Putting sustainability at the fore
Our commitment to sustainability drives us to grow and innovate in ways that minimise our environmental impact and strengthen our communities. We’re always designing with the complete product lifecycle in mind, including longevity, reusability, recyclability and degradability.
Aligned to the UN Sustainable Development Goals
The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals provide a shared blueprint to align the efforts of countries, organisations and businesses in creating a more equitable and sustainable world, both now and in the future.
We’ve aligned our efforts to five of the SDGs to ensure our efforts are focused and valuable to the world around us.
LEARN MORE ABOUT THE UN SDGSWe use over 220 tonnes of recycled material each year
Last year we used the equivalent of 1.8 million 1-litre milk bottles being removed from the waste stream and given new life in the form of useful products. This doesn’t even include our internal recycling programmes that see us collecting and utilising scrape materials to be reused in our production whenever possible.
Product stewardship programmes
Through our product stewardship programmes, we prioritise the use of reusable spools and stillages to reduce cardboard waste as well as reliance on timber pallets. Wherever possible we replace wooded pallets with durable, custom-designed stillages that can be used over and over again.
And our PolyCycle® spools, made from recycled materials, are used on certain product lines instead of traditional cardboard. The spools are returned to us by our customers to be used multiple times over and if a spool is damaged, we can recycle the PolyCycle® material to make new spools.
READ MORE ABOUT POLYCYCLE®How we can design out waste.
Sustainability is front of mind with us at EPL and we work with our customers to reduce waste. In this case study, B&D Doors were having issues with their product being damaged in transit. So we redesigned the product to make it easier to be packaged and transported. We also introduced a scheme in which we take the off cuts from B&D Doors production process, to help them achieve their waste reduction targets.
Click to learn moreSupporting our local environment
Through partnerships with several New Zealand-based sustainability initiatives, we’re proud to contribute to the regreening and sustainable future of our local environment.
Te Awa Kura Barnett Park Planting Day
The Te Awa Kura Barnett Park Regreening Group volunteers their time to work towards restoring the Barnett Park Valley in Ōtautahi Christchurch back to a fully native forest, home to local species of birds and lizards. We joined them for a planting day using our biobased, biodegradable PolyNatural Plant Protectors and wool weedmats donated by Wool Life to plant 150 New Zealand native saplings in the area.
Read moreKeeping our marine environment clean since 2003
As a member of Operation Clean Sweep since 2003, we have designed our manufacturing sites to a high standard of care to capture any potential loose resin pellets or flakes, keeping them from polluting our waterways. Operation Clean Sweep® is an international program that has been adopted by more than 60 countries worldwide in an effort to help every plastic resin handling operation achieve zero resin loss.
Operation Clean Up
Each year our team get involved in Keep New Zealand Beautiful's Clean Up Week campaign. We travel to various locations to support the efforts of the local community to clean up beaches, rivers and parks.
Supporting our community
We’re proud to contribute to our various communities in a number of ways, from supporting life-saving services to volunteering at local charities—it’s all part of creating a better future for everyone.
Canterbury Westcoast Rescue Trust
The Canterbury Westcoast Rescue Helicopter provides a vital service. They have helped many people, even saving lives! We are so proud to be able to support their work.
Learn more about the serviceKiwi Mountain Bike Collective
The Kiwi MTB Collective supports the development of talent New Zealand mountain bike athletes, empowering them to pursue their dreams and compete both domestically and internationally. We’re proud to support their efforts and cheer the teams on at events both locally and internationally.