1 June 2018

Masterton District Council (MDC) has become one of New Zealand’s first local governments to achieve an internationally-recognised emissions reduction certification.

The Council was certified under Enviro-Mark’s Certified Emissions Measurement And Reduction Scheme (CEMARS) this week.

The certification means MDC is officially recognised as actively working to measure and manage its carbon footprint. It’s only the sixth territorial authority to achieve the certification, following Christchurch, Wellington, Dunedin, Kapiti Coast and Waikato Councils.

Chief Executive Pim Borren says the certification is a step towards Masterton achieving positive environmental outcomes.

“We want Masterton to have rivers we can swim in and drink from, clean air to breathe and green and blue spaces that we can enjoy and share with future generations,” Dr Borren said.

“To reach this outcome, we need to walk the talk and make sure we’re looking at ourselves when it comes to environmental monitoring.

“To achieve the CEMARS certification we needed to measure MDC’s full greenhouse gas emissions to understand the impact we’re having – that included measuring operational emissions such as vehicles, fuel, electricity, paper and waste,” Dr Borren said.

The scheme requires annual measurement of emissions with independent verification. MDC is also required to achieve emissions reductions on a five-year cycle to retain the certification.

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