APL Commitment to Sustainability

Our commitment to

Sustainability

Letter from the Chief Executive of APL

Dave Downey

APL CEO

When the Plaw family set up their small aluminium joinery business on Bellevue Road in Cambridge back in 1971, they had one eye on the present and one eye on the future - and they always went beyond what was expected.

That attitude hasn’t diminished. In fact, the desire to keep improving has become much stronger. As the country’s largest manufacturer of windows and doors, we believe we have a responsibility to improve the way we do things and reduce our environmental impact.

We don’t see this as compliance. We see it as an opportunity. We firmly believe we can create a better world - for our customers, our communities, and our employees - and, at the same time, create a better, more profitable business.

To do this, we are designing out waste and pollution; keeping products and materials in use; regenerating the natural world around us; and enabling our people and systems to be future ready. This means we are currently rethinking how we move, what we make and how we produce it. We are reconsidering what we buy, what we do with what we use and how we can reuse more of what is leftover. We are measuring ourselves, committing to targets and openly sharing our learnings so that we not only reduce our own impact as a group but reset industry expectations and provide a model for circular success.

We have started to explore the use of renewable, reusable and compostable materials like locallysourced strong textile products instead of plastic; we have built a new 5 Greenstar rated factory in Cambridge; we have sourced our own renewable hydro energy; we have signed up to a number of offsetting and environmental accreditation schemes; and we have supported a range of charities like Live Ocean and Maungatautari – Sanctuary Mountain.

As manufacturers, we acknowledge we are part of the problem, but we are committed to becoming part of the solution and our aim is to be regenerative, 100% circular and climate positive.

We’re at the beginning of our sustainability journey and we’re proud of what we’ve achieved so far, but just as the Plaw family continued to evolve and innovate, we know there is always room for improvement.

About APL

APL Window Solutions is a family-run business that has been setting the standard in windows and doors since it opened its own in 1971.

Over 50 years later, it is now New Zealand’s largest window and door manufacturer and distributes its products nationwide from its base in Hamilton to our independently owned manufacturers and installers from Altherm, Vantage, and First Windows and Doors.

We design, make and deliver end-to-end solutions to suit New Zealand conditions and our passion for innovation means we continue to develop gamechanging new products and processes.

Electricity neutral

We offset all energy used through Kawatiri’s renewable hydro station

96%

96% of our 21-strong truck fleet is Euro star 5 and better, including 58% at Euro 6 - highest rating available for exhaust emissions

Over 28,500 trees and native plants have been planted by our staff

77 MANUFACTURERS

When implemented, our new packaging system will eliminate over

1,500,000 kg's of single use packaging

2.5 TONNES

of food waste diverted through EcoGas in 2023

Our new packaging system components are made from 99% recycled products and are 100% recyclable

We use a chromate free powdercoating process

About Profile

APL’s parent company, Profile Group represents our family of businesses that together form New Zealand’s only integrated aluminium supply chain for window and door solutions.

Each part of the business concentrates on its role to deliver market-leading products to the New Zealand building industry and Profile Group’s various divisions have contributed to over 775,000 houselots of windows and doors in New Zealand, or 50% of the total number of houses in the country.

Until recently, we’ve played our role behind the scenes, working closely to unite and power up our businesses with shared resources and focused strategies. Now we’re focusing on powering up our sustainability efforts too.

VISION

The Profile Group of businesses share one vision:

To keep raising the bar when it comes to products and service, to stay one step ahead of the rest, and to empower our people to do the little things better every day.

Vertically integrated supply chain

Our Goals

Close the loop

Renewable packaging with full circle recovery reuse

Design out waste

A range of carbonzero products

Regenerate nature

Manufacturing powered by renewable energy

Close the loop Design out waste Regenerate nature

Initiatives

■ Circular Packaging innovation

■ Packaging recovery & reverse logistics

■ Circular Transition Indicator (CTI) assessments

Initiatives

■ Toitū surveillance audit

■ Annual waste audit

■ Waste reduction projects

■ Internal waste education program

Initiatives

■ Sanctuary Mountain partner

■ Live Ocean Foundation

■ Takapoto Estate regeneration

■ Local riparian planting projects

■ Profile Park eco-industrial site

Target

■ Complete baseline packaging circularity assessments and work towards circular, reusable and regenerative packaging with 90% overall circularity.

■ Reducing our waste to landfill by 50%, complete a Toitū surveillance audit, offset 100% of energy usage, and gain Environmental Product Declaration certification for our commercial product range.

