At Kingman we are striving for Net – Zero. Our aim is… “To reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to ensure any remaining emissions are balanced by removals.”

At Kingman, we are a registered member of the Federal Governments Net Zero Programme, which is really taking off. We are working hard with Cundall our Sustainability Consultants, to figure out how and where we can reduce our carbon emissions and footprint. Due to the nature of our business and the industry we are in, waste, electricity and transport are the top contributors. We are always looking at new steps we can take to eliminate, cut back or substitute where we can in an effort to reduce our impact on the environment.

When looking into new methods to achieve Net Zero, we must make sure they follow one of the three R’s. Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.

Some of our current reduction methods include:

Automation and Paper Waste  – Reduce, Reuse & Recycle

To further reduce our environmental impact and encourage a circular economy, Kingman are currently trialling a new A4 copy paper made by Planet Ark. It’s important to us to find paper that is 100% Australian recycled content. The Planet Ark paper is sourced from secure document bins around the country, meaning less emissions and reliance on international shipping. On top of this, they are Climate Active Certified, (which is the same accreditation we’re striving to achieve right now!), FSC certified (we like trees!), and Reamless! It’s a box filled with paper, meaning no extra wrapping.

Due to Covid and our business moving to more “digital” platforms and processes, we actually use a lot less paper than we used to, but we do of course still need it occasionally. We know that reducing our use will make the biggest impact, so we always encourage the Kingman team to consider their need to print before hitting the button.

See more of Planet Ark here: https://planetark.org/planet-ark-paper-unwrapped

Coffee Cups – Reduce

When we first added our Coffee Machines to our kitchen, we had takeaway cups available for our staff to use. Since then, we have given every employee at Kingman their own mug, keep cup and water bottle, and removed the paper cups from our site. This saves us on a huge amount of paper cups and plastic water bottles going into the bins each day.

Coffee Grounds – Reuse

With waste being our biggest emission we have started looking at ways to divert recyclable items from the bins. Another item that we have identified, on top of takeaway coffee cups is the coffee grounds themselves. Although it is an unusual suspect and somewhat small reduction, we believe it is important to always recycle where we can!

We are currently in the middle of trialling a local Perth start-up company – Donut Waste, who can provide us with a bin and collection service.

See more of Donut Waste here: https://www.donutwaste.com.au/

Power – Reduce

As a business using lots of machinery, and computer screens, we encourage our employees to power off their computers when leaving the office. It might seem like a teeny tiny difference, but we’ve got more screens than people here, which collectively chew the juice! With this small change over a public holiday for example, we allow our solar panels to cover our critical systems so we can have a Net-Zero power weekend!

Timber – Recycle & Reuse

Our timber and offcuts (such as pallets, packaging, crates etc) are taken to Hazelmere Resource Recovery Park once a month. All the pieces are processed into woodchip which is either sold to already established markets or converted into renewable energy.

Hazelmere Resource Recovery Park » Eastern Metropolitan Regional Council (emrc.org.au)

These are just some of the small steps we are currently taking in order to achieve our goal. In the future, we plan to continue to assess and trial various ways to further offset our carbon emissions in the hope to achieve Climate Active Certification.