Introduction
The NZPM Co-operative was formed in 1964 by a group of Master Plumbers. The objective of the co-operative was to access better priced plumbing product for members and establish a merchant chain throughout New Zealand with strong goals to improve the profitability and quality of service and products to its plumber shareholders.
We’ve grown significantly over the ensuing years, with our members having expanded to over 1,000 and we have almost 60 Plumbing World stores covering the length of NZ, along with our high-end luxury bathroomware company, Metrix. We’ve grown stronger over the years, and we have been successful due to holding strong to our core values, behaving ethically, and remaining faithful to our roots.
Our journey therefore needs to be a sustainable one, in all senses of the meaning. We are passionate about treating people with respect and creating positive, healthy, and safe experiences and environments for all the people that engage with us: employees, customers, suppliers, and locals across Aotearoa New Zealand. We continue to respect the environment and continually seek ways to protect and preserve our planet for future generations.
As a co-operative we support the Rochdale principles that underpin all co-operatives. In parallel with those principles, we recognise our social responsibility towards people, sustainability and our environment.
Our own Social Responsibility Policy that we have implemented outlines our efforts to support our stakeholders by:
• Maintaining our co-operative ethos
• Providing good governance and strategic planning
• Conducting our business with values and integrity
• Protecting people and human rights
• Caring for our community
• Protecting and preserving the environment
One of the main challenges that businesses are facing is getting started on the journey to being more ‘socially responsible’ across all aspect of business. From vehicle fleets, to buildings, packaging, logistics, manufacturing, purchasing, water management and of course carbon emissions – there is a lot to think about and to tackle.
You can’t do it all at once. Plus, with the current economic climate most businesses can’t afford to create a full-time people resource to get this started.
What did NZPM do to start on the journey?
In 2020 we took a proactive step towards a more sustainable and resilient future.
Initially we engaged with a consultancy company called Green Start who took us through a process to get us underway on our journey.
Setting benchmarks for our carbon emissions was one of the first things we did, so we could ascertain what we were currently doing and where to put our immediate focus to be able to do better.
We benchmarked our Carbon Emissions in 2020 and have made improvements each year since, by taking such measures as: reducing travel, reducing printing quantities of marketing collateral, introducing electronic invoices and statements, progressively moving our vehicle fleet to hybrids and better building practices when developing new sites.
We are a contributor to Trees that Count and last month donated 500 trees to be planted. We have also developed an annual Impact Report which will be featured in our 2023 Annual Report.
While we were establishing our Carbon Emission benchmarks with Green Start, we also created a Social Responsibility Forum, who meet quarterly. This Forum consists of Senior Management and staff members from across the business. We have developed an Annual Action plan which covers both short term and long-term risks and opportunities under the headings of:
• Environmentally friendly products and practices
• Recycling & Waste Management
• Carbon Emissions
• Well-Being
• Social
• Governance
This meant that the work we needed to do was spread across a team of people, which became a lot less daunting. We created an Environment and Sustainability Strategy Plan and early on engaged Toitu to provide our NZPM Board and Senior Management ESG training so that we were all on the start of the journey together.
Through Green Start we also undertook the B Corp Assessment. This assessment is made up of inputs, outputs, and protocols that fall within the organisation’s direct control—done by completing a thorough analysis, utilising the internationally recognised Better (B) Corp Impact Assessment. B-Corp is recognised internationally as supporting businesses to meet the highest standards of verified social and environmental performance, public transparency, and legal accountability to balance profit and purpose. Because B Corp measures an organisation’s entire performance, from transparency and carbon footprint to supply chains and inclusion, it’s widely considered the “gold standard” of environmental and social certification.
We answered a range of questions tailored to NZPM’s size, sector, and geography. These include a detailed investigation into the practice around Governance, Community, Workers, and the Environment. By doing this, we were able to assess sustainable practice and ethical practice authentically. A key outcome was to identify a current state baseline of behaviours; this does not include intended or planned works but those actions that are in practice currently. Green Start then supplied us with a document of recommendations on where NZPM could continue improving sustainable development.
From this document we actioned such initiatives as:
• Introduced ‘Responsible Sourcing Guidelines’ for our key suppliers and our Own Brand sourcing company, Aquasource.
• Introduced a Code of Ethics and Conduct.
• Updated HR policies.
Ethical product sourcing is a broad commitment where we will continually strive to advance social, environmental, and ethical responsibility beyond our own operations and into our supply chain. We have established guidelines to support our position that we will only source products from responsible suppliers.
We are progressively working with all our suppliers to establish procedures that allow us to verify that each supplier is compliant with our responsible sourcing guidelines. For products purchased directly through Aquasource which we own 1/3 of, we undertake full factory audits including product quality, health and safety, staff pay rates and accommodation standards.
A significant component of ethical sourcing is our commitment to our modern slavery policy which is committed to help prevent, mitigate and where appropriate, remedy modern slavery in our supply chains.
Examples of other initiatives we have implemented so far include:
• Waste Management program in place at all sites.
• Sustainable packaging introduced.
• FSC paper used for our Catalogues.
• Updating our vehicle fleet to modern, lower emission vehicles, including our first hybrid delivery truck.
• Sponsorship partnerships with chosen charities: Bowel Cancer NZ, Prostate Cancer Foundation NZ, and Big Buddy. We also support Gumboot Fridays (for mental health) and Pink Shirt Day (anti-bullying) nationwide.
• Fund flu injections for all staff.
• New Parental Policy.
• Free Employee counselling services for all staff.
• Reduced plastic shrink wrap at our DC by introducing reusable strapping.
It is pleasing to note that year on year since our 2020 benchmark we have reduced our carbon footprint per employee in both 2021 and 2022.
NZPM wants to be a socially responsible co-operative that meets the highest standards of ethics and professionalism.
Our NZPM Cooperative vision is to help our members be successful and we are committed to driving the ongoing success of all our people.
We measure this success through:
• People choosing us — to work for, to work with, to invest with, and to shop with. We want people to make the choice to come to and partner with us.
• Our ability to reward our people — through competitive pay, benefits and working environments, shareholder dividends and rebates, fair pricing and quality products, outstanding and trustworthy after sales care.
• Being socially responsible — we take responsibility for our actions and for leaving a positive impact on the environment as well as on our employees, our customers, our communities, and other stakeholders.
NZPM Impact Statement
NZPM is driven by a strong purpose of delivering sustainable shareholder value. We want to make an impact that matters, for our people, for our customers, and for society (our communities).
NZPM have identified the carbon, environmental, social and governance metrics that provide a common framework for evaluating impact. So, we are looking at our own performance through this CESG lens.
We measure our impact on carbon emissions by tracking our progress from our original benchmarks established in 2020 and regularly monitor these to include and establish additional metrics.
We measure our environmental impact so we can operate to a best standards practice to minimize resource use. We also want to educate our people further to promote a healthier planet.
We measure our impact on society broadly (through health and safety reporting, wellbeing, diversity data, code of ethics and supplier regulations), aiming to improve people’s lives both within and beyond NZPM’s walls.
We evaluate our governance annually, knowing accountability is critical, however knowing that growth and financial performance remain important. We have good data privacy policies and cyber security training, we have an Environmental and Social Responsibility strategy and set goals, measure our progress, and report it transparently through our Annual Report each year.
This is how we hold ourselves accountable. This is how we answer to our stakeholders. This is how we’ll know we’re making an impact that matters.
