Armatec Sustainability Program - Telling our Sustainability Story
In 2022 NZTE Sustainability Beachheads issued the friendly challenge to Armatec to better articulate how we contribute to a sustainable future. In taking this challenge on, we engaged with ThinkStep-ANZ who completed a materiality assessment for us & designed the sustainability program below based on our activities.
The intention of us sharing this here is to help support continuation of this journey for NZ manufacturing & service organisations. Lowering the embodied carbon footprint in our supply chain is a key challenge we’ve identified within our footprint auditing & are actively working with suppliers to reduce emissions.
NZTE (NZ Trade & Enterprise) research indicated customers, suppliers & supporters within Aotearoa NZ and internationally wanted to work together on the difficult challenges towards a circular, low emissions and sustainable future. That requires public presentation of stance & position of stakeholders. We identified we needed to give more visibility to the many activities we have underway internally within our team at Armatec & tell our story.
Beginning the process of telling our sustainability story brought a number of challenges:
Expectations - how to align with customers needs?
Certifications- what is really needed, trusted?
Avoiding greenwashing – what are the do’s and don’ts?
Scoping & Vocabulary – are we talking about the same things?
Dashboarding – what really matters? What’s the key insight to prioritise & action?
Collaboration - how to make sure it we make the journey together?
With the support of NZTE Springboard fund, we engaged the expertise of the ThinkStep-ANZ team to take this challenge on. Their team have the expertise with many sustainability specialists on board, with relevant market and materials knowledge. ThinkStep-ANZ completed a materiality assessment for Armatec that included interviews with our staff, business owners, customers and suppliers. The results informed the sustainability program design. We chose to target a 1 page document that forms the framework with which we can monitor progress over time.
Armatec have recently achieved a long term goal to attain certification in all 3 key ISO standards for our Quality, Occupational Health and Safety and Environmental (including Carbon Emissions) management systems, these systems paired with our wellbeing & staff development plans are key to our sustainability program. Our integrated system aims to align all the system components towards overall sustainability and helps to ensure targets are not competing.
Some achievements to date are:
- Substituted for a lower emission resin for direct replacement for substantial portion of our products, made from ocean recovered plastics. Sourcing EarthKind Resin from Aurora Composites
- Identified components within existing supply chain that have replaced 50-100% with recycled materials by Gurit
- Driving sector transformation with CANZ and with recent publishing of NZ Composites Design for Environment Framework
- Offsetting beyond our operational footprint to include raw materials purchased with Toitu EnviroCare
- Organisation team for Māori Worldviews, Climate & Carbon Pathways Webinar as part of Water New Zealand Climate Group
- Contributing to writing of Water New Zealand Guidance Document Navigtating to New Zero Aotearoa's water sector low carbon journey.
- Engagment as part of Partnership Focus Group for Advanced Manufacturing Industry Transformation Plan
- Increased diversion from Landfill from active engagement in New Plymouth District Council commercial waste minimisation pilot program - Resource Wise Business
- Conducting & supporting research and trials towards our goal of 30% recycled content in our products, developing standard processes for including recycled fibreglass as business as usual.
- Reducing Armatec's carbon footprint intensity during a time of business growth, reducing our office & factory waste footprint was target reduction for this. We continue to progress our emissions reduction plan including active engagement with our supply chain.
With this insight post, Armatec aims to encourage other NZ & international businesses, industry associations and specialists to continue sharing and being involved in relevant initatives towards increased sustainabilty & ensuring a just transition to a low emissions, circular economy.