.

Relationships with tangata whenua

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Striving to be a good neighbour means acknowledging our people and our place. Tangata whenua, the people of the land, are fundamental to both with their deep knowledge of how we can collectively care for our home and the resources within it.

Human rights at our core

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Respect for human rights is woven into our culture: the way we treat our people, our customers and our communities.

Contact is committed to ensuring that our workplace is safe and welcoming for everyone, and to avoid negative human rights impacts in connection with our operations, products and services.

We work hard to be transparent in relation to human rights issues in all areas of our business. You can see our Human Rights Policy here.

Responsible procurement

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We are committed to responsible procurement practices in partnership with our suppliers and believe that when we each take action to improve sustainability, we enable mutual success. Working together to support sustainable progress is fundamental for our long-term success.

Financial Sustainability

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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.