Winepress - March 2024

Climate Action

A “long game” for sustainability

CATHIE BELL

SUSTAINABILITY MEASURES need to be commercially sensible, says the general manager of safety and sustainability at Hortus. Speaking at Climate Action Week Marlborough in February, Alistair Thomson said the labour contract and vineyard management business took a cautious approach to climate change and sustainability issues, viewing it as “a long game”. Hortus has involvement with approximately 25% of Marlborough’s grapes, and whatever the company does has to be “authentic, culturally appropriate, and commercially realistic”, he told attendees at the session.

In 2023 Hortus hired Ekos to do a carbon audit of its scope 1 and 2 emissions, and started measuring a wide number of business metrics, including fuel use through 20 tractors, five harvesters and 110 other vehicles, including vans, utes, cars and three buses. “Currently, we’re driving enough tractor kilometres each year to go almost twice around the earth,” Alistair revealed. The carbon audit, which did not include flights for Recognised Seasonal Employer scheme workers (scope 3), showed Hortus’ footprint is “not massive”, but it’s not insignificant either.

The company has set up a “green team” of sustainability champions, and is looking at hydrogen vehicles for staff transport, Alistair said, explaining that current options for electric vehicles don’t meet their needs. Hortus is also planning a solar farm for its Morgan’s Road site, able to produce 105kw at peak. It is seeking funding to boost some projects, and has already had success, including partnering with the Pacific Cooperation Foundation, which funded an intern to work with Envirohub Marlborough to assess the company’s waste.

Envirohub’s Ailie Suzuki, who also spoke as part of the Hortus presentation, says Hortus produces 45.5 tonnes of waste a year, 96% of which goes to landfill, carried by 1462 trucks. Envirohub Marlborough conducted a number of waste audits, involving sifting through multiple days’ of waste produced by the facility to take a reasonable sample, and discover its composition. Results showed approximately 60% was food waste, while the final audit determined that around 98% of all waste streams could potentially be diverted from landfill. That waste has economic as well as environmental consequence, with Alistair revealing the company spends a significant amount on waste disposal.

The foundation-funded intern Kalita Homasi, a Victoria University biomedical student from Tuvalu, brought a unique lens to the work, and was able to suggest waste minimisation methods that were easy and familiar for the Tuvaluan workers at the Hortus site, such as separate buckets for different waste materials. Climate change and rising sea levels are a threat to Pacific Island nations such as Tuvalu, Kalita said at the event. “When children are born in Tuvalu, half the placenta goes to the land and half to the sea. That provides our links to the land and sea. Relocation is not an option for us, as we as Pacific Islanders are really connected to our land.” It is important to find connection between the workers at Hortus and the “why” they should care about waste minimisation, she says. This was achieved by using methods they knew from “back home” – important for workers already struggling with culture shock from coming to New Zealand. “We don’t want to add to that.”

Ailie says Envirohub Marlborough is working with Hortus on waste minimisation practices that will lead away from a linear economy to a circular one. “Such methods will have wider and far-reaching benefits on top of diverting waste going to landfill, including health and nutritional benefits for the residents,” she says. “Suggested changes, such as the provision of an on-site shop would not only allow for waste minimisation at its source, but also ensure that nutritious food is readily accessible.”

From left, Ailie Suzuki, Alistair Thomson and Kalita Homasi