Chimpanzees reduce carbon footprint
It appears the Hamilton City Council could do worse than follow the lead of the resident chimpanzee population as it figures out how to reduce the amount of carbon it produces as an organisation.
At the inaugural meeting of the council’s environment committee yesterday, councillors heard about changes made at the chimpanzee enclosure at Hamilton Zoo, where the gas-fired boiler that powered the underfloor heating for the apes had recently broken down.
Rather than replace the boiler, the zoo’s management had opted to instead install a heat pump that, while initially more expensive, would reduce the amount of carbon dioxide being produced.
It was a small but tangible improvement the council was able to proudly hold aloft as it clutches for ‘‘low hanging fruit’’ to harvest to make the city more environmentally friendly.
While Hamilton’s overall carbon footprint is still being calculated, the council has determined its own impact. In the 2019 financial year, the organisation produced 10,976 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2e).
By contrast, the Waikato Regional Council’s emissions last year was 1170 tCO2e.
The regional council is undertaking a citywide greenhouse gas emission inventory – due to be completed by about March 16 – which the city council will use to inform its own ‘‘climate change action plan’’ for Hamilton.
That plan will set goals and targets for the reduction of the citywide carbon footprint – 90 per cent of which is comprised of fuel, electricity and ‘‘biosolids to vermi-composting’’ – sewage sludge carted to Tokoroa, where it is mixed with wood chips and decomposed using worms.
Reducing the amount of natural gas being produced by things such as the chimp enclosure were areas where progress was being made quickly, strategy and corporate planning manager Julie Clausen told the committee.
‘‘It gives us a better climate outcome, even though it costs a little bit more. When they worked it out, in the long term it was more beneficial.’’
While that carbon reduction was not revealed at the meeting, there has been some recent substantial progress.
Waterworld’s pool hall air heating system was replaced with hot water heat pumps and an exhaust heat recovery system that had reduced gas usage by 20 per cent, or 195 tCO2e.
Switching the city’s street lighting to LED bulbs had led to a reduction of 2.7 million kilowatts, or 341 tCO2e per year.
‘‘It’s important we have a good understanding of where we are coming from,’’ Clausen said.
‘‘Our staff are starting to prepare their activity management plans.’’
The metaphorical heat was turned up on the committee members early on in the meeting by presenters in the public forum – most notably Student Environment Leaders Waikato representative Hannah Huggan, who gave them a growling for tardiness.
She reminded the elected members that in August last year the council had declined to declare climate change an emergency, opting instead to treat the situation as ‘‘urgent’’.
‘‘That urgency is yet to be seen,’’ said Huggan, who chastised the council for setting a date to implement the plan.
The committee’s deputy chairwoman Sarah Thomson turned the heat up another few degrees by proposing an amendment which set deadlines of April for council staff to identify carbon reductions – the ‘‘lowhanging fruit’’ – that could be made by the organisation for the 2020/21 financial year; and June for the adoption of the draft action plan. This was passed unanimously. Committee chairwoman Margaret Forsyth said she had picked up a strong sense of frustration that the council was not moving fast enough.
‘‘It’s something I’m certainly mindful of as well. But I do understand the complexity of what we are working with ... It’s wise to go fast to go slow and we need to take time at the front end to make sure we are being thorough and talking to the right people and the right organisations.’’