New Zealand’s Signature Homes has signalled its intention to mitigate its house construction carbon dioxide emissions by planting around 45,000 native trees annually. Source: Timberbiz
The company’s CO2 reduction program will kick off in early 2022 and Chief Executive Paul Bull expects Signature will plant around 45 trees for every home it builds.
Mr Bull says Signature Homes commissioned its own research to determine how many trees would be required to counter the emissions from building a three-bedroom home – from supply chain and material-sourcing to transport and fuel – after finding little work had been done in that area.
“We currently sell approximately 1000 homes a year and realised that results in a significant carbon footprint,” he said. “We were determined to make our contribution to New Zealand’s goal of being carbon-neutral by 2050 and build a better future for Kiwis.”
Mr Bull says the company will not stop at simply mitigating emissions – “our intention is to lead the industry in reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from housing construction.
Signature Homes will partner with charitable organisation Trees That Count to mitigate part of its carbon footprint and chose native trees rather than commercial radiata pine because natives not only reduced emissions but also strengthened New Zealand’s biodiversity and helped forest ecosystems thrive.
By planting 45,000 native trees a year through Trees That Count, Signature is seeking to absorb around 19,000 tonnes of CO2-equivalent emissions over 50 years as those trees continue to grow.
Trees That Count Head of Marketing and Partnerships Melanie Seyfort says the partnership with Signature Homes epitomizes what Trees That Count is about.
“We are increasing native tree planting in New Zealand by providing partners such as Signature Homes with an easy, high-impact and transparent way to fund trees, in turn supporting the thousands of planters throughout the country restoring their local communities. This support will see tens of thousands of native trees planted throughout Aotearoa in projects that have a truly local impact whilst enabling Signature Homes to make a tangible reduction on their carbon footprint whilst improving biodiversity,” Ms Seyfort said.
BRANZ research has shown that new-build, detached houses are projected to contribute around one-third of the climate impact of the New Zealand detached housing sector over the next three decades.
“With that in mind, we are working with our long-standing suppliers to identify more environmentally friendly building products, with a goal of using these as standard in everyday construction – but also offering our clients additional product options that allow them to make more environmentally friendly choices,” Mr Bull said.
While bio-based products such as timber and engineered wood are more climate-friendly than concrete or brick and New Zealand’s electricity is 85% from renewable sources, a new-build house is likely to double its carbon footprint over the next 30 years from energy use and maintenance.
“Under our commitment of ‘building together for a better future’ we’re also enabling our customers to be part of the solution,” he says. “We’ll be encouraging them to invest in an additional 24 trees through Trees That Count to mitigate future GHG emissions from anticipated house maintenance over 50 years.
