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Sustainability
Sustainability
Sustainability and environmental management are part of everyday life at McKechnie®.
Sustainability is deeply ingrained in our operations and embedded within our business model. Our product carbon footprint has been third-party certified by Toitū – so with McKechnie®, you can be confident you are choosing a New Zealand-made, low carbon, higher recycled content option.
A sustainable choice for your aluminium extrusion
89% less carbon emitted per kg than other aluminium extruders globally*
Toitū enviromark diamond certification
McKechnie® is the only New Zealand aluminium extruder to achieve Toitū carbonreduce product certification.
*Achieving a carbon footprint (Scope 1 & 2*) of 1.29kg of CO2e per kg of aluminium which is 89% better than the global average of 11.5kg^ of CO2e per kg of aluminium. (Full Life Cycle is 7.73kg of CO2e per kg of aluminium. ^Source: Rio Tinto)
Key to our business
We view everything we do through a sustainability lens. From extrusion to using recycled aluminium, environmental stewardship is central to our ethos. We minimise our environmental footprint while ensuring the highest quality, showcasing that premium products and sustainability can go hand in hand.
Aluminium - sustainable by nature
Aluminium itself is infinitely recyclable. A durable, lightweight material which can be melted down and reformed over and over again, without degrading its structural integrity or durability. Almost 75% of all aluminium ever produced is still being recycled and used today. We took our cue from the material, sustainable by its very nature.
Unique recycling facility in New Zealand
We are the only aluminium extruder in New Zealand to have a scrap aluminium recycling facility – our remelt casthouse. The energy needed to remelt scrap aluminium is only 5% of the energy needed to create virgin aluminium. Our cast remelt means that our product is high in recycled material and has a lower carbon footprint.
Always improving
The concept of recycle, reuse, reduce is key to our aluminium extrusion processes and this led us on a journey to achieving both Telarc ISO 14001 and Toitū enviromark diamond third-party certifications.
We are the only New Zealand aluminium extruder to achieve third-party Toitū carbonreduce product certification, which meets the requirements of ISO 14067:2018, one of the world’s best known environmental standards.
We are proud that our extruded products have achieved both Toitū carbonreduce and Toitū enviromark diamond certifications – and we are determined to keep on exploring and pursuing ongoing improvement opportunities. Read more about our sustainability journey and why we chose Toitū (link to page).
Embedded in our community
Having sustainability as an integral business value makes business decisions easy. Maintaining our environmental protection programmes benefits our customers, employees, and the local and wider community.
Our Environmental Management System requires us to have staff dedicated to environmental matters. We have a full time technical services manager on site, to drive continuous improvement in our environmental performance and ensure our ongoing commitment towards achieving our environmental objectives.
We work closely with our key external stakeholders, the Taranaki Regional Council and New Plymouth District Council, to manage compliance with all resource consents and approvals and comply with all legal and statutory requirements.
Our people value the environment
Our employees are trained to recognise the importance of their individual contributions to the integrity of our environmental systems and overall environmental performance. Environmental leadership, management and protection are embedded in our business, promoting environmental awareness around our everyday operations.
Scope 1 & 2 Emissions
As part of our commitment to operate a low carbon business, we measure all our scope 1 & 2 emissions, and make every effort to keep these emissions to a minimum in our day to day operations.
Scope 1 emissions
Emissions that come directly from the company, including emissions from transport to do with the businesses operations, as well as manufacturing and processing emissions. For example fuel combustion in boilers, furnaces and vehicles.
Scope 2 emissions
Scope 2 emissions are indirect emissions from purchasing power to run business operations. This could be from electricity, steam and greenhouse gas emissions related to heating and cooling of facilities.