ENVIRONMENT

Proactive improvement

of environmental performance

Our commitment to grow strong healthy plants extends to continuously improving our environmental performance.

We’ve always taken a proactive long term view, investing in systems and technologies that reduce our energy use and keep waste to exceptionally low levels. Our water management, heating systems, pest and disease management, in-house plastic packaging manufacture and recycling, nursery certification and our own fleet of delivery trucks all incrementally make a difference.

Closed loop water management

Zealandia harvests water through ground and rainwater catchment. Several of the facilities run closed loop water management systems where floor and sprinkler irrigation systems are designed to re-capture, store, and filter to manage water purity. In closed loop facilities the only way water leaves a glasshouse is through transpiration or transportation when a plant leaves the nursery.

In-house plastic manufacture and recycling

At Zealandia, plants move several times through a production cycle before being ready for delivery. This means every plant is packaged. We make our own plastic packaging in-house and recycle packaging when it’s reached the end of its useful life cycle. We could buy in packaging at no greater cost, but we think recycling is the right thing to do.

Integrated pest management

Nurseries have micro-climates that may attract bugs and nasties. Zealandia operate Integrated Pest Management (IPM), which utilises beneficial insects to reduce harmful insect populations. That, in turn has dramatically reduced the need for pesticides.

Biomass boiler Systems

Zealandia operate biomass boilers in Auckland and Christchurch which sit beside 1 million litre, 10m tall hot-water tanks.  These tanks run so the water at the top may be close to boiling, while water near the bottom may just be pleasantly warm which enables us to carefully and efficiently manage the heating requirements inside a glasshouse. They run on un-tanalised wood by-product which previously simply went to landfill. The boilers are amazingly efficient – 65 truckloads of timber produce only 1 cubic metre of solid ash waste.

Modern, low-emission fleet

The end result of Zealandia’s quality systems is thousands of perfect plants going out the door every day.

When the business made a commitment to quality nationwide delivery of plants we also made a commitment to running a late-model fleet of low emission trucks not only for the environment but also for the safety and comfort of our professional drivers.

Our logistics and vehicle managment systems are regularly reviewed and optimised to look for improvements in handling and reduction in usage.

Nursery Sustainability Certification

As part of Zealandia’s long-term commitment to business performance and upgrading of facilities, is to gain NIASA certification.

To evaluate a site for this certification, assessors visit, talk to staff and check the spraying programme, the water cycle, nutrient runoff, health and safety, the company’s ethos, and care for the environment.

Our Radcliffe Rd facility in Christchurch and Tourist Rd facility in Auckland both have NIASA certification. As each of our nurseries go through continuing redevelopment certification applications will be made for these other sites. 

Anthony Kachenko Environmental Technical Policy Manager had this to say after assessing the Radcliffe Rd operation:

“From what I observed during the visit, the production systems and standards observed were exceptionally high which is a credit to you and your team. I reiterate that it was one of the best production nurseries I have ever seen in the southern hemisphere.”