Sustainability
Our vision for a 100 year company is not about reaching an end-point. It’s a mindset that every day and every deed is about growing a strong, iconic, enduring business.
Our approach to sustainability
Our vision for a 100 year company is not about reaching an end-point. It’s a mindset that every day and every deed is about growing a strong, iconic, enduring business. This means leaving the place better than we found it. Do all we can to safeguard the future of our people, our communities and our planet.
Mainfreight promotes a clean, safe and healthy environment for all our team. We are committed to exceeding minimum environmental standards where practicable. Climate change remains an issue for businesses and governments everywhere. For Mainfreight it begins with accepting that our business is based on an activity that generates carbon emissions and therefore taking responsibility to reduce those emissions over time while maintaining our competitiveness and ability to deliver quality services as our customers expect.
Mainfreight’s commitment to sustainability, safety, health and the environment has been, and continues to be, a fundamental element of our operating practices and success to date. While our initiatives vary from country to country to achieve greatest impact, we remain committed to these and to expanding them were practicable.
Our People
- Team Health and Wellness programs
- Ensuring living wages for entry level roles
- Team leadership development with our own Outward Bound and Main Divide programs
- Tertiary scholarships for family of Mainfreight team members
Our Community
- Major sponsor of Duffy Books in Homes
- Sponsor Stichting Present Montferland
- Volunteering and community days organised by our local teams across the country
Our Place
- Major solar installations on sites across New Zealand, Australia and Europe totalling over 5,500 kWp
- Modern fleet (all <10 years old) predominantly Euro 5 and 6 vehicles
- Major infrastructure investment in rail capacity with rail sided sites across our network.
- Rain water capture and storage at all major sites
- Grey water recycling at all major sites for truck wash, sprinkler systems etc
- Repurposing waste like pallets (into furniture or stowage aids)
- Waste exchange agreements to redirect waste from landfill for shrink-wrap and polystyrene
- Hungry bins, on site composting and branch gardens
- Small vehicle fleet (team cars) moving towards hybrid and electric along with onsite charging stations
- High proportion of electric forklifts and material handling equipment
- Progressing trials and explorations of electric truck opportunities across all regions
Our Economy
- Youth work skills training programme
- Increasing rail capability and capacity to reduce road congestion and heavy traffic
- Developing our own inland container port to reduce inner-city congestion at Port of Auckland
Mainfreight Sustainability Report 2024
Mainfreight Sustainability Policy
UN Sustainable Development Goals
The Sustainable Development Goals are the blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all
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Our Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Sustainability and Information Technology
Reducing the environmental impact of IT infrastructure is important. Our data centres in New Zealand, Australia and the United States of America are as energy efficient as possible through initiatives including:- Minimising computer room space to minimise cooling requirements
- Installing efficient cooling systems
- Using virtualisation to reduce hardware required, - and heat generated – Mainfreight currently runs 48 major applications across only 12 physical servers
- Using hardware with variable energy management systems – running at full capacity only on an “as needed” basis
Future Sustainability Developments and Leadership
Mainfreight is actively committed to sustainability and environmentally friendly practices. We develop partnerships in the wider community to promote socially responsible environmental practices and show leadership in managing the use of finite resources.Our commitment to sustainability, safety, health and the environment has been, and continues to be, a fundamental element of our operating practices and our success to date.
