Shrinking our environmental footprint

Katie Hine is Waikato DHB’s newly appointed sustainability officer. She is a shared resource with the University of Waikato which appropriately makes the role more sustainable, and will spend two days a week (Tuesday and Friday) based at Waiora Waikato Hospital Campus.

Katie has a strong background in sustainability, working as a waste minimisation officer at Waipa District Council while completing a postgraduate degree in environmental management. She took on the role of sustainability coordinator at the University of Waikato early this year and recently this extended to a shared role covering Waikato DHB as well.

Katie acknowledges that some areas already have strong programmes in place – noting the work of engineer Stefan van Rooij and energy

management consultant Martin Lynch over several years to reduce energy consumption and demand.

Her first action will be to benchmark where Waikato DHB is at now and what our carbon footprint is. Hopefully by the end of the year that will give us a picture of where most emissions are coming from, and once we know that we can identify opportunities and actions to take.

Areas covered in the benchmarking will include

• Energy use

• Commuting

• Gas use

• Waste (and recycling)

• Fuel use (fleet cars)

• Air travel

• Procurement

So if you are keen to be involved, or if you / your area has a local initiative going you can share, let Katie know at: Katie.Hine@waikatodhb.health.nz