■ At our next staff planting event, we aim to plant 3000 native trees from locally grown seedlings for positive long term outcomes for biodiversity, wildlife, soil and water.

CLOSE THE LOOP

Working towards a circular economy

Like many manufacturers, APL had previously embraced the traditional linear model, often known as the ‘take-make-waste’ economy. In 2019, a waste audit was conducted by Xtreme Zero Waste, guided by Circularity, to highlight key areas for improvement and set a baseline to work from. Not just for APL, but all Profile Group business units.

This exercise revealed one particularly shocking statistic: the plastic that Profile Group used to protect its products could wrap 25% of the globe in a year and all of it was going to landfill. Added to that, the materials being used in packaging alone were costing the businesses and fabricators well over $500,000 per year to dispose of.

Enough plastic to wrap 25% of the globe

Replacing damaged products would require more energy and resources, but upon learning of the huge

They say you can’t manage what you don’t measure, and that’s why a partnership was established with environmental consultancy Circularity to explore the impacts of all our waste streams.

amount of waste being generated, we took instant action and started looking for substitute materials. Knowledge is power so we began piloting different initiatives that could make a meaningful impact to waste. Changes included reuse systems for pallet wraps, hardware boxes, coils and cleats as well as alternatives that used natural substrates.

To show this progress, Profile Group became the first New Zealand company to use the Circular Transition Indicator (CTI), a global tool created by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development and Circular IQ that allows businesses to measure and validate the circularity of products, packaging, energy and water.

By tracking all inflows and outflows in the business, the tool showed all Profile’s packaging systems started at 64% circularity. From here, every business unit has a circularity target and monitors progress towards it.

As a result of this new circular approach, there are now three guiding goals:

1. Close the loop

2. Design out waste

3. Regenerate nature

We are committed to improving the way we operate and while the primary ambition is to reduce our own impact - and run more efficiently - we also hope to push competitors and suppliers in a similar, circular direction.

From 64%, tracking towards 100% circularity

CLOSE THE LOOP

Soft plastic recycling

Going circular requires businesses to take a good hard look at what they’re doing, and see how that could be improved.

And that’s exactly what we’ve done through our partnership with PACT Recycling, the largest recycler of post-industrial plastic in the Southern Hemisphere.

Before this packaging overhaul project started, APL used to wrap the aluminium that was sent from our warehouse to our nationwide manufacturer network in cases made from single use cardboard.

A lot of APL’s externally sourced resources arrived at the factory in soft plastic packaging, so rather than continuing to send it all to landfill, we decided to repurpose it. Now our soft plastic is bundled up at the warehouse and taken to PACT Recycling’s factory on APL Direct trucks.

In 2023, we repurposed 7,525kg of soft plastic, and 36,375kg of TPV/rubber. That’s nearly 44,000kg of plastic that has remained in our circular economy, as opposed to ending up in landfill and being replaced with virgin plastic.

PACT Recycling melts the soft plastic down and turns it into pellets. PACT Recycling then uses those pellets to create our newly developed reusable cases, in the future these will replace our single use cardboard cases.. At present, we don’t have the plant & equipment to make the pellets in house at PPL (another Profile Group business unit), but we are working towards a goal of making that happen.

These cases are used to transport the aluminium, replacing the need for single use cardboard. This innovative packaging method is reusable, and if they become damaged the plastic can be palletised, then remade into packaging product again and again.

DESIGN OUT WASTE

The waste process

The aim is to reduce the amount of waste we send to landfill by 50% through circular practices, recycling and diverting food waste.

All of our recycling goes to the Hamilton Materials Recycling Facility, a critical piece of Enviro NZ’s nationwide infrastructure. At this facility, the paper, cardboard, grade 1, 2 and 5 plastics, tin and aluminium collected from roadside wheelie bins are sorted and separated with the help of optical sorting technology, imaging sensors, magnets and eddy currents.

After diverting all food waste and recyclables, any remaining waste is then taken to Enviro NZ’s Hampton Downs Resource and Energy Precinct facility, an 87 hectare class 1 site that serves the fast-growing regions of Waikato, Bay of Plenty and Auckland.

The site is consented to safely dispose of 30 million cubic metres of waste in its lifetime and, based on current volumes, it is not expected to reach capacity until sometime around 2055. When that time comes,

While APL is working hard to build a more circular business, not every material is able to be repurposed. That’s why we’re working closely with Enviro NZ, a materials management and resource recovery company.

the landfill will be covered in clay and can safely return to farmland.

