Carbon Footprinting Marlborough

Carbon Footprinting Marlborough

10^th & 11^th October 2009

Leading national and international speakers invited

to celebrate Marlborough’s achievements

Increasing productivity and growing the local economy while becoming carbon neutral

Saturday 10^th October

For 40 invited guests

at the stunning

Yealand’s Estate Winery, Seddon

www.Yealands.com

Sunday 11^th October

10.00 am to 11.45 Field Visits

Lunch for 150 at Marlborough Vintner’s Hotel

Rapaura Rd www.mvh.co.nz

12.00 to 4.00

Main Sponsors:

NZ Solid Wood Building Group

Marlborough Regional Development Trust (MRDT)

Marlborough District Council

Marlborough Forest Industries Association (MFIA)

Co sponsors:

Yealands Estate Winery

NZ Nature Ltd

Wairau River Wines

Grove Mill

Huia Vineyards Ltd

Cape Campbell Wines
Summary

While debate continues around the world on how to reduce CO2 emissions, people in Marlborough have been quietly doing it. There have been rapid reductions to the point where Marlborough now stores more carbon than it emits.

The Marlborough Regional Development Trust has been promoting and encouraging sustainable development over the last 10 years and has recently commissioned a report on the economic performance of the main industries in Marlborough. The report titled Progress Marlborough Economic Development Strategy (PMEDS) showed that Marlborough is growing considerably faster than the rest of New Zealand, and the fastest growing industries in Marlborough have low or negative CO2 emissions. The forest industry was the fastest growing, has the highest added GDP per full time employee, and stores considerably more carbon than it emits.

The MRDT has encouraged carbon footprinting as a way for Marlborough industries to reduce their costs and improve their image in international markets. This has helped Marlborough become a world leader with the following achievements.

§ Grove Mill – the first Carbon-Zero rated winery

§ Yealands Winery – carbon zero and Green Star building

§ Nelson Forests Ltd – carbon negative business with carbon footprinting of every product delivered to any market

§ CarbonScape – world leading development of biochar technology

§ Top of the SouthVillageNet – high speed broadband connection and modern Video Conference facility to reduce demand for travel

§ Marlborough’s carbon footprint – whole of Marlborough is now carbon neutral – a first for NZ and possibly the world.

Two successful seminars highlighted ways to greatly improve Marlborough’s carbon footprint. At the first titled “Tackling Climate Change using Trees and Wood”, Professor Andy Buchanan highlighted 4 ways that Europeans use wood to reduce emissions, including bio energy and massive solid wood buildings. The second seminar titled “Spotlighting Wood Energy in Marlborough”, led to coal fired boiler being converted to using locally grown wood chips. This reduced energy costs and annual carbon emissions by 3,000 tonnes of CO2 for that business. This seminar also promoted the use of dry fire wood and helped improve Blenheim’s air quality from an average of 7 exceedences per winter down to zero for the cold 2009 winter.

This Symposium “Carbon Footprinting Marlborough” will build on the success of those two seminars and lift Marlborough’s image and aspirations to a new level.

Proceedings from the seminar will be posted on the www.organicbuilding.com web site so that Marlborough’s achievements and continuing progress can be recorded.

Saturday 10^th October at Yealand’s Estate Winery, Seddon

For 40 invited guests

9.30 to 10.15 Coffee and Registration

Session 1 – Marlborough’s Economic Development and becoming Carbon Neutral

Between 2001 and 2006, Marlborough’s economy grew 26% compared to the whole of New Zealand at 20%. A major feature was the conversion of pastoral farmland to grapes and forestry. This along with a many initiatives to reduce CO2 emissions has led to Marlborough becoming carbon neutral.

This session looks at how a growing economy, and increasing employee productivity can coincide with reduced emissions.

