Red meat sector battles on
It's a bloody tough year for sheep farmers, but the worst may be over, and the future looks optimistic.
The vineyard and wine company is also a luxury accommodation provider, heavily reliant on overseas visitors, says The Landing Director Peter Jones. The “ongoing economic impact” of the global pandemic has delayed the implementation of the solar panel programme set to halve the winery’s power usage, “due to the good sunshine hours we have in Northland”, which will save around 6 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions a year. “Although moving to solar will pay for itself within five years, there’s still a significant capital investment required up front,” says Peter, who is looking forward to pressing ‘go’ when finances allow.
In the meantime a 125-hectare reforestation project, which helped The Landing achieve Toitū carbonzero certification in 2021, is progressing at pace. Over the past 20 years the company has planted more than 1.2 million trees on the 400ha coastal property, which together absorb more carbon than is emitted by all the property’s business operations.
Peter says visitors, buyers and suppliers are interested to hear about The Landing’s Toitū carbonzero status and carbon reduction goals, “but there’s still limited understanding of what it all means”. When he explains that the carbon neutral status comes from a reforestation project on the property, instead of purchasing carbon credits against trees being planted overseas, “then it becomes more meaningful to them”.
The Landing has also worked with Britomart in Auckland to hold annual native tree giveaways of thousands of seedlings grown in the estate nursery. “This used to be a Christmas activity, called Green Christmas, but we have moved it to align with Arbour Day in April, and it’s now called Greening the City”, says Peter. “This year we helped raise $4,000 for the Native Forest Restoration Trust.”