Just as APL is looking to turn its waste streams into revenue streams, Enviro NZ runs a ‘Gas-to-Energy’ facility at the Hampton Downs facility to convert methane (a greenhouse gas) to electricity. Methane gas generated under the landfill is captured, filtered, and cleaned to drive seven engines. The landfill generates power for approximately 6000 households in the region.

Hampton Downs has also scaled up its composting infrastructure to capture more food scraps and green waste that might have otherwise ended up in landfill and turn it into nutrient-rich compost.

Through our partnership with Enviro NZ we undertake annual waste monitoring reviews, enabling us to assess current processes and identify areas of opportunity, to further increase diversion from landfill by highlighting new diversion streams.

DESIGN OUT WASTE

Setting targets with Toitū

Saying you’re sustainable is easy. Proving it is hard.

When it comes to charting progress, we can’t mark our own homework. Independent assessments and accreditations are crucial and that’s why we’re working closely with Toitū Envirocare, one of the country’s leading carbon certification organisations.

Toitū uses science-based tools, actions and evidence to support businesses reducing their carbon footprint – and then it recognises them for the effort. More than 800 businesses have gone through its certification programmes since 2001 and compliance is independently verified annually to maintain certification.

The construction materials and building sectors certainly have plenty of room for improvement when it comes to impact on the environment: together, the industry is responsible for more than one-third of global resource consumption and accounted for 36% of all energy use, and 37% of global carbon emissions in 2020.

We started the journey with Toitū in 2021 and analysed greenhouse gas emissions across the

whole supply chain. This assessment provided a baseline, to understand where to focus our emission reduction efforts.

To get there, the focus is on energy - securing renewable electricity and improving efficiencyoptimising transportation networks (58% of the truck fleet is ranked Euro 6, the highest international standard for exhaust emissions), and reducing the amount of waste being sent to landfill by 80%. Toxic materials are also being eliminated from the supply chain and there is also potential to develop products and coatings with solar power potential.

All Toitū programme members are expected to set ambitious carbon reduction targets and demonstrate reductions within a six-year time frame, if not before. Any emissions that are unable to be entirely removed can be offset to achieve a neutral balance through verified carbon credit schemes.

APL have proudly achieved Toitū carbonreduce product certification and we’re working towards achieving carbonzero status.

DESIGN OUT WASTE

Going Electricity-Neutral

Manufacturing windows and doors requires a lot of energy. And now, through an innovative certificate system, that energy can be considered renewable.

The energy used by Profile Group was a major component of their overall carbon footprint, so targeting electricity neutrality was an important goal. And, given their long standing connection to the Waikato region, the solution came from a slightly surprising location: Lake Rochfort near Westport, home to one of New Zealand’s newest hydroelectricity

Kawatiri Energy switched on the electricity supply in 2013, with a second stage coming online in 2017. Transmission lines take the power to the Buller network and while the grid does a great job of getting power to where it’s needed, when it’s needed, it can’t tell you where that power has come from. All power generated by Kawatiri Energy goes into the national network and is not fed to specific users, but the New Zealand Energy Certificate System offers businesses an opportunity to report on electricity usage as if it was sourced directly from that power station.

It is similar to the Emissions Trading Scheme, which allows industries to offset carbon emissions with the purchase of carbon credits.

“It had strong appeal to the group,” says Mikayla Plaw, Executive Director of Organisational Development and Sustainability. “It means suppliers of renewable energy get a financial edge on those with thermal generation. It allows us to report implied zero-carbon electricity usage across our group, and because it costs Profile Group every year to do this it drives us to maximise energy conservation within our operations.”

All certification is carefully monitored to ensure there is no double-counting and it is time-bound to a particular production year. Certificates must either be redeemed or cancelled and removed from circulation in that year.

Their participation in the system will be certified by independent consultancy Toitū Envirocare as part of the quest to gain net carbonzero accreditation and by ThinkStep as part of their Environmental Product Declaration project.

DESIGN OUT WASTE

An Environmental Product Declaration, or EPD, is a standardised and verified way of quantifying the environmental impacts of a product based on a consistent set of rules known as PCR (Product Category Rules). EPDs communicate transparent and comparable data and other relevant environmental information about the life-cycle environmental impact of products.

