“If a thousand years were to pass in a second what would be left of us?”
The Dig – Movie
I read somewhere that the best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago. The next best time is today. Autumn is coming and with the rains will come the opportunity to begin planting out the stream on my property that is so in need of a kind and considerate lover.
It is only five weeks but my efforts to bring my stream back to life have been an inspiration. Not in a, “Gee Dave, you are a great green guy,” kind of way, but with the people I have already met and talked to along the way.
Jim
Jim used to live on my land along with all the land around it. He wasn’t an easy conversationalist, preferring his own company unless it was down at the golf club over a few beers. He was, though, inspiring when we moved out from town eleven years ago.
Inspiring because he always helped but never interfered. Inspiring because he seemed capable of turning his hand to any task.
Most of all he was inspiring because he planted, one by one, the trees, bushes and shrubs that became the beautiful wetland and arboretum (a botanical garden dedicated to trees) that borders my place. My stream, when it’s not bone dry, flows into the wetland on Jim’s arboretum. From there it flows down and on to the Manukau Harbour.
Eels, conversely make their way back up from some mysterious place in the Pacific, into the Manukau and eventually find a safe place in amongst the wetland reeds. If I succeed in making it a safer place, they will continue their journey up my stream as they have done in the past.
Each morning I have my tea and toast on the front deck and look across and up at the established kahikateas and ancient totara that inspired him to protect by surrounding them with plantings from a nursery that was closing down and saplings from surrounding farms.
All I see is how many different colours of green there are. All I hear are the hundreds of birds he protected by sustained pest control programmes.
One time the neighbour clear felled a patch of trees on the land nearby. Possums, destroyers of forests and bush and predators to nesting birdlife, fled across to my place and into Jim’s arboretum. We silently went into competition, killing sixty of them in a two week period. Maybe the neighbour did us a favour – he never controlled pests on his land. Possums have never been a major problem since.
“We sure sorted them,” Jim said over a beer one evening.
‘WE’. Jim never said ‘we’. He was far too stoic to say that.
Jim left without really saying goodbye last year. He never liked a fuss. He sold the property and arboretum to Gary. Rumour has it that developers were eyeing up the land and that Jim rejected their offers despite pressure from the agent.
Gary
Gary had been looking for a spot to build a place for a while. He went over Karaka way and all he saw was bare blocks. “By the time I planted it out and the trees grew I’d be dead.”
He had a look at the arboretum and the land behind it that he could build on . He fell in love and made an offer which Jim rejected as ‘too low.’
“How much?”
“Ask the agent.”
“Too much,” said the agent who didn’t know the value of trees except as firewood.
“How much?” asked Gary.
The agent told him and Gary said yes. It was cheaper than the bare blocks in Karaka and he liked the view.
I spoke to Gary about the stream and my plans for it the other day. He lit up and offered me cuttings from the giant flaxes in the wetland.
“I’ll give you a hand planting them if you like. We can have a beer on the porch after and share the view.” ‘WE’. He said we. He never says ‘we’ except to his mates.
Ken
Ken is a horticulturist, gardener and all round ball of muscle and energy that makes this skinny old guy feel more than a little inadequate when he arrives with his chainsaw, weed wacker and hedge trimmer and smashes through work in a day that would take me a week if my back held out.
We have known each other for a while now and when I showed him my stream project I wasn’t sure if he would be as overawed by the enormity of the task as I am prone to be. He was engaged – no excited about the plan. I felt energised just being around him.
“We could clear five metres back from the stream to make it a bit easier to sort out the planting and fencing plan,” he offered after a bit of thought.
WE. He never says ‘we’ – he is too polite to say that.
A day later the stream bank was cleared, the old man’s beard cut back with the contempt this native forest smothering vine deserves and all the existing native shrubs were upright and free of weeds. Ken was on fire and so was I.
Samuel
Samuel minds my sheep for me. These days there are only six older ewes, all a bit fat from over feeding, beautiful and a bit posh. They are the product of a breeding programme that ended when I tired of lambs bleating all day and night because they were separated from their mum by a seven-strand fence and a wide-open gate.