Chair – Brian Dawson – Chairman, Marlborough Chamber of Commerce

Mayor, Alistair Sowman – Welcome (10 mins)

John Cook (15 mins)

- Economist, Author of Progress Marlborough Economic Development Strategy – pointing to economic and productivity growth

Francis Pauwels (10 mins)

- Manager Strategic Policy, Marlborough District Council – Council’s role in promoting economic development

Iain Cossar – Director, Sector Performance Policy, Maf (15 mins)

- Carbon footprinting agricultural and forestry sectors.

Rob Mallinson (15 mins)

Living Energy & Chairman of BANZ – Role of bioenergy in boosting local economies

Keynote Speaker: - High productivity building system

Wolfgang Weirer (20 mins)

Managing Director of KLH, the world leading producer of cross laminated wood buildings. The company is based in Austria and has produced a wide range of single and multi storey wood buildings, most of which have a negative carbon footprint. Examples include a winter Olympic village in Turin, and a 9 storey solid wood apartment block in London.

Discussion (30 mins)

Lunch (45 mins)

Session 2 – Being Carbon Neutral

Measuring Marlborough’s carbon footprint. Where have the biggest gains been made? What is the potential for further improvements? How will Marlborough’s economy benefit from the ETS and carbon trading?

Chair – Graham Lindsay – Chairman, Marlborough Regional Development Trust

Introduction – MRDT’s role in promoting sustainability in Marlborough and importance of high speed broadband development. (5 mins)

Michael Cambridge (10 mins)

Chairman, Climate Change and Marketing Committee, MFIA & member of Solid Wood Building Group

Recalculating Marlborough’s Carbon Footprint. A previous footprint based on 2003 figures showed Marlborough emitted 369,000 tonnes CO2e more than stored. A quick calculation using 2009 figures shows we are now storing 168,000 more tonnes CO2e than we emit. These figures are based on Kyoto protocol standards.

Peter Weir (20 mins)

Ernslaw One, New Zealand’s largest owner of Kyoto forests

“Earning credits for storing carbon in production forests”. His company has recently sold 540,000 carbon credits.

Richard Hayes (15 mins)

15 years experience with emissions trading – how emissions trading will boost the Marlborough Economy

Steve Butler – General Manager NZ Nature (10 mins)

Cellulose fibre – bamboo and wood – sustainable clothing for world concerned with health and carbon emissions. Importance of carbon footprint and sustainability when selling to world markets.

Peter Yealands (10 mins)

Owner of NZ’s largest privately owned vineyard

“Experience with carbon footprinting and developing an inspiring winery”

Discussion (30 mins)

Tour of Yealand’s Estate Winery - Wine tasting

Sunday 11^th October – Field Visits and Lunch at Marlborough Vintner’s Hotel – Cost $40 per head

10.00 am – Visit Nelson Forests Ltd Kaituna Sawmill

Looking at timber from the mill which has been fully carbon footprinted and is suitable for carbon neutral buildings.

11.00 am – Visit Paul Kinzett’s coal to woodchip boiler conversion

Looking at the advantages of converting from coal to clean burning woodchip.

Lunch at Marlborough Vintner’s Hotel 12.00 – 4.00pm

11.30 – 12.15 Registration and taste of Marlborough wine

Demonstration of VillageNet high speed internet and phone

Graham Lindsay

- Chairman, Marlborough Regional Development Trust – High speed broadband boosting the local economy and providing alternatives to air transport

Session 3 – Carbon Neutral buildings in NZ and Europe

Buildings containing large amounts of wood are able to store more carbon than they emit. New Zealand has a long tradition of building with wood. Until 50 years ago houses were built almost totally from wood, and were heated by log fires so that they had a very small carbon footprint. Modern solid wood building systems from New Zealand and Europe allow buildings to store much greater quantities of carbon for maybe hundreds of years.

Chair – Rick Osborne – Forest grower and owner of Flight Timber Sawmill

Andy Karalus (10 mins)

Nelson Forests Ltd

“Experience with detailed carbon footprinting of forest and sawmill business”

John Lemm (15 mins)

Intalok, member of NZ Solid Wood Building Group

Recent research by Group shows that solid wood has many surprising advantages besides storing about 3 times as much carbon as timber frame buildings.

