OIAD-2151
27 July 2022
Chris Watson
By email: [FYI request #19772 email]
Tēnā koe Chris
Thank you for your Official Information Act request to the Department of Conservation,
received on 29 June 2022 in which you asked for:
Your questions and our responses are listed below:
1.
Kindly advise the Department's most recent Toitū CarbonReduce programme report
with full details of carbon emissions.
Our most recent year of verified emissions measurement and reporting through the Toitū
CarbonReduce programme is 2020/21. This was also the first year for obtaining fully verified
carbon emissions, and forms the base year for setting emission reduction targets. The process
for verifying the 2021/22 carbon emissions is currently underway.
Our verified emissions profile for 1 July 2020-30 June 2021 was 11,091 T CO2e (tonnes of
carbon dioxide equivalent), and the breakdown is as follows:
Emission source
CO2e (tonne)
Jet A1
2,881
Diesel
2,600
Wastewater
2,018
Petrol (regular)
700
Domestic air travel (medium aircraft)
638
Electricity
603
Landfil waste (mixed waste)
416
Accommodation (domestic)
199
Domestic air travel (jet aircraft)
196
Petrol (premium)
171
Rental car (fuel type unknown)
144
Coal
85
Refrigerant (HFC-134a)
71
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Emission source
CO2e (tonne)
Aviation gasoline
61
Refrigerant (R-410A)
60
Electricity transmission and distribution losses
52
Landfil waste (office waste)
48
Domestic air travel (small aircraft)
38
LPG
32
Paper use
17
Taxi (regular)
17
Refrigerant (HFC-32)
12
Composting
12
Domestic air travel (average)
9
Wood
8
Natural gas
4
Refrigerant (R-600A)
> 0
Our carbon emissions reflect that we manage nearly a third of the country’s land area. We
often travel long distances to do conservation work in remote areas, and the aerial pest control
operations we undertake are essential to conservation, but also lead to high carbon emissions.
We have a carbon mitigation work programme aligned with the Carbon Neutral Government
Programme, which requires us to set emission reduction targets in line with a reduction
pathway that wil limit global warming to 1.5°C. To achieve the limit of 1.5°C, we have to meet
the following reduction targets from our baseline of 11,091 T CO2e in 2020/21:
• 21%, or 8,762 T CO2e, by 2024/25
• 42%, or 6,433 T CO2e, by 2029/30
A number of initiatives are underway to reduce our carbon emissions, for example:
• replacing petrol and diesel passenger vehicles with electric vehicles
• reducing the total vehicle fleet size
• replacing coal used for stationary heating at 69 visitor sites and staf properties
• carrying out trials through work scheduling to identify options to reduce emissions from
vehicle and helicopter use.
2.
Please advise the cost, fuel, hours and carbon emissions from helicopter flights and
fixed wing used by DoC staff and its contractors on DoC business for the latest
available year.
Page 2 of 3
For the 2020/21 financial year, the breakdown is as follows:
Fuel type
Cost $
Hours CO2e (tonne)
Avgas
530,868*
14,168
61
Jet A1 Kerosene
14,004,333*
960,920
2,881
Totals:
14,535,201*
975,088
2,942
* These figures do not include the cost of sub-contracted helicopter work, as this is not itemised
on the contractor invoices. That part of your request is therefore refused under section 18(e)
of the Official Information Act as the information requested does not exist. They do, however,
provide us with the hours flown, which allows the carbon emissions to be calculated.
You are entitled to seek an investigation and review of my decision by writing to an
Ombudsman as provided by section 28(3) of the Of icial Information Act.
Please note that this let er (with your personal details removed) may be published on our
website.
Nāku noa, nā
Sandré du Plessis
Acting Director Outcomes Management
Department of Conservation
Te Papa Atawhai
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