Samuel treats them with a gentle hand. He even whispers to them– mimicking their low bleating and soothing them when he and his dogs work with them. I’ve never seen them cut, not even a nick, when he shears them. That is more than I can say for the ‘expert’ shearer I hired a decade ago whose heavy-handed brutality saw me shoo him off my property.
“Bloody townie,” he called back, not amused that I had held him responsible for the blood stains on my shell shocked animals. He didn’t hear my reply as he left – neither will you see it in print. I am far too polite for that.
Samuel is also a fencer in the off season. We walked the stream and I shared my hippy vision of plants, fish, frogs and eels. “We can fence off this spring,” he said. “The frogs and fish can breed in there away from the kingfishers. Set a couple of rat and stoat traps and it’ll be ideal.” ‘WE’. He never says ‘we’ – he’s far too shy and solitary for that
Please feel free to contact me, Planet Spratt, at [email protected] if you have any feedback, ideas or suggestions
Or you can make business and media enquiries to Total Utilities here.
Staying ahead in business is often about being the first, being the best or doing something that no-one else has thought about.
But being the best demands an ability to gather accurate, independent and reliable information in an increasingly complex world.
Total Utilities Market Commentary will help provide you with all the insights and tools you need to take immediate steps to get the very best deal on your utility prices, while simultaneously leading the way with sustainability best practice. We collate market research and trends to help you navigate volatile energy markets and make better, more informed decisions.
As an independent voice in the market, we strive to deliver holistic insights and advice so that you are better equipped to deal with the changing environment in which we operate.
‘The purpose of information is not knowledge. It is being able to take the right actions.’
Peter F. Drucker
So says founding father of modern business, Peter F. Drucker. Total Utilities Market Commentary helps ensure you have the right information to support the right actions now. We continuously track utility prices in relation to prevailing market conditions so that armed with this knowledge, you can take immediate action to optimise your energy procurement strategy.
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As an independent voice in the market, we have no vested interests other than to strive to deliver comprehensive insights and advice. We have been tracking price trends in the energy market since deregulation began and have a comprehensive understanding of the various drivers in the market. We also keep fully abreast of policy and regulation changes to ensure we pass on all the strategic advantages from our independent analysis
As with all things in life, the right actions are not necessarily the easiest or the most straightforward. But we are passionate about providing you with the knowledge to not only leverage the best deals with your utilities, but also to take action now to assist you with decarbonisation and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Cleaner, greener business
Paritutu Rock in New Plymouth, New Zealand
At the COP26 summit in 2021, NZ signed up to an agreement to reduce emissions by 50% at 2030 compared to 2005 levels, meaning decarbonisation is no longer a ‘nice to have’ – but critical to future proofing your business.
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“I am 75, I have Parkinson’s and I am at the wrong end of the telescope of life”
Billy Connolly
I may not be facing my mortality in the same dramatic way as our beloved Billy but last November I became an old age pensioner. My Super Gold Card arrived in the mail and last month I went to the movies for $11, the same price as for a child (were they trying to tell me something?)
I am young at heart but with a dicky heart. I am sound of mind, but with tinnitus ringing in my head. I’m sturdy, but in a podgy kind of way. In my mind I am thirty, except pretty girls don’t notice me anymore and if I notice them, it just seems a bit creepy. All this said, I can’t imagine a life full of free rides on the Waiheke Island ferry and cut-price day time movies.
Recently I worked out that if I follow my family genetic traits, I will live to be eighty-seven just like mum, dad and grandfather Frederick. That’s around 12,000 days left to somehow make a difference.
With that in mind I’ve decided to dedicate my remaining useful days to making the planet a better, cleaner, safer place for current and future generations.
I face this prospect with a combination of excitement, fear and trepidation. After all I am just an old school IT guy, a businessman, an erstwhile politician and a family man. Little of this qualifies me to lecture others on carbon footprints, soil, air and water quality and preserving what’s left of our flora and fauna.
Noting all this I am going to do it anyway. We are all on a journey on this precious, fragile planet and my small steps towards understanding, as unimportant as they may be, might just inspire someone younger and smarter than me.
