What Are We Doing?

Here at The Warehouse we are constantly evaluating the way in which we measure and manage our waste, recycling & energy usage. For example over the past year we have reduced the number of plastic bags (those famous red ones) by 19% relative to sales since 2004. We have new plans in placed to do even better including ways you can help us to recycle more plastic bags.

Our recycled cardboard volumes have grown by 15% this year and we were fortunate enough to have been awarded a Highly Commended Award at the Packaging Council of NZ Environmental Excellence Awards for all our hard work.

We group our society and environment programs under 5 key headings; people (that is the Warehouse team), the community, shopping for a better world, our customers and the environment. For more information on each of these programs please click on the subjects below.

People

As a significant retailer with a nationwide presence, we employ a wide range of people with diverse skill sets across our many stores and through our head office operations. At the Warehouse, team members are encouraged to perform to their potential via benefits, incentives and public (or private) praise, as well we provide many opportunities for training and education to help our team extend and reach their full their potential with us. We keep a close eye on flexibility and diversity to ensure we are doing what we can to provide positive work-life balance and to encourage talented people into positions that meet both their needs and ours.

Community

Here at The Warehouse we believe that we have a responsibility to ensure our impact on the communities in which we operate is a positive one. To assess the effect of our impact on small towns, The Warehouse has been tracking the impact its stores have had on a number of small towns across New Zealand since 2001. To date, we’ve completed studies in Dannevirke, Wainuiomata, Kaitaia, Kerikeri and Motueka, we’ve also assessed how the Maori people and tribes perceive the impact of The Warehouse in a number of locations. In general the results from our surveys suggest that our staff, shoppers and Maori are feeling positive about the influence of The Warehouse on their towns, The Warehouse stores can be seen to provide an anchor or a magnet within many small towns of NZ and that despite some worries about the impact of a new The Warehouse on a small town, the majority of businesses adapt and innovate relatively quickly.

Shopping for a Better World

From reusable shopping bags to our sustainable hardwood furniture we’re mindful of the fact that how we shop can make a difference to the environment. We provide our suppliers of the goods we sell with guidelines as to the environmental characteristics of the packaging they provide, the labour standards in their factories and of course the quality of the goods they make and manufacture. Choices you make can make a difference.

To help ensure your purchases make a positive contribution to factory workers we regularly inspect our major factories to ensure they meet our labour standards.

Together we CAN make a difference.

Learn more here.

Our Customers

The Customer Service Team
Here at The Warehouse we operate a dedicated customer call centre called Customer Care. Their role is to respond to customer queries and to work with you our customers and our team members to resolve any complaints or service failures. Our Customer Care Team is specially trained to ensure that your interests are protected. They work hard to ensure that calls are followed up within a reasonable period of time, so that you receive both information and resolution as quickly as possible.

Mystery Shopper Program
This program places an anonymous shopper in a store in order for us to evaluate some key measures of our in store experience from your perspective. The six performance areas the Mystery Shopper investigates are:
Product Availability, Product Return, First Impressions, Telephone, In the Store, and Checkout. For example under Product Returns the mystery shopper reports on things such as how long the mystery shopper had to queue before being served, was the team member on the Service Desk well groomed and wearing the correct uniform, and if the Service Desk transaction did not go smoothly for any reason, did the team member on the Service Desk apologise? We reference these check points to The Warehouse standards for each area.

We use other tools such as customer focus groups, accompanied shops, telephone polls, internet surveys, as well as the two mentioned in detail above (a mystery shopper program and our customer call centre) to help us build better relationships with you our customers.

The Environment

Waste and Recycling.
Our policy at The Warehouse is to do what we can to minimise landfill waste. We manage this by identifying waste material from our stores and sending these objects off for recycling. Unfortunately some materials cannot be recycled and these materials are placed in a waste skip for eventual landfill disposal.

Cardboard and plastics are collected directly from our stores and distribution centres and dispatched to our recycling centres. With some of these materials - particularly cardboard and soft plastics – we are able to process and remanufacture them within New Zealand.

Our Greenhouse Gas Emissions (will need to be updated for 2007 figures).
We calculate that The Warehouse’s greenhouse gas emissions were equivalent to 28,727 tonnes of CO2 over the past year - a slight increase on 2006 figures due mainly to the introduction of our Xtra format stores. We have had wins through the year though by making better use of our South Island distribution centre; shipping more products directly to the South Island from overseas ports, significantly reducing land and ferry freight between the North & South Islands. This is an area we will continue to focus on in the future.

Energy Friendly Refrigeration
The new Warehouse Extra Store at Sylvia Park required our property and energy management team to develop a frozen and chilled foods solution for the first time. Working with York Refrigeration and Arneg New Zealand Ltd, The Warehouse NZ has been able to deliver what we believe is a world first in an installation of this type.

The system uses carbon dioxide-propylene refrigeration for its freezers, display cabinets and cold rooms. This system has no destructive impact on the ozone layer and 3,260 times less global warming potential than the standard refrigerant it replaces. The plant requires fewer compressors than the equivalent standard system, making for a smaller building footprint, reduced construction costs and a cleaner rooftop. It is also projected to use less energy over its operating life, and its design greatly reduces the requirement for expensive copper piping. This collaboration between The Warehouse NZ, York, and Arneg is a genuine example of sustainability leadership - innovative design has delivered multiple advances over older systems with a substantially improved greenhouse gas profile.

For further information about our approach to the NZ environment please refer to the Society and Environment reports, here.

Energy Efficient Light Bulbs
The Warehouse sells Compact Fluorescent lamps, which are endorsed by the Government. See here for this endorsement and also information to allow you to make wise choices in your selection and utilisation of Compact Fluorescent lamps in your home.