Environmental sustainability | Kaitiakitanga

On this page

• Sustainability at the Bay of Plenty District Health Board
• Our framework for environmental sustainability
• How we manage our responsibilties
• Our action plans
• Our carbon footprint
• Our sustainability priorities

Sustainability at the Bay of Plenty District Health Board

The Bay of Plenty District Health Board (BOPDHB) views its sustainability principles and organisational purpose and vision holistically.

We understand that while our work has positive outcomes for our people, it consumes resources and impacts the environment, and therefore goals must be set to reduce these impacts as much as possible, and to regenerate the environment where we can.

By applying the concepts of the Kaitiakitanga Framework for Environmental Sustainability, we aim to work with our stakeholders to protect our environment, culture, society, and economic stability, to enable our communities to get well, live well, and stay well.

Our framework for environmental sustainability

The Bay of Plenty District Health Board's Kaitiakitanga Framework for Environmental Sustainability sets the scene for how sustainability is understood by the organisation.

Put simply, BOPDHB has committed to:

• show internal and external leadership in environmentally sustainable practice
• be accountable for its environmental/carbon footprint
• be committed to finding and embedding sustainable solutions for all business practices (including those related to waste, energy, water, transportation, food, built environment, and procurement)
• use its resources responsibly
• consider co-benefits (economic, health, social and environmental resilience/regeneration) during all decision-making processes
• be future focused, while reflecting on the past

This framework is in the process of being adopted across the organisation and has been fully endorsed by the Bay of Plenty District Health Board and Te Hauora Māori o Te Moana a Toi.

Kaitiakitanga Framework [PDF, 1.1MB]

How we manage our responsibilties

Sustainability is lead within the organisation by a full time Sustainability Manager guided and supported by:

• Sustainability Steering Group (high level decision making and guidance): Members: Executive and Senior Leadership representatives, Te Hauora Māori o Te Moana a Toi representatives, and Community representation.
• Clinical Green Team (greening clinical practice): Current Membership: 50+ Clinical Staff Members
• Non-Clinical Green Team (greening the non-clinical environment): Current Membership: 40+ Clinical and Non-Clinical Staff Members

For any queries relating to sustainability at Bay of Plenty District Health Board, please email sustainability@bopdhb.govt.nz.

Our action plans

BOPDHB has a significant list of environmental sustainability priorities, and a significant aspiration towards being carbon neutral, therefore tasks within these priorities must themselves be prioritised.

An Environmental Sustainability Action Plan is reviewed and updated annually for the two-year period ahead. The purpose of this action plan is to identify actions within these priorities that will be achieved over the coming two years. It may also indicate longer term objectives for these priorities, both internal and external (e.g. Ministry of Health or New Zealand Government Procurement).

The plan also reports on the achievements of the previous calendar year.

Environmental Sustainability Action Plan [PDF, 1.1MB]

Our carbon footprint

The Bay of Plenty District Health Board is accountable for its carbon footprint by being engaged with the Toitū Carbonreduce programme, and is a carbonreduce certified organisation. 

BOPDHB also publishes its carbon footprint information annually in its Annual Report (2020, p. 39).

For the financial year 2019 - 2020 BOPDHB's total measured carbon footprint was ~8,464 tCO2e. This was a reduction of 7.5% on the baseline year. How BOPDHB's carbon footprint is broken down is shown in the graph below.

For more information visit toitu.co.nz or review BOPDHB's Annual Report.

Our sustainability priorities

Bay of Plenty District Health Board has set 10 environmental sustainability priorities that align with the priorities of the Global Green and Health Hospitals initiative of which we are a member. These are briefly described below: