Environmental commitment

Pelorus’s commitment to environmental sustainability is based on our recognition that our activities affect the environment in two ways: firstly through the effects of our design decisions and secondly through the way we operate our business in-house.

By far the greatest effect of our activities however comes from the design decisions we make on behalf of our clients.

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• Several recent projects have been submitted for New Zealand Green Building Council Green Star Rating, and some current ones are being designed with a view to achieving a high Nabers rating for low energy consumption in use. .

• We consider environmental sustainability in all the work we do however, regardless of whether ratings are a consideration. This chiefly involves material selection, avoiding the use of materials with a range of deleterious environmental effects, reusing where practical and sizing to minimise wastage, and using materials that have credible third party environmental ratings.

Pelorus’s commitment in-house focuses primarily on the minimisation of waste and energy use.

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• We minimise printing, and when we do print we do so double sided.

• We recycle paper, cardboard, plastics and glass.  As a result waste created is minimal.

• We recycle toner and ink cartridges for refilling and reuse.

• We reuse paper that has been printed single side

• Our office fitout maximised reuse of previously used components, and new materials were chosen to minimise their impact – all joinery is made from low formaldehyde MDF, carpet came with a guaranteed take-back and recycle from the supplier, paints and adhesives  were low-VOC.

• Our premises are naturally ventilated, with minimal mechanical heating and cooling - . we accept and tolerate a greater degree of temperature variability within the office.

• Lighting is automatically dimmed by daylight sensors.

• We are continually looking for further ways to minimise our environmental footprint.