Sustainable energy for your business

Your carbon emissions are being compared to the national average electricity CO2e intensity for the last 12 months, this is updated each month for the preceding 12 months.

What this means is – all of the kWhs (units) of electricity for the last 12 months are measured as well as the amount of CO2e emitted in producing that electricity. This can tell us on average how many grams of CO2e are emitted per kWh produced.

We can then take the number of kWh you have consumed in the month and multiply it by the months' intensity and create a calculation of the amount of CO2e you have avoided.

Our Toitū climate positive certification for electricity is based on international protocols and United Nations Product Specifications for supplying electricity from renewable sources.

No. The New Zealand Emission Trading Scheme (NZ-ETS) is a compliance scheme which currently only allocates one carbon unit for every two carbon units emitted and does not include organisation emissions including vehicle, travel and other company emissions. Toitū carbonzero and climate positive are comprehensive voluntary schemes which include one carbon unit for every carbon unit emitted including general organisation emissions from non electricity GHG emissions plus vehicle, travel, freight and office waste emissions. Voluntary action including Toitū carbonzero and climate positive Certification are however complementary to compliance obligations and therefore adds to New Zealand’s contribution to international climate change commitments in the following ways:

• Participating in the Toitū carbonzero and climate positive Programmes empowers companies to measure and manage their own emissions and often results in product innovation and energy/ fuel efficiency measures that indirectly contribute to reducing NZ’s overall emissions profile.
• Participants in these Programmes offset organisation and product emissions that may also be reported by the NZ Government and other emissions that are not covered in national reporting, such as international air travel, international freight, manufacture of materials overseas. All of the action taken by participants in these Programmes are additional and complementary to compliance obligations. Compliance with the NZ-ETS obligations by electricity companies that do not have Toitū carbonzero or climate positive Certification does not result in their electricity product being able to be certified as carbon neutral for the following reasons:
• The methods for calculating the emissions and the “offset” required are different for the two schemes. Participants in the NZ-ETS report some or all of their direct (Scope 1 and Scope 2) emissions for their NZ operations as specified in the sector methodology. Participants in the Toitū carbonzero and climate positive Programmes with product certifications such as electricity, are required to account for all direct (Scope 1 and Scope 2) emissions plus the life cycle emissions associated with the production, delivery and decommissioning of the product including many indirect (Scope 3) emissions some of which may have occurred overseas.
• The units surrendered by companies as part of their NZ-ETS obligation are not equivalent to the offsets required by the Toitū carbonzero Programme. Participants in the NZ-ETS surrender one unit for each two tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents reported, whereas participants in the Toitū carbonzero Programme cancel one unit for every tonne of carbon dioxide equivalents in their footprint and for Toitū climate positive an additional 25% is offset. Participants in these Programmes therefore offset a larger footprint than participants in the NZ-ETS.

This refers to the ability to report zero emissions under the guidance of Scope 2 GHG Protocol market-based emissions method. Ecotricity have measured and offset its electricity products (including transmission and distribution losses) supplied to clients and therefore zero emissions can be reported and not needed to be offset again, of course this only applies if we supply 100% of your electricity needs.