Wolfgang Weirer (40 mins)

Cross laminated timber construction taking the European building industry by storm – including benefits for forest owners and saw millers.

Discussion (20 mins)

Tea and coffee break 15 minutes
Session 4 – Wood Energy, Storing Carbon, and increasing hill country productivity

Marlborough’s economy was once dominated by pastoral farming. There have been dramatic changes over the last 40 years as farmers have converted their land to higher value uses such as grape growing, forestry lifestyle blocks and tourism. Marlborough still has 260,000 hectares of pastoral farmland. What is the potential for converting this land to higher value uses? How to profit from storing carbon, growing biofuel, and growing carbon neutral buildings.

Chair – Kevin Parkes, Chairman, Marlborough Forest Industries Assn (MFIA)

Kirk Archibald, EECA (15 mins)

“Adding value to business with bioenergy – case studies from EECA’s wood energy programme”

Mike Gifford (5 mins)

CRB Transport Ltd

Efficient transport of dry firewood to customers. Blenheim’s air quality met National Environment Standards (NES) for the first time during the 2009 winter. The Marlborough forest industry and firewood suppliers are working together to raise the image of firewood. It is still the most sustainable and lowest cost form of home heating.

Pastoral Farming – Geoff Evans, Chairman, Marlborough Federated Farmers (5 mins)

Challenges facing hill country farming. Between 2002 and 2007 Marlborough sheep numbers dropped by 26.3%, dairy cattle by 26.5% and beef cattle by 9.3%. Aerial topdressing of Marlborough hill country has dropped from a peak of 30,000 tonnes to 3,000 tonnes. Soils have become more acid requiring expensive liming.

Dr. Murray McClintock (15 mins)

Carbon farm – Marlborough farmers and foresters generating income from storing carbon, with indigenous and exotic forestry. He will show how this work will further improve Marlborough’s carbon footprint.

Dr. Peter Clinton (10 mins)

Science Team Leader Environmental Vitality &
Programme Leader Protecting and Enhancing the Environment through Forestry
SCION, Forestry Road, University of Canterbury

Peter will give a short overview of research into assessing non-wood values such as carbon storage, biodiversity, recreation and erosion control. He will also briefly cover research on the location of future forests.

Discussion (20 mins)

Networking with drinks from bar

Marlborough’s 6 main sectors of economy 2001 to 2006

Category	Winegrowing/Horticulture	Forestry	Aquaculture Seafood	Tourism	Aviation	Pastoral
Value-added GDP 2006 $m	$342m	$112m	$126m	$83m	$118m	$73m
Increase/Decrease 2001/06	30%	47%	15%	11%	23%	-40%
Employment (FTEs) 2006	4,330	590	1,060	1,135	1,185	1,040
Value-added GDP per FTE	$79,000	$190,000	$119,000	$73,000	$100,000	$70,000

Pastoral farming still plays a dominant part in Marlborough’s landscape with its 276,000 hectares, but changes are likely to continue as farmers seek high value uses for their land. Converting pastoral land to horticulture or forestry can add considerably to the Marlborough economy. Converting suitable farm land to horticulture adds many times the value, while converting less productive land to forestry adds 4 to 8 times as much GDP to the Marlborough economy.

Marlborough’s 2003 carbon footprint with quick calculation for 2009

Figures in Giga grammes. 1 Gg = 1,000 tonnes CO2 equivalent

	Gg CO2 e
	2003	2009

Petrol Diesel	203.28	243.94
Ferry	85.35	1.70
Train	11.50	13.80
Coal	22.48	19.48
Gas	12.98	15.57
Aviation	4.64	5.57
Electricity	60.14	72.17

Waste	41.15	20.57

Forestry Exotic	-540.00	-925.00
Forestry Indigenous		-4.50
Agriculture	468.00	368.00

Total	369.52	-168.69