GE New Zealand first site globally to achieve CEMARS® certification

Auckland, New Zealand – 5 September 2012

In another step towards doing business in a low-carbon economy, GE New Zealand has been awarded the CEMARS (Certified Emissions Measurement and Reduction Scheme) certification, making New Zealand GE’s first global location to achieve this status.

Globally, GE is committed to lowering greenhouse gas emissions and energy usage, and in 2005 it launched ecomagination, a formal commitment to imagine and build innovative solutions to today’s environmental challenges. Since 2005, GE has reduced its overall greenhouse gas emissions by 29 per cent, realised more than $130 million in energy efficiency savings and invested $2.3 billion in clean technology R&D in 2011 alone.

CEMARS certification is run as part of carboNZeroCertTM Holdings and is available and recognised internationally. Currently, there are close to 150 CEMARS certified organisations around the world, including around 80 in the UK with the rest in NZ, Australia, Chile, and the UAE.

To gain CEMARS certification, GE New Zealand has measured its greenhouse gas emissions in compliance with ISO 14064–1, which forms part of a series of standards recognised by the International Standardisation Organisation for environmental management.

“GE is committed to reducing its environmental impact and helping our customers reduce theirs, both globally and here in New Zealand,” said Ben Waters, director, ecomagination, GE Australia and New Zealand.

“Our participation in the CEMARS program further demonstrates that commitment. We have already taken steps to reduce our environmental impact, including the consolidation of a number of businesses into a new efficient facility in central Auckland, and we believe we have a significant opportunity to reduce our impact further. Process improvements like these also save money and is good business practice.”

The first year of the program for GE involves investigating and understanding its largest emissions sources while engaging with staff across the business to identify opportunities to make reductions.

“There is a lot of opportunity to reduce emissions through process innovation. The best way to uncover opportunities is to involve a broad range of cross-functional stakeholders in developing the solutions,” said Mr Waters.

“We will also undertake a detailed analysis of our freight and logistics in New Zealand and develop a low-emissions fleet plan for company vehicles. An in-depth analysis of emissions and their sources will then be undertaken to reduce emissions in areas such as freight and couriers, air travel, fuel consumption and electricity use.”

Josephine Rudkin-Binks, carboNZero Holdings Limited’s New Zealand Sales Manager says “It is fantastic to work with GE. GE New Zealand really embraced the CEMARS programme from the outset, displaying great teamwork and commitment to complete certification in an impressive timeframe. This shows real success for a large and complex organization and shows the process can be simple. Now that certification has been achieved, GE can focus on measureable and demonstrable reductions and benefit from the rewards.

As we move into a carbon-constrained world, companies like GE who are acting early on these opportunities will be the first to create value from them and achieve a long-term strategic advantage.”

For additional information regarding the carboNZeroCertTM and CEMARS programmes, please visit www.carbonzero.co.nz.

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