Kaikoura has now achieved Earthcheck Gold for our Community.
In August 2002, Kaikoura became the first community in New Zealand to become Earthcheck benchmarked and in 2004 the first community to become Earthcheck Certified. Kaikoura is the only community in the world to annually achieve certification since 2004.
Being benchmarked means we know what effect each person in Kaikoura, including tourists is having on our environment. As the saying goes, you can't manage unless you measure and Earthcheck benchmarking measures our environmental impact so we can protect our environment.
So what is our environmental impact?
Between July 2009 and June 2010, each person* in Kaikoura has the following impacts:
- Kaikoura reduced energy consumption to 88.8 GJ per person; 45.2% above best-practice. The town used enough energy to power 10 1/2 one hundred watt light bulbs for one year!
- To offset the CO2 emissions produced by this energy needs each person to plant 382 trees, (that's 4 ½ tonnes of CO2 each person is producing)
- Since 2001, Kaikoura has reduced waste sent to landfill by 72%, extending the life of their landfill by ten years.
- Each person took 8 black rubbish bags of waste to landfill. That's the equivalent of 156 kgs of solid waste each, while the average New Zealander disposes of 900kg
- During the same period, the community reduced their waste to 0.15 tonnes per person; 57% above best-practice.
- Kaikoura introduced Zero Organics to landfill by collecting organic household food waste for communal composting
- Kaikoura District Council also has an Environmental and Social Sustainability policy.
- Kaikoura consumed 251.4kL of potable water per person; 21.4% better than the baseline.
- In 2009, through the Warm Up Kaikoura initiative, 300 homes were assessed for energy loss and fitted with appropriate insulation.
*the numbers of people were calculated as an average of 4943 people each day (including an average of 997 tourists per night).
We also measure a local environmental issue and the social health and well being of the community:
- 0% of truck accidents on State Highway 1 involved chemical spills.
- 40% of residents surveyed take part in voluntary initiatives.
If you have a question regarding this benchmark data please contact the council's Environmental Development officer.
Download the Kaikoura Case Study provided by Earthcheck