KiwiRail boss Peter Reidy is backing a new business initiative aimed at reducing carbon emissions.
The Climate Leaders Coalition, signed on Thursday, includes 60 New Zealand companies, including KiwiRail, that have agreed to tackle their emission rates.
This includes measuring greenhouse gas emissions and publicly reporting on them, setting a public reduction target and working with suppliers to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.
“Rail, by its very nature, helps businesses hit their sustainability targets and New Zealand meet its commitment to carbon reduction,” Reidy says.
“Rail has 66% fewer carbon emissions than heavy road freight per tonne of freight carried, takes more than a million trucks off the road each year, reduces congestion in our cities, results in fewer road injuries and fatalities and saves on road maintenance costs across the country.
“If we could take 2.4 million trucks off the road by shifting more freight to rail, that would reduce New Zealand’s emissions by 518,000 tonnes annually.
“While the transport sector accounts for 17% of New Zealand’s total carbon emissions, rail accounts for just 1% of that.
“However KiwiRail, like all New Zealand businesses, can do more. We’ve signed up to the CEO Climate Change Statement because we want to continue growing New Zealand’s economy in a sustainable way,” Reidy says.
KiwiRail has already made a number of changes to reduce emissions, including its Driver Advisory System (DAS) technology which has seen fuel savings of 16 million litres, or $11 million, since 2015.
Through its partnership with the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority, KiwiRail is also looking to make savings on its Interislander ferry operations.
“We will continue to drive programmes to reduce waste, cut our electricity usage and further improve the fuel efficiency of our locomotive and ship fleets. We’re committed to continuing to help New Zealand move towards a low-emission future,” Reidy says.
“As New Zealand’s second largest landowner we are actively thinking about using our land to plant forests. This could further reduce our carbon footprint by up to 120,000 tonnes per year.”
*Go to climateleaderscoalition.org.nz for more information.
