Calculating Carbon in the Forest
Thankyou Payroll has always been aware of its environmental footprint through its business operations. We’ve been actively measuring our emissions and implementing reduction strategies. We believe that leading by example will help to inspire and encourage other businesses to incorporate or increase environmental reporting.
For many years, Thankyou Payroll has also organised annual tree plantings with community partners in Dunedin and Wellington, helping to restore the natural bush and assist our cities with their climate sink initiatives.
This year, on Sunday 16th August, our team, along with family, friends, our great clients, and a couple of doggos headed to the hills of Brooklyn in Wellington for a day in the dirt.
This year, we partnered with Tanera Gully Restoration Project, a group who are actively working to restore a forest to its 1830’s, pre-European times. The gully, located from Brooklyn through to Aro Valley, is overgrown with weeds that can smother the natives trying to grow. We split into groups and spent a few hours tackling different areas to affect the health and growth of the forest.
One team plunged into an area already planted with natives, and set about clearing the weeds and grasses that had grown tall around them, threatening to swallow them.
Others, armed with layers of protective clothing, raised their swords and challenged the overgrown blackberry to a duel. Our army suffered a few grazes from the thorny bush, but surfaced victorious, leaving behind a mounting heap of blackberry vines to wilt and decompose.
The largest group went up the hill and deep into the forest with grubbers, spades, and secateurs in gloved hands. We took no prisoners, and piles of weeds were left in our wake: agapanthus, bay laurel, wattle, old man’s beard and ivy. Creeping climbers tried to trick us with their colourful and pretty flowers, but no mercy was given knowing they would strangle and kill the natives without a care. In the clearings we planted mahoe and mamaku, ensuring to angle their leaves to the sunlight streaming through from high above.
While we were clearing and planting, I was reminded of an old Greek proverb:
“A society grows great when [people] plant trees in whose shade they know they shall never sit.”
The Tanera Gully site may be small but it’s vitally important for connecting Wellington’s green corridors, helping our native birds to travel freely and providing them with safe nesting places.
We ate cookies and drank hot tea, replenishing our energy on the sunny winter afternoon. As the sun began its Sunday descent, we collected our tools and our thermoses and looked proudly at what we had achieved. Many hands do make light work — and such important work it is.
We’re proud to live in a city, and a country, that is taking the climate crisis seriously, and adopting into legislation an Act to achieve zero net carbon emissions by 2050. Our cities, and our country needs our team of 5 million to get behind this, and do our part to get there.
Thankyou Payroll is a Carbon Positive Company
Thankyou Payroll takes our environmental responsibility seriously. We’re always looking at ways we can mitigate emissions, with a ‘reject, reduce, reuse,’ and finally ‘recycle’ methodology. We’ve been tracking and calculating our emissions for the last few years, making some reduction achievements. What we can’t avoid, we offset with Ekos.
Even though we’ve increased staff, and added new measurable areas (ie accommodation) we’re still actively reducing emissions year on year. We set a goal to be carbon positive, replenishing more than we use, by December 2021. We achieved that goal early by offsetting 120% of our emissions last financial year. We’re always keen to share our journey to carbon neutrality with others to help encourage and inspire others on their journey.
If you’re eager to get out and do your bit and lend your muscles, Tanera Gully Restoration Project do regular planting days and can always use extra hands and smiling faces. Keep an eye on their FaceBook page for planting days, or drop them a line to get involved.
