Sustainability
With the environment our members work in, NZSIA understands the importance of sustainability practices. This includes the need for sustainable tourism as well as sustainability within the environment.
NZSIA has joined the Tourism Sustainability Commitment, sitting alongside a fast-growing group of tourism operators to help make sustainable changes to tourism in New Zealand. The New Zealand Tourism Sustainability Commitment aims to see every New Zealand tourism business committed to sustainability by 2025.
Practices
We have made a number of changes to our own operations, which help to limit our impact on the environment, including a carbon offset scheme for our domestic operations.
This is just the first step in our sustainability journey and we will be looking at new initiatives each year. Please get in touch if you have any suggestions in this regard.
Sustainability Timeline
Staff Resources & Water Bottles
As the first step in our sustainability programme, we focused on changing our paper usage and turned as many resources as possible in to electronic documents (a process that is on-going). We also issued all staff with NZSIA water bottles; encouraging hydration without single-use plastics.
Logo Patches on Uniform Outerwear
It may seem like a small gesture, but as an organisation we go through 70-80 uniforms every three years or so. In the past we have always embroidered this outerwear with the relevant logos, however this completely limits the ability to reuse them after their life with NZSIA. As of 2018, all new uniforms will use a rubber patch logo sewn on and thus easily removable. This allows us to re-purpose the outerwear and donate them to an organisation in need.
Carbon Offset for Domestic Operations
We do a lot of kilometres driving from resort to resort throughout the season and quite a few air miles flying staff to the North Island and back. We have always put a big emphasis on car pooling and fitting as many staff in the NZSIA vehicles as possible however, as of 2019, we will be taking this a step further by carbon offsetting our vehicle KMs and domestic flights by donating to the EKOS Rarakau Rainforest Conservation Project.
Digital Manuals
We know what you’re thinking… digital versions of the Ski and Snowboard manuals were created years ago right? Well yes, but we also kept the cost of a printed copy included within the Level One fees. This has just changed and now we offer the option to new instructors if they would prefer just to use the digital version or pay extra for a printed version. It’s a small detail, but everything counts!
Digital Membership Cards and $5 towards Sustainability Fund
We now only provided printed cards on request and we put the $5 printing cost (per member) into a sustainability fund which we can allocate to a different sustainability project each year. So if you’re happy to have a digital version of your membership card on your phone, you can take comfort knowing that you’re contributing $5 each year to the planet.
Digital Contracts
NZSIA typically employ around 60-70 Examiners annually. That’s a lot of paper! In 2020 we moved our contracts to a digital format to minimise paper usage and allow our staff to sign contracts remotely.
Carpooling App
NZSIA encourages all candidates on courses to use the Carpool World App for getting to and from courses.
Office Location
Early in 2021 we chose to move on from our lease in Frankton to a new collaborative work space in Arrowtown. This not only reduces overheads, but also the distance travelled by our key administration staff on a daily basis throughout the year.
Recycling Uniforms
New uniforms – recycling the old ones! 2021 will see all NZSIA divisions in sparkling new uniforms. The old uniforms with logo patches instead of embroidery have been recycled or sold at the local ski sales.
NZSIA Vehicles
At the start of 2021 we chose to sell our Toyota Prados, due to the effect they were having on the environment and the lack of use over the summer months. We will move forward with leasing the most suitable vehicles we can find each winter until a suitable 4WD Electric Vehicle comes on the market.
Sustainability Fund Initiatives
The sustainability fund generated from the membership subscriptions is to be used for two projects in 2022; 1) Planting natives on the Treble Cone access road, 2) Pine Oil initiative at Coronet Peak with profits going to Happiness House charity.