Antipodes Water: Sustainability made second nature

Genuine sustainability is at the very core of Antipodes Water.

Antipodes Water, who recently celebrated their eleventh year of carboNZero certification, is the first and only mineral water company to be certified carboNZero and remains committed to embedding sustainability into every facet of their business.

“Sustainability is the founding philosophy of Antipodes”, says Managing Director Deborah McLaughlin. “It has been key to our organisation since the very beginning”.

Founded in 2003, Antipodes sources their award-winning water from a 327m deep pressured aquifer near Whakatane. The water is bottled at the source in Antipodes’ distinctive glass bottles.

Production is done to maximise sustainability: water is bottled to order to reduce waste; all production energy is from renewable resources; and they source their raw manufacturing materials from New Zealand to reduce emissions from transport and support local businesses.

Being carboNZero certified early in the company’s lifetime was an obvious step, and the programme’s independent, science-based and internationally verified credentials are an important part of Antipodes sustainability story. They have also been named as a member of the United Nations Carbon Neutral Network of companies and countries.

As a result, sustainability has become second nature to the Antipodes Water team, who are constantly looking for ways to reduce waste.

“One of the biggest things we were throwing away were plastic-coated ties around our boxes”, says Deborah. “The team kept searching for options, and have now found a way to recycle them.

Last year the Antipodes plant only had their waste bin collected once”.

The Antipodes team take their commitment to carbon reduction home to teach their kids and community, a trend that Deborah is also seeing reflected in the broader public.

“What’s really exciting is that people are really starting to acknowledge how important it is to be carbon neutral.  Subjects like carbon emissions and single use plastic are paramount and the end customer is wanting to really do something about it”.

After eleven years of carboNZero certification, Deborah’s top tip for companies starting their carbon zero journey is have a clear sense of the work that is involved, to set up their data capture in a way that makes it easy.

Deborah looks forward to seeing programmes like carboNZero grow further and bring together organisations with similar values, making sustainable supply chain decisions easy.

Learn more about Antipodes Water's certifications here.