APL started the process in February 2022 with ThinkStep, following an ongoing partnership with New Zealand Green Building Council. We successfully published and registered with EPD Australasia and EPD International in May 2023, for Residential Series ThermalHEART®, Metro Series ThermalHEART®, and Commercial Series (magnum and shopfront). We’re currently working on the next EPD which will include more product ranges.

Rather than just talking about environmental initiatives, this certification enables us to provide verified data to prove the environmental credentials of our products. It demonstrates a genuine commitment to environmental responsibility and transparency.

Three of APL’s ranges are proudly ‘Declared’ by the International Living Future Institute. Through self-disclosure of ingredients, sourcing, and life cycle information, Declare is a tool to show our customers that our products can be trusted. It means we’re being measured by an industryrecognised tool that requires us to be totally transparent about our products.

The process towards becoming Declared started in 2020, driven by demand in the building industry.

A Declare label is often a factor when tendering for a building with a Green Star rating, it answers three questions:

■ Where does a product come from?

■ What is it made of?

■ Where does it go at the end of its life?

APL has been a proud member of New Zealand Green Building Council (NZGBC) since 2018. Aligning with the NZGBC vision, we believe all homes and buildings in Aotearoa should be green and sustainable, making healthier and happier New Zealanders. We’re proud to be aligned with this not-for-profit industry organisation, helping to influence the ‘green movement’ through industry specification (Green Star and Homestar sustainability rating systems).

REGENERATE NATURE

Biodiversity credits

Profile Group is the first Kiwi company to back a scheme that helps regenerate native forests and wildlife.

The concept of carbon offsetting is all about trying to create something positive to make up for something negative. But in New Zealand, the carbon market has created a perverse incentive to plant pine trees, rather than natives.

These manufactured forests are often biodiversity deserts, with none of the fruit, seeds, or nectar that our species need. But a New Zealandfirst biodiversity and conservation initiative is helping to incentivise more native and riparian planting, ecology protection and sustainable land management.

We have already taken a number of major steps to reduce and offset our own carbon emissions and are on a mission to gain Toitū net carbonzero accreditation. But we took a big step in a more sustainable direction in 2021 by agreeing to become the first participant in an innovative new biodiversity credit scheme.

The market was launched by New Zealand carbon management and certification company, Ekos with the aim of raising funds for conservation management through the sale of biodiversity units. Profile Group’s purchase of these biodiversity units

provides Sanctuary Mountain Maungatautari in the South Waikato with the financial resources required to look after an 83 hectare block until 2025.

The reserve is a 3,363ha forested ecological island with a 47km-long predator-proof fence and, previously, the organisation struggled to raise enough funds to meet its annual operating budget. Now it is able to raise additional funds from businesses that want to embed biodiversity into their value chains.

“This is a fantastic way for us to deliver on our business responsibility and environmental impact reduction goals as well as supporting a truly meaningful local project,” says Mikayla Plaw, Executive Director of Organisational Development and Sustainability.

This arrangement backs up Profile Group’s acquisition of renewable energy certificates and shares from Kawatiri Energy, which generates power from the Lake Rochfort hydro electricity scheme near Westport.

REGENERATE NATURE

Diversion from landfill

Profile Group’s people are its biggest asset, but with just over 1000 employees, those people also create a lot of waste. Previously, most of it went straight to landfill, so as part of the ‘Design out waste’ and ‘Regenerate nature’ goals, they decided to partner with Ecogas to harness the power - quite literallyof organic waste.

Every business unit now has a specially marked bin to collect food waste such as fruit and veggie scraps, tea bags and paper towels. These bins sit alongside recycling, cardboard, cans and general waste bins, which aim to make it as simple as possible for employees to play a role in meeting the company’s waste diversion targets.

All the food waste is then sent to the Ecogas Reporoa Organics Processing Facility, New Zealand’s first large-scale food waste-to-bioenergy facility. Through a natural process called Anaerobic Digestion, micro-organisms break down all of the

By collecting food scraps, we’re helping power local homes and protect the environment.

organic waste. This process creates sustainable energy and biogas. It also produces digestate, a nutrient rich substance that is used as a biofertiliser.

At its peak, the Reporoa facility in the Central North Island will turn 75,000 tonnes of organic waste from businesses and kerbside food scrap collections throughout the North Island into energy that could power the equivalent of around 2,500 households in the region for a year, produce clean bio-fertiliser for approximately 2,000 hectares of local farmland, inject renewable gas back into our national gas grid and provide renewable CO2 and heat to help grow tomatoes in T&G Fresh’s local glasshouse.

