Case studies

Switching from trawling to anchor seining has cut Motueka skipper Ken Franks' fuel bill by more than half.

Since converting his 15m boat the FV Vanguard from a trawler to an anchor seiner in 2008 his catches sizes have increased too, and the quality of the fish is better. That means higher profit margins for Mr Franks at a time when rising fuel prices are forcing others in the industry to think about tying their boats up.

Mr Franks is now encouraging other trawler skippers to do the same.

With its future at stake, New Zealand Foam Latex needed an economically viable and environmentally friendly fuel to produce steam needed to manufacture their products - all made from foam.

Coal was cheap, from $6.10/GJ. But emissions and the costs of mitigating them ruled it out. Diesel and LPG would cost over $30/GJ.

Wood was cost-effective and clean-burning. A variety of sources helped assure reliable supply - forestry hoggings, timberyard residues, left-over pallets and demolition, even dunnage reclaimed from shipping.

By adopting a suite of solutions to cut their per-kilometre fuel use, this company has improved its margins without the need for dramatic increases in cartage prices - and it has reduced emissions as well.

The key ways Winstone Aggregates achieved the savings was through reducing idling time, having covers on trucks at all times, reducing vehicle speed, tyre management and travel planning and management.

People power is Telecom’s greatest weapon in the battle for energy savings. A staff culture change and internal leadership is making the difference to their energy use. The Energy Manager works hard to get all staff on board via a number of different initiatives, including energy efficiency campaigns, the use of "Energy Rangers", energy audits and the use of different technologies to reduce energy use across this large corporate.