Climate change actions of more than 30 listed NZ companies rated low

Monday, 27 January 2020

Kiwi Property has scored an A minus for its climate change actions from the global Carbon Disclosure Project. It has installed solar panels at its shopping centre, Sylvia Park, in Auckland, and at other shopping centres it owns.

New Zealand sharemarket companies' actions on climate change appear underwhelming in a global carbon disclosure project with only one company Kiwi Property scoring a 'leadership' ranking.

Kiwi Property, the country's largest listed property company, was awarded an A minus on its climate change actions, 'leadership level', and the only listed company in New Zealand to receive that score in the annual Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) rankings.

Fifty New Zealand companies were ranked in 2019 by CDP. Thirty-three - two-thirds - of them scored F, which CDP said reflected 'a failure to provide sufficient information to be evaluated for this purpose'.

Kiwi Property has installed solar panels at Northlands Mall in Christchurch.

Kiwi Property's rival property companies, like Property for Industry, Investore Property, Stride Property Group, Argosy Property and Vital Healthcare Property Trust were in the F rankings.

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33 companies on the NZX were scored an F by the Carbon Disclosure Project in 2019 for not providing enough information on their climate change actions.

Others scoring F included Air New Zealand, Z Energy, Infratil, Ryman Healthcare, Summerset, SkyCity, Sky Network, Sandford, Port of Tauranga, NZX, New Zealand Refining Company, Trade Me and Xero.

The international non-profit organisation CDP has been running a global environmental disclosure system for 20 years to promote environmental reporting and risk management as a business norm.

Shareholders and customers may request the information and CDP encourages companies to disclose.

'Not all companies requested to respond to CDP do so,' CDP said on its website.

'Companies who are requested to disclose their data and fail to do so, or fail to provide sufficient information to CDP to be evaluated will receive an F, ' CDP said.

'An F does not indicate a failure in environmental stewardship,' CDP said.

Kiwi Property chief executive Clive Mackenzie says since 2012 the company has reduced its carbon emissions by 50 per cent.

In 2019 CDP evaluated more than 8400 organisations around the world. Of them, 179 made the A list. Both A and A minus are regarded as 'leadership level'.

Scores B and B minus are considered 'management level', C and C minus are 'awareness level' and D and D minus are 'disclosure level'.

After Kiwi Property the next highest score for climate change action was B gained by Fisher & Paykel Healthcare, Spark, Fonterra, Vector, Meridian and Kathmandu Holdings.

Auckland International Airport, Goodman Property Trust and Chorus received a B minus.

Fletcher Building and Warehouse Group were scored C, while Contact Energy and Synlait Milk scored D.

Central city commercial property developer and owner Precinct Properties and tourism operator Tourism Holdings were 'not scored', with CDP saying 'the response was not eligible to receive a score'.

Energy company Mercury Energy's score had not been released yet and 'was forthcoming,' CDP's website said.

Kiwi Property chief executive Clive Mackenzie said the CDP ranking showed the company's commitment to sustainability and consistent efforts towards that.

Sustainability was a cornerstone of the company's strategy and since 2012 it had reduced its carbon emissions by 50 per cent.

Kiwi Property was New Zealand's second largest user of commercial solar power and its shopping centres' water filling stations had saved approximately 180,000 plastic water bottles from making their way into rivers or landfill.

'Business has a key role to play in tackling climate change and we're focused on doing our part,' Mackenzie said.

Some of the companies ranked by CDP also belong to the Climate Leaders Coalition, comprising 119 members, who have signed up to take voluntary action on climate change.

Climate Leaders Coalition convenor Mike Bennetts, also the chief executive of petrol retailer Z Energy, admitted in mid 2019 at the first anniversary of the coalition that businesses belonging to it were probably pumping more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere than they did when the coalition was founded.

Bennetts acknowledged the coalition's scorecard was 'not the greatest in the world'.