In the meantime, I am inviting you along for the ride as I write this blog, record a Vlog or two and take a few photos. Feel free to reach out with suggestions. No one is ever too old to learn, least of all me.
My own backyard
In 2010 my beloved and I moved out of our treelined Central Auckland Suburb and onto a lifestyle block that we hoped would bring us a simpler, more authentic life that brought us closer to God.
The vision was a classic hippy dream in many ways. Growing organic vegetables, and meditations at dawn.
Twelve years later we are still on “the farm” as my kids call it but facing the daily realities of living on and with the land. Every year there is a new pest. I’ve admitted defeat and now spray California Thistle because I am too old and the thistle too tenacious for me to do otherwise.
Most disturbing for me is the stream that lies on our lower boundary. It is a testament to wilful ignorance, ineffectiveness, and greed. Wilful ignorance because I can’t see it from my house, so it’s pitiful state is easy to ignore. Ineffectiveness because I have fought a haphazard and ultimately losing battle with noxious water weeds, leprous water rats and stagnant algae. My attempts at native plantings have proved inadequate with hundreds of dollars’ worth of new seedlings dying under the strain of hot dry summers or washed away in flash floods.
Generations of dairy farmers have poured effluent into it. The runoff from nitrogen fertilisers has left any still water burdened with suffocating weeds and toxic algae. On top of dairy pollution there has been a reckless waste of water resources. Commercial vegetable growers have sucked more “free” water than the water table allows. The stream then runs dry in the summer leaving eels desiccating in the sun. There are no longer any more frogs or fish. These have been poisoned by agricultural chemicals and, lacking the protection of rushes, reeds and flaxes, pillaged by predators.
Yet there has been progress. When I talk to the previous owners and old timers around here, they tell me of a time when the stream was used as an open cesspit flowing directly into the Parurehure Inlet and onto the Manukau Harbour.
The polluted stream
It smelt so bad and was so fly blown that the local Franklin Council, despite being dominated by businessmen farmers, were forced to do something about it. Their action was reluctant and cursory but this, when combined with pressure on the dairy industry as a whole, has meant we no longer see the unrestrained ecological vandalism of the 1960’s and 70’s.
What to do?
I have rung the Council and asked for guidance. They were enthusiastic but, in the end, ineffective. Promises of calls back remain unfulfilled. COVID restrictions have led to the cancellations of the planned pest control and native planting seminars. I hope once things open up more that I will see a bit more help and advice from them. In the meantime, I find myself on my own.
Lesson one of “going back to the land and saving the planet” is that it is just plain hard work, a burden on the budget and frankly a bit lonely.
So, I am restarting. I am buying a post hole borer, to reduce the pressure on my back when digging planting holes in concrete hard soil and clay. I’ve been next door to the neighbour and taken a variety of flax cuttings from his wonderful arboretum. In early Autumn I’ll buy a bunch more new plants and trees from the Farrell Family Nursery. Planting trees and plants in better locations will hopefully lead to greater success and less wastage.
Pest control will remain a priority. This year has seen many of the native trees in our area “masting” with huge quantities of seeds and pollen encouraging birds to mate and reproduce at an exciting rate. We have around 50 breeds coming and going on our property and the sound of new life is exciting but sadly can be a false dawn.
Rats and mice are also attracted by the seeds, stoats in turn are attracted by the prolific rodent prey. Until the seeds run out and the rats, mice and stoats all turn their attention to the nests full of eggs and young chicks. The parents are helpless in the face of this invasion and often fall victim to the stoats who kill them for fun. To make matters worse local cat “lovers” have released their unwanted kittens into the wild, unfixed and unfed. This season I have counted seven black and white wild cats cruising around the open paddocks in a group. For now their attention is drawn to the plague of rabbits (this year’s pest) but soon that supply of food will run out and they too will turn their attention to the birds.
Lesson Two of “going back to the land and saving the planet” is that we compete for resources with cunning and relentless predators. Sometimes these are animals.
