Sustainability
Mainfreight’s 100-year vision, established in its earliest days, has been a guiding principle in our commitment to sustainability. All decisions are made on the basis that we will be here for another 100 years, and are aligned with the key concepts of sustainability: investing in our people and communities, reducing the environmental impact of our activities, supporting our customer, supplier and other stakeholder relationships, and developing our growth strategies.
We Believe In Taking Responsibility
Sustainable logistics initiatives remain an environmental issue worldwide. We actively seek ways to leave the lightest possible imprint on the planet while continuously managing our operations to build a sustainable operating environment.
No matter where we are located in the world our commitment to sustainability, safety, health and the environment has been, and continues to be, a fundamental element of our operating practices and success to date. While our initiatives vary from country to country to achieve the greatest impact, we remain committed to these projects and to expanding them where practicable.
We are committed to exceeding minimum environmental standards where practicable. Our commitment to sustainability involves concerns for both natural and developed environments, and for the effective and economically and environmentally efficient use of resources.
We have always attempted to reduce the environmental impact of our operations. Our sustainability initiatives have often resulted in reduced costs; so the bottom line and the environment are both winners.
Climate change remains an issue for businesses and governments everywhere. For Mainfreight it begins with accepting that our business is based on an activity that generates carbon emissions and therefore taking responsibility to reduce those emissions over time while maintaining our competitiveness and ability to deliver quality services as our customers expect. We measure the carbon emissions we generate across our global operations.
We continue to lobby for the ability to move more domestic freight by rail particularly throughout New Zealand and Australia, because the simple fact is trucks emit 4.6 times more CO2 per tonne km carried than trains. It is critical for the wealth and productivity of all countries that rail services improve not only to reduce carbon emissions but also to improve the efficiency of their domestic transport infrastructures.
We have put together a Sustainability Overview, in which we have reported on economic, environmental, social and governance topics that Mainfreight believes are material to its business and the communities it operates in. Click here to access the online reader version
Sustainability and Environmental Management
Our People
- Team Health and Wellness programs
- Ensuring living wages for entry level roles
- Team leadership development with our own Outward Bound and Main Divide programs
- Tertiary scholarships for family of Mainfreight team members
Our Community
- Major sponsor of Books in Homes
- Volunteering and community days organised by our local teams across the country
- Each year more and more Mainfreight team members take part in Run for the Kids which raises money for the Royal Children’s Hospital Good Friday Appeal
Our Place
- Major solar installations on sites across New Zealand, Australia and Europe totalling over 5,500 kWp
- Modern fleet (all <10 years old) predominantly Euro 5 and 6 vehicles
- Major infrastructure investment in rail capacity with rail sided sites across our network.
- Rain water capture and storage at all major sites
- Grey water recycling at all major sites for truck wash, sprinkler systems etc
- Repurposing waste like pallets (into furniture or stowage aids)
- Waste exchange agreements to redirect waste from landfill for shrink-wrap and polystyrene
- Hungry bins, on site composting and branch gardens
- Small vehicle fleet (team cars) moving towards hybrid and electric along with onsite charging stations
- High proportion of electric forklifts and material handling equipment
- Progressing trials and explorations of electric truck opportunities across all regions
Our Economy
- Youth work skills training programme
- Increasing rail capability and capacity to reduce road congestion and heavy traffic
- Developing our own inland container port to reduce inner-city congestion at Port of Auckland
Some of our operational programs and initiatives around sustainability include:
- Preparing our Annual Report with Reference to the GRI Standards. You can download our report from our Reports Library
- Verifying our GHG Emissions Inventory to ISO 14064-1: 2018 by Toitu Envirocare. You can see our previous emissions reports in our Reports Library
- Mainfreight are a Smart Freight Centre Member. We support and follow their framework to measuring supply chain emissions
- We continue to develop our GHG emissions reporting tools for customers. We can provide an accurate inventory of their supply chain emissions, from local deliveries through to international shipments
- Mainfreight have our own domestic emission factors in New Zealand, peer reviewed by Toitu Envirocare
Our Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Sustainability and Information Technology
Reducing the environmental impact of IT infrastructure is important. Our data centres in New Zealand, Australia and the United States of America are as energy efficient as possible through initiatives including:- Minimising computer room space to minimise cooling requirements
- Installing efficient cooling systems
- Using virtualisation to reduce hardware required, - and heat generated – Mainfreight currently runs 48 major applications across only 12 physical servers
- Using hardware with variable energy management systems – running at full capacity only on an “as needed” basis
Future Sustainability Developments and Leadership
Mainfreight is actively committed to sustainability and environmentally friendly practices. Mainfreight will develop partnerships in the wider community to promote socially responsible environmental practices and show leadership in managing the use of finite resources.
Mainfreight’s commitment to sustainability, safety, health and the environment has been, and continues to be, a fundamental element of our operating practices and success to date.
