Online company takes a green lead

A Nelson-based mail order success story is speaking out on e-shopping as a positive force for the environment.

HealthPost is New Zealand’s leading online retailer of natural health and skincare products, and has a Corporate Social Responsibility policy that includes a template for calculating its carbon footprint.

HealthPost Director Peter Butler says this covers the courier delivery to customers, reducing emissions wherever possible, and offsetting the remainder with gold standard carbon credits.

“One courier van delivering strategically can actually be more environmentally sound than many individual trips to the shopping centre,” Mr Butler said. “And couriers are now so efficient that if we receive an order before 2pm we can generally have it delivered anywhere in New Zealand the next day.”

HealthPost also has an annual staff tree planting day, when up to a thousand native trees are planted as part of a Coast Care initiative in Golden Bay, where the business is based.

HealthPost’s latest environmental initiative involved installing 72 photovoltaic panels on the roof of their warehouse so they can generate most of their own electricity.

“There are no batteries needed,” Mr Butler explained. “On a cloudy day we can supplement off the grid and any excess that we generate, in the weekends for instance, gets sold back into the grid.”

Mr Butler says HealthPost staff and customers appreciate their environmental endeavours but they aso make business sense: “We expect to get a 10 per cent return on the solar power investment, so it’s good business from all perspectives.”