We’re celebrating several sustainability milestones here at HealthPost, including a big upgrade to our solar production in Mohua Golden Bay. Our Collingwood operational hub now has a 100kw solar array and is comfortably producing more power than it consumes!
We’re not new to solar; we added 72 panels to the sunny roof of our rural premises more than a decade ago. At the time, these panels produced around 50% of our power, but as the business grew, so did our power needs, and solar reduced to around 22% of our total energy consumption. With the many improvements to solar technology in recent years, and our continued efforts to take all practical steps to reduce our carbon footprint, we decided it was time to radically scale up our solar production, increasing our capacity by a whopping four times.
We’re stoked with the results. In its first full month of operation in March, the new system produced more than 10,000 kilowatt hours. Our average monthly usage at this time of year is around 8,000 kilowatt hours, so we are more than covering our own electricity needs, with the surplus exported back into the grid. The new system encompasses our original solar panels, which are still producing well 12 years on.
The recent solar expansion is part of a bigger sustainability picture here at HealthPost. As a Zero Carbon certified business with Ekos, we have a close understanding of our carbon footprint and a reduction plan in place. Purchased electricity itself is only around 1% of our total emissions and will be reduced by better solar production. Most significant from a carbon perspective is the 73% of our emissions that come from outbound courier deliveries. While we offset these emissions using local native forest projects, we also want to reduce them. We’ve been working on a partnership with New Zealand Post for several years to encourage the adoption of EV Courier Vans by their contractors.
We love being based in Golden Bay and providing good jobs in a small rural community, and also acknowledge that our remote location comes with challenges from a carbon perspective. With the newly expanded solar production and a simultaneous upgrade of our mains power cabling, we are now set up for the installation of fast chargers here in Collingwood and one step closer to our aspiration of parcel deliveries powered by Golden Bay sunshine!
Thank you for being with us as we work to deliver on our vision to have a lasting, positive impact on people and planet, one parcel, one product, one sustainable step at a time.
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