Wellington Zoo Trust

Wellington Zoo aims to be ‘the best little zoo in the world’.  The Zoo seeks to be an industry leader in conservation, learning and research as well as being a community asset which helps people take positive action for the environment.

The Zoo is heavily committed to sustainability and conservation, and this is evident throughout the organisation.  Commitment to the principles is from top-down and the Zoo seeks to educate and influence clients, suppliers and the general public about sustainability issues.  Staff are heavily involved in instigating and supporting sustainable business practices.  

The challenge

To push beyond the core organisational focus of conservation through incorporating sustainable business practices across all areas of operation.

Some responses

• Engaging and involving staff in instigating new sustainable initiatives.
• The Zoo strives to recycle and reuse materials wherever possible; they estimate that over the course of one year, 15-20% of materials used will be recycled or reused.
• From July 2008 to June 2009, the Zoo had five ‘sustainable transport days’ where every staff member travelled to work in a sustainable way.
• In 2009, the Zoo worked towards its first Qualmark accreditation.

The results

• The initiatives that were instigated as a result of the Zoo’s 'Sustainability Innovations' project were all staff suggestions.  Out of the 140 innovations, 80 have already been implemented with a further 16 planned.
• In the Zoo’s recent development, African Unity, 25% of all materials used in the build were recycled, reused or had another life in the Zoo. This saved the project between five and ten thousand dollars.
• The Zoo calculated that on the first staff sustainable transport day, the Zoo reduced staff travel emissions by an estimated 150kgs of CO2e.
• The Zoo achieved Qualmark Enviro-Gold in 2009.  This is the first time any organisation has achieved Enviro-Gold at the first accreditation process.  Wellington Zoo is the first New Zealand Zoo to achieve this accreditation.

Central/Southern Regional Awards judges' comments

• Extremely good carbon measurement systems in place – very clear.
• Wonderful across the board commitment to sustainable business practices; from top management downwards, they are consistently engaged in sustainability initiatives.
• Have improved in all areas year on year – they implemented the majority of suggested feedback from 2008 when they were finalists in the not-for-profit category.