Sustainability
Our duty to
sustainability
We believe in the importance of a sustainable Co-operative in order to meet the changing expectations of the community, consumers and our customers.
Empowering Sustainability,
Building a Better Future
Empowering sustainability
Building a Better Future Together
Together
We believe sustainability is meeting our stakeholder’s present and future requirements through a Co-operative culture which produces products in a manner that is socially, environmentally and economically responsible.
Animal welfare
Our people genuinely care about our livestock and understand the importance of animal welfare handling practices and techniques on site. We collaborate with organisations and animal welfare experts to refine and design all of our animal handling systems and operations.
As part of our commitment to the welfare of animals, all of our processing facilities operate under the New Zealand Five Freedoms Animal Welfare Certification system. This independently certified animal welfare program ensures that livestock under our control are managed in accordance with best practice of animal welfare standards.
Social (people & community)
We are one of the largest employers in our city employing around 10% of the cities population. We believe the most significant investment we can make for our region is in the people we employ. We place the highest importance on all our employees and nurture and support them to forge a successful career.
The Co-op believes in a compassionate and positive culture and values every employees’ opinions. It’s the close knit family values that is unique to our Co-operative.
We pride ourselves on being inclusive for all in our community, by providing training and employment across all areas of our business across all facets of diversity.
Economic resilience
We have a long and rich history as a Co-operative and we strive to be profitable by processing and supplying world class goods and services. Our mantra is we ‘grow together’ with financial profits invested in the business and in the business of our members to ensure a sustainable future.
Environmental stewardship
We strongly support moves towards low to zero carbon emissions for the future of the meat industry. We are a strong industry leader in working to reduce our overall carbon footprint. We work closely with our operators to lowering greenhouse gas emissions.
We view our farmers as Stewards of the landscape and invest in our farmer’s practices of soil management, carbon capture and quality water management. We support our farmers to improve grazing methods through regenerative farming practices.
We have set clear, measurable targets to reduce our environmental footprint, including our consumption of energy, water and the value-adding of waste streams. The circular economy we are striving to achieve with reusing our waste products as alternate sources of energy, is something we are continuing to build on and invest heavily in.
