Wellington Gardens achieve CarbonZero certification

The City of Wellington’s gardens have been named a Toitu CarbonZero organisation, joining a collection of businesses working together to ensure the future of the environment.

The three-year certification was given to the Wellington Gardens on 13th December, encompassing the Wellington Botanic Garden, Otari-Wilton's Bush, Truby King Park, and Bolton Street Cemetery.

Having commenced the process in September 2018, the recent certification was a significant moment for the gardens and staff who had worked hard to achieve this certification.

Advising that the process of becoming CarbonZero was demanding, with the gardens recording all information around energy and consumption across all areas of operation, Wellington Gardens Manager, Rewi Elliot stated “we are really proud to have achieved this certification and are looking forward to seeing more organisations around Wellington do the same.”

The certification is based on four key areas; reducing waste, energy consumption, travel, and fuel.

To achieve this, initiatives have included reducing energy consumption in glasshouses, and reducing water use, as well as reducing waste by removing rubbish bins across the gardens, with the message to visitors, ‘What you bring with you, is what you take out with you’.

Elliott advised “this has encouraged the public to think about their waste and take responsibility for what they purchase and bring with them to our spaces.”

Reduced fuel consumption has been achieved by progressively replacing power tools with electric models while Gardens entire vehicle fleet has been transition to electric or hybrid vehicles as each car came up for replacement.

They also had to carefully select the plants they established, choosing those which needed less chemical pesticides and took less time and effort to maintain.

This way, Elliot said, the gardens staff could put more time into community engagement and education services.

Wellington City Councillor Teri O'Neill, the natural environment portfolio lead, said it was important to lead the way for a better collective future for the capital.

Councillor O'Neill added “the Council itself is Toitu Carbon reduce certified, and continues to look at ways to minimise and manage the impact we have now, and the footprint we leave behind.”

Images: The Waharoa Gate at Otari-Wilton's bush draws people into the lush native flora that lies beyond (top) and the stone bridge in the Wellington Botanic Garden is a cornucopia of colour and texture (below). Supplied.