The Treasury

The Treasury

The Treasury is the New Zealand Government’s lead economic and financial adviser - which makes it a very important place! So when Jessica Clarke, Programme Adviser for the Treasury, reached out to the Your Sustainable Workplace team in late 2019 we felt privileged to be given the opportunity to support them along their sustainability journey.

One of the Treasury’s main functions is to support sustainable increases in intergenerational wellbeing for New Zealanders, so they were already well-versed in the importance of going green. Their sleek new office, refurbished in 2019, already boasted Method bins stations and all their desk bins have been removed to encourage people to dispose of their waste in the right place. 

The Treasury plays a vital role in the economic success of Aotearoa, so it’s no surprise that their 500 plus employees are extremely busy bees! After meeting with the Treasury’s newly formed Green Team, a dynamic and driven group of four, we could see that the issue wasn’t that staff didn’t understand the importance of waste-reduction, but that they needed simple, actionable items to take them on to the next step of their sustainability journey. 

In January 2020, our team conducted an assessment of the Treasury’s waste systems and we had also led their Green Team through a waste audit workshop in December. The workshop showed staff how to sort through their waste and collect important data about the things staff were throwing out; for example, the audit found that 67% of the Treasury’s landfill waste stream could have been recycled via the existing systems in place.

The assessment and audit showed that the Treasury had some strong sustainability practices in place, but that their systems could use a little finetuning. Based on our recommendations they are implementing a range of green changes, starting with easy quick wins like installing clear signage at their waste stations and creating a reuse bank for staff with reusable coffee cups and lunch containers.

Just to take things a step further, the team has committed to running a waste audit every three months to ensure that their sustainability measures remain effective, and senior management is also looking at the organisation's carbon emissions and how they can reduce their carbon footprint. We look forward to helping the Treasury with their sustainability journey as they work on creating an environmentally and economically sustainable New Zealand.