Please feel free to contact me, Planet Spratt, at [email protected] if you have any feedback, ideas or suggestions
Or you can make business and media enquiries to Total Utilities here.
The COP26 summit brought governments together in Sept 2021 to discuss accelerated actions towards the goals of the Paris Agreement (2015), which is an international treaty signed by 196 participating member states at COP21 in Paris, 2015. It aims to keep the global average temperature at ‘well below’ 2 degrees above pre-industrial levels, ideally 1.5 degrees, to strengthen the ability to adapt to climate change, and build resilience; align all finance flows with, ‘a pathway towards low greenhouse gas emissions, and climate-resilient development’.
New Zealand has signed up to United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and as a signatory to the agreement we have to commit Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) to climate action. Our first NDC saw us committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions to 30% below 2005 levels by 2030. However this was refreshed at the summit to increase our commitment to reduce emissions by 50% at 2030, compared to 2005 levels.
One of COP26 objectives is to phase out coal. The current Government has already committed to removing coal as a fuel source from our economy. A ban on new coal boilers used in manufacturing and production will come into effect by 31st December 2021 and phasing out existing coal boilers by 2027.
A further option proposed is to prohibit other new fossil fuel boilers (gas, LPG) where suitable alternative technology exists and is economically viable.
The key instrument that will be used to foster a move to a low carbon economy will be the emissions trading scheme (ETS), and a series of changing emissions budgets. An emissions budget seeks to limit greenhouse gases that can be emitted over a period of time.These changing budgets are spread over three key periods: 2022-2025, 2026-2030 and 2031-2035. This will reduce the quantity of Government-issued New Zealand Carbon Units. As these quantities reduce, the cost of carbon will be increased.
When the emissions trading scheme (ETS) was first introduced, the price of carbon was fixed at $25 per tonne; however, there was a 2 for one surrender ratio meaning that for every tonne emitted, only half a tonne was surrendered, making the effective price $12.50/tonne.
Over time the market caps have been lifted, and emitters have moved to a one for one surrender ratio. In the last two years, the Government introduced a floor and ceiling in the market: $20 floor and $50 ceiling. This year, prices were raised to make the minimum price $30/tonne and ceiling price $70/tonne. The ceiling will be increased by 10% per year plus inflation.
The below table covers current carbon spot pricing and New Zealand Unit (NZU) future pricing with a view on where carbon prices could go out to in 2030. This is the cost that relates to the gas field producing natural gas or the electricity generator producing electricity. For gas customers who are Time of Use (TOU) metered, this cost is passed through as a line item on each invoice. For small commercial gas consumers and all electricity customers, the cost of the ETS is built into the energy tariff. You can see the change from 12 months ago where the carbon price has nearly doubled. In November 2018, it was priced at around $25/tonne.
Energy companies within NZ will have to look at their generational assets and search for alternative solutions in a fast and least disruptive way to avoid shortages and payment of increased ETS costs.
Transitioning the economy’s energy needs to electricity requires much more than just new generation, the national grid operator and local electricity network distributors will need to invest billions to get things moving.
Whatever is done, NZ needs to sort out its energy policy and fast to ensure the security of supply, the ability for manufacturing to thrive in NZ (by avoiding having to outsource our emissions), and keep prices as low as possible.
Total Utilities helped Forest Lodge save money, gain real-time data visibility, and prove their 100% electric claims to grant providers. All to drive sustainable growth and set an example for food producers around the world.
Why they needed us
Forest Lodge Orchard, a high-density cherry orchard in Cromwell, New Zealand, has gone fully electric with a hybrid solar and battery system tied to the grid. Owner-operator Mike Casey supports the national grid by exporting power at peak times. He also aims to provide an example of how an agricultural site can electrify everything.
Forest Lodge Orchard received a government grant to purchase 2 x 30kW electric frost fighting fans. A condition of the grant was to provide supporting data and reporting to show the source of the electricity powering the fans.
The site’s industrial electrician, Jase Lee, recommended Total Utilities and Centrica’s energy insights for the job. It’s been a great success – PowerRadar now provides new levels of visibility of the solar gains, loads, and the charging and discharging profiles onsite.
