Golden Bay online company takes a `green’ lead
A Nelson-based mail order success story is speaking out on e-shopping as a positive force for the environment.
HealthPost is New Zealand’s leading online retailer of natural health and skincare products, and has a Corporate Social
Responsibility policy that includes a template for calculating its carbon footprint.
HealthPost Director Peter Butler says this covers the courier delivery to customers, reducing emissions wherever
possible, and offsetting the remainder with gold standard carbon credits.
“One courier van delivering strategically can actually be more environmentally sound than many individual trips to the
shopping centre,” Mr Butler said. “And couriers are now so efficient that if we receive an order before 2pm we can
generally have it delivered anywhere in New Zealand the next day.”
HealthPost also has an annual staff tree planting day, when up to a thousand native trees are planted as part of a Coast
Care initiative in Golden Bay, where the business is based.
HealthPost’s latest environmental initiative involved installing 72 photovoltaic panels on the roof of their warehouse
so they can generate most of their own electricity.
“There are no batteries needed,” Mr Butler explained. “On a cloudy day we can supplement off the grid and any excess
that we generate, in the weekends for instance, gets sold back into the grid.”
Mr Butler says HealthPost staff and customers appreciate their environmental endeavours but they aso make business
sense: “We expect to get a 10 per cent return on the solar power investment, so it’s good business from all
perspectives.”