In 2023, Profile Group sent 8.2 tonnes of organic waste to Ecogas, including 2.3 tonnes from APL. Our aim across all business units is to send 100% of organic waste to Ecogas, to be diverted from landfill.

REGENERATE NATURE

Since 2021, our support has significantly contributed towards work focussed on connecting people with the ocean and the issues it faces.

This includes Project Kahurangi, New Zealand’s first free visual library with over 2,300 images and videos of our unique ocean space. These resources are available for free to all non-profit groups, educational institutions, Iwi/Hapu and whānau kaitiaki to support their ocean conservation campaigns and communications.

APL’s sponsorship has also provided vital support for the highly innovative photogrammetry project ‘Seascape’ -essentially a 3D digital map of the sea bed. These photographic models of ecologically significant parts of the seafloor, provide high-quality data to scientists, marine managers, and the public.

This cutting edge Seascape technology is being made freely available to the public and schools through collaboration with the highly regarded citizen science programme ‘Marine metre2’, a project that connects scientists, schools, and communities through a common interest of preserving the seashore environment.

With environmental sustainability at the forefront of APL’s values and a desire to balance out our own industrial activities, a major revegetation project was commenced in 2011.

The project was undertaken on a rural property south of Cambridge now known as Takapoto. Takapoto Estate, like APL, falls under the same parent company - Profile Group. This environmentally focussed project was, and continues to be a successful and rewarding carbon offset initiative.

The importance of ThermalHEART®

While reducing the environmental impact of construction is a major focus of the building industry, another big focus is on reducing the amount of energy that’s required to run those buildings when they’re completed.

Less efficient buildings require more energy over their lifetimes and 35-50% of a home’s heat is lost from its windows and doors*. APL’s new industry-leading ThermalHeart+® technology stops that waste, saves homeowners money and reduces emissions.

The New Zealand climate is volatile and variable, with warm subtropical temperatures in the north and severe alpine conditions in the mountains. All of APL’s products are designed and tested in New Zealand to withstand our harsh conditions and climates, but a few years ago, we decided to take thermal performance up a few notches and started developing a range of cutting-edge aluminium windows and doors.

ThermalHEART® works by insulating the window system and minimising heat flow through the frame. This helps to keep cool temperatures out in colder months, and decreases solar gain in warmer months. It also reduces the risk of condensation forming and helps create warmer, drier and healthier homes.

By combining ThermalHEART® frames with The AGP System glass, thermal performance is almost double that of standard aluminium joinery and far exceeds

the new minimum insulation requirements for housing set out in clause H1 Energy Efficiency of the New Zealand Building Code, which was updated in late 2022. When installed using the innovative Centrafix™ installation method, thermal efficiency is further increased by more than 20%*.

We offer four ThermalHEART® ranges, each share the same core design principles allowing for exceptional versatility across the full range of products. This includes a BRANZ appraised and passive house compliant range; Metro Series ThermalHEART® with Centrafix™.

In addition to APL’s own initiatives to create a more sustainable and circular business, the ThermalHEART® range shows that we are also leading the way when it comes to the development of more efficient window and door products.

“These releases mark a comprehensive redesign and repositioning of our product portfolio,” says APL CEO Dave Downey. “The tougher H1 standard validated where we thought the industry was heading. We’re proud of our ability to meet industry requirements, at all levels of product performance.”

* Please refer to thermalheartplus.co.nz for all statistical data and references.

Accreditations

Toitū carbonreduce product certified

Residential Series ThermalHEART®, Metro Series ThermalHEART® and Commercial Series.

Carbon Neutral through Brave Trace (NZECS) credits

Profile Group acquires renewable energy certificates from Kawatiri Energy making the groups electricity usage carbon neutral. This initiative builds on Profile Groups investment to lock in the collaboration by taking up a shareholding in Kawatiri Energy.

Environmental Product Declaration through EPD Australasia

Residential Series ThermalHEART®, Metro Series ThermalHEART® and Commercial Series.

Biodiversity Credits through Ekos and Sanctuary Mountain

Profile Group is the first participant in a new biodiversity market, purchasing biodiversity units from Sanctuary Mountain Maungatautari. These biodiversity units will fund the conservation management of 83 hectares at Sanctuary Mountain Maungatautari.

Declared through the International Living Future Institute

Residential Series, Metro Series, and APL Architectural Series.