We annually measure our corporate greenhouse gas inventory and publish a report. This helps us identify major emissions sources, prioritise actions, and track progress toward our interim and 2050 net-zero targets as per our Te Atakura – First to Zero climate action plan.
Council emissions inventory 2024 overview
Our corporate emissions inventory is calculated for each financial year (July to June).
We group emissions sources into three scopes:
- Scope 1 – Direct: emissions from sources that we directly control such as waste, wastewater, natural gas use, on-road and off-road petrol and diesel use
- Scope 2 – Indirect electricity use
- Scope 3 – Indirect value chain
In the financial year (FY) 2023/24, our overall emissions (scope 1, 2, and 3) were 138,806 tCO2e. Scope 1 and 2 accounted for 50,910 tCO2e (37% of the total).
Our scope 1 and 2 emissions in FY 2024 have reduced by 44% from our base year (FY 2021), keeping us on track to achieve a 57% reduction target by 2030.
Our scope 3 emissions, which are associated with areas outside our direct control (such as supply chain), accounted for 63% of our total emissions in FY 2024. Our target is to have two-thirds of our scope 3 emissions by 2028 from suppliers with science-aligned targets. This is currently at 23%.
Like our city inventory, we calculated our ‘gross emissions’ (our total amount of greenhouse gases before accounting for offsets or reductions), which means they are not adjusted for any change in forestry.
Emissions breakdown
Our top 6 emissions sources in FY 2024 were purchased goods and services (34.2%), waste to landfill (28.4%), capital goods (24.6%), wastewater (4%), investments (2.5%) and natural gas use (2.4%).