Environmental Sustainability

With the rapid population growth in many of our regions, we embrace that the need for environmentally sustainable practices is only going to continue to become more critical in the years ahead.

Our philosophy is that effective sustainability practices cannot be managed in isolation. To make a viable positive impact on the environmental footprint of our operations there needs to be awareness and focus across all stakeholders including The Y (formerly YMCA), our staff, customers, contractors and our suppliers.

The Y employs a range of strategies across our centres to support baseline environmental sustainability requirements and to drive the ongoing innovation and development of this.

Our baseline environmental practices include:

• Multi-range recycling bins for customers and staff.
• Waste removal supply contracts that reduce impact on landfill and support efficient recycling
• Signage for customers and staff to promote sustainable practice e.g. rubbish disposal, turning lights off when not in use
• Frequent monitoring of water/wastewater meters for the early detection of any water leaks or symptoms of overuse. Target setting and trend analysis for all utility use.
• All Y supplier contract RFPs must respond to criteria that address environmentally responsible practices

Beyond the baseline sustainability requirements across all of our operations, we do believe that every centre is different and that each one presents unique opportunities to operate more sustainably. The items below demonstrate many of the targeted sustainability initiatives that have been implemented at our centres:

• Installation of variable speed drives at aquatic centres to moderate energy use with peak customer use. Completed in conjunction with Auckland Council as facility owner.
• Installation of low flow shower heads, and/or timed showers at recreation and aquatic centres. Completed in conjunction with Auckland Council as facility owner.
• In the past two years we have installed LED lighting into all three indoor stadiums owned by The Y (Hamilton, Auckland CBD, North Shore)
• The solar energy installation at The Camp Adair was the largest in the southern hemisphere at the time it was built
• In 2016, our wastewater management strategy and installation at Camp Adair won The New Zealand Planning Institute (NZPI) Best Practice Award for Integrated Planning and Investigations
• YMCA has the Qualmark Enviro Award Gold level accreditation at our City Lodge accommodation centre
• Software solutions to reduce dependency on paper such as online time-sheets, bookings and HR software