Sustainability | Carbon Footprint

Environmental improvements

We have designed a range of environmental improvements and mitigations for the construction and operation of Ruakura Superhub.

A report by Castalia estimates that moving cargoes off road and on to rail could decrease truck movements by a cumulative 847m km from 2024 to 2053 with an associated 890kt reduction of carbon emissions and much reduced social costs from accidents caused by
trucks on roads.

Ecology

Our commitment to sustainability isn't just limited to reducing carbon emissions. We are also dedicated to improving ecological values at Ruakura Superhub. Using a modified version of the GBCA Ecological Value Calculator, Beca has also modelled an overall 10% improvement in ecological values within the Ruakura Superhub area after 20-30 years. These improvements include:

Low-value pastoral vegetation improved by replacement with high-value indigenous vegetation along swales and in wetland development (up to 1.5 million plants in stage 1).
Increased quality of native fish habitat in comparison with existing environment. This includes the replacement of 21km of farm drain habitat with 23km of enhanced swale habitat with almost double the amount of high-quality native fish habitat (22.9kms up from 12.9km).
For resident native bats, the provision of 30-40 more roost trees for every potential roost tree removed.

Solar

Engineering consultancy Beca has modelled the environmental impact of installing up to 5MW of solar photovoltaics at Ruakura Superhub, which is an active part of our energy planning to reduce carbon footprint.