Fish and Game NZ is an angler and gamebird hunter organisation which has a statutory mandate to manage New Zealand's fresh water sportsfish fisheries and gamebird hunting and they are actively involved in promoting fishing and hunting. They have been operating for 150 years and have eight full time employees who run three different sites within Southland. Their customers are approximately 80% local, 12% domestic and 8% international customers.
Their desire to save the world was enough motivation to implement these initiatives. Fish and Game NZ believe that they have to walk the talk when it comes to sustainability. They are constantly asking farmers and industries to reduce pollution and reduce energy use to avoid the building of new hydro power dams, they realise that they need to be sustainable as a business if they expect others to follow suit. They have been trying to promote it nationwide to other regions of Fish and Game NZ.
The staff at Fish and Game NZ have implemented a number of initiatives to become more sustainable, such as:
- Reducing the temperature of the hot water cylinder, putting hot water heater on a timer, adding insulation to the ceiling, and turning lights out when leaving rooms to reduce energy use.
- Recycling cardboard, paper, electronic equipment and starting composting to reduce waste.
- Buying smaller economical vehicles and ride sharing where possible to reduce fuel use.
- Enabling flexible work hours for staff so they have work life balance.
- Took part in Environment Southland’s Quick Steps to sustainability programme.
The image shows Fish and Game Manager Maurice Rodway emptying food scraps from the Fish and Game office into his home compost bin.
They have spent little money or time in putting these initiatives into place, and say that savings have been achieved but they have not measured these. In terms of advice to others, they say it’s easy and saves you money!