New Zealand’s largest farming group Landcorp which trades as Pāmu, has achieved Toitū carbonreduce certification across 20 farms and aims to have all 110 certified by 2024.
To achieve certification, an organisation must measure all operational greenhouse gas emissions required under the international standard for carbon footprints, ISO 14064-1, including vehicles, business travel, fuel and electricity, paper and waste.
The emissions are measured each year, and the inventory is independently verified to make sure it is accurate and complete.
Toitū Envirocare is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Manaaki Whenua – Landcare Research, a government-owned Crown Research Institute.
State-owned Pāmu manages 110 farms over 364,000ha, with revenue primarily coming from dairy and livestock farming.
In 2021, these contributed close to 0.75 million gross metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent and sequestered about 0.33 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent.
Pāmu is committed to reducing its carbon emissions by 4% a year to 2024.
“The geographic diversity and range of our livestock farming systems enables Pāmu to trial mitigations and improvements under different conditions,” said chief executive Mark Leslie.
“There are some big challenges ahead, and we are starting to develop concrete plans to reduce our emissions. We also expect to have each of our farms certified by 2024,” he said.
According to Pāmu sustainability manager Sam Bridgman, Pāmu’s Focus Genetics subsidiary is breeding animals with lower methane levels, and several dairy farms are now organic.
To further reduce emissions and maintain the standards required by its Toitū carbonreduce certification, Pāmu has also started business-wide training and planning sessions.
“We’re working to develop tailored emission reduction solutions for each farm. At the same time, we’re working with our suppliers to identify more carbon-friendly practices,” Bridgman said.