Dashboard example of solar curve and battery charging / discharging traces with Centrica Business Solution Pan-10 Wireless Sensor
NZ cherry orchard ripe for clean, optimised energy usage.
“I like to see the solar graph and then overlay the charging loads, and I can make sure that they sit within that solar curve. Sometimes we need to tap the grid for something, but we are just trying to optimise that energy usage as much as possible.”
Real-time energy intelligence delivers savings, shapes decisions, and provides new opportunities for sustainable growth.
Real-time data used to support claims for government grant
The electric frost fighting fans save Forest lodge up to $1,000 per evening compared to diesel-run fans. PowerRadar provides the usage data to substantiate these claims.
Complete oversight over battery charging and discharging
PowerRadar calculates and provides a real-time view of the battery charge and discharge traces. Effectively this was the missing piece for Mike Casey, who now has full visibility of the electrical flow on his site. He can also track how the operation affects the health and longevity of his batteries.
Solar insights inform operational and strategic decisions
By monitoring the real-time solar gain onsite, Forest Lodge can decide when they will perform operations such as irrigation, vehicle work and charging, therefore optimising their energy usage.
Calculating the running costs of their new electric tractor
Forest Lodge received another grant for a state-of-the art fully electric tractor. Energy insights will be used to determine the amount of kW drawn from solar and how much comes from the grid (and when), so the tractor’s operational running costs can be calculated.
Contributing to energy education and climate change advocacy.
Forest Lodge were invited to join EECA’s Gen Less campaign and become part of the climate change solution. The data collected by the energy insights system will play a significant part in the next chapter of their zero emission story.
Total Utilities is proud to join a growing community of over 40 suppliers and service providers participating in the Carbon Neutral Government Programme. We join the likes of Deloitte, WSP and many other organisations who profoundly care about protecting our beautiful country and people from the impact of climate change.
The purpose of the CNGP is to accelerate the reduction of emissions within the public sector and targets three areas in particular: heating, transport, and buildings.
We are Toitū carbonzero, too
This exciting news follows our February announcement, where we shared our Toitū carbonzero certification. Our commitment to taking positive action on climate change is reinforced by being on the CNGP list.
Supporting corporates and public sector clients for over 20 years
Our organisation began in 1999. Now over 3,000 corporate and public sector clients — including many schools, colleges, and tertiary institutes — rely on us for their electricity, natural gas and waste procurement, cost and consumption analysis.
More recently, we’ve been helping organisations accurately measure, verify and report on their carbon and greenhouse gas emissions. We do this with a three-prong approach: understand and act, improve and reduce, and target and report.
Paving the way to decarbonised organisations up and down the country
Through this three-step process, we help organisations understand their current footprint, create a carbon management plan for short and long-term savings, and design and maintain a greenhouse gas inventory. Together these steps help organisations decarbonise their activities and reach CarbonZero certified status.
Capabilities and experience in all five categories
The CNPG assessed us and confirmed we have capabilities and experience in all five of their key areas. This means we offer:
services to measure and report greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions
independent verification services
independent verification services which meet third-party accreditation standards
services to support emission reduction plans and strategies
software solutions, tools, and other support to manage emission reduction plans and strategies.
World-leading Technology and best practice
Total Utilities uses world-class leading technology and international best practice to help organisations gain insights from their emissions inventory. They are committed to enabling organisations to reduce their carbon footprint and achieve short and long-term savings, often without additional capital spending.
Joining like-minded organisations
The programme is a great step for us and helps put us in contact with government entities seeking to accelerate their emissions reductions. Being identified as a supplier in all five categories means we can help entities from start to finish – from advising on measurement and reporting, reviewing their internal plans, building a reduction plan, to monitoring the outcome with our software and reporting tools.
We look forward to partnering with like-minded entities who are paving the way to a low emissions economy, and it’s great to see the government taking an active lead in setting this example.
As an organisation, we walk the sustainability talk by managing and reducing our greenhouse gas emissions wherever we can and neutralising our unavoidable emissions.
