During 2007, Verda under went a comprehensive 360 degree evaluation and audit as part of the Better by Design process. This is a New Zealand Government sponsored programme to transform high performance businesses into innovative and design lead companies. As part of this process all business systems were reviewed and evaluated from governance to staff training. Verda is making substantial progress in implementing a broad range of business improvement processes as part of its commitment to sustainable product design and sustainable business practices.
Verda was ranked 35th on last years Deloittes/Unlimited Fast 50 of New Zealand's fastest growing companies and was the category winner in the fastest growing agricultural, viticultural, forestry or fishing business.
This year, Verda was the award winner for Best Sales Growth Building Materials as part of the Placemakers Supplier Awards. Placemakers is one of New Zealand's largest merchant building supply companies with over 50 stores and 20 manufacturing plants.
Sustainable Business Practices
Verda has an internal recycling scheme which encourages staff to reuse or recycle paper wherever practical, increasingly more of its business is being digitally based saving on paper and storage space, and plans for its new offices include using sustainable materials for construction, being energy efficient and utilising high quality natural lighting.
Sustainable Processing
Renewable Energy
Verda uses recycled wood waste to fire one of its main timber drying kilns to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and minimise the disposal of this material into landfills where it could contribute to methane emissions.
Furthermore, Verda is a major supplier of shavings to Natures Flame', New Zealand's largest manufacturer of wood pellets which are used in a combination of industrial and domestic heating systems. The use of these shavings for wood pellets has a direct impact on the use of fossil fuels and contributes to savings in greenhouse gas emissions.
New Generation wood treatment formulations
Verda uses a new generation timber preservative that is does not contain arsenic and chromium. Tannalith E (Tan ® Ecowood TM) consists of recycled copper and an organic fungicide as its active ingredients for protection against insects and fungal decay.
Timber treatment takes place in a modern facility under cover which ensures that any chemical loss is effectively contained and easily returned to the timber treatment cycle.
Packaging materials
When developing new products and their packaging, either recycling or reusing packaging is a critical factor. Verda preferentially uses cardboard made from recycled fibre and is currently investigating using cardboard as a weed mat layer for its raised garden range of products.
Environmental Management System (EMS)
Verda is a member of the Enviro-Mark® NZ
and is working towards Enviro-Mark® NZ certification.Enviro-Mark® NZ is New Zealand's leading Environmental Management
System (EMS) Certification Programme, which is managed and marketed in New Zealand by Landcare
Research (Crown Research Institute). An
EMS is a management tool that brings together the roles, policies, plans, legal
obligations, review mechanisms and procedures used to manage environmental
issues. Furthermore, it provides a platform to manage
environmental issues and risks and operate more efficiently with an effective
customer focus.
The development of an EMS
will assist Verda:
Identify and control the
environmental impact of it's activities, products or services
Improve its environmental
performance continually
Implement a systematic approach
to setting environmental objectives and targets and to demonstrate that they
are being achieved
Achieve
independent certification of our environmental credentials
Being a member of
Enviro-Mark® NZ assists Verda in further improving its environmental
performance and will provide a credible basis to communicate the company's
environmental credentials to stakeholders.The Enviro-Mark journey is a five step process which results in a robust
Environmental Management System, which includes the following:
Bronze - Compliance with relevant health, safety and environmental
legislation
Silver - Establishing an environmental policy, environmental risk identification and
prioritization and legal obligation awareness
Gold - implementing
environmental objectives, targets and programmes, formalising roles and
responsibilities and emergency preparedness and responsiveness
Platinum - Documentation of operational procedures and systems used
to manage environmental aspects and impacts (e.g. work instructions, practices,
training and communication and management review)
