Hancocks is proactively seeking to reduce our operational and office waste. Our initiatives include:

• Replacing plastic bubble wrap with recyclable corrugated cardboard.
• Introducing Method Stations which have elimated the need for 200 individual bin liners weekly.
• Courier/ package recycling onsite at Te Whare Tuuranga, with a dedicated station and procedures for cardboard and bubble wrap allowing for re-use.
• Donating plastic pallets to ES Plastics who use them to dispatch non-food grade products or grind the plastic for use in infrastructure projects.
• Distributing resources to reduce food waste to staff.
• Working with our suppliers for promotional goods to reduce plastic packaging where possible.
• Reviewing our use of giveaways at events and re-using promotional materials where possible.

We collect e-waste annually across Te Whare Tuuranga, Wellington, and Christchurch. This covers old docking stations, screens, keyboards, and other computer waste. Drives are destroyed to ensure their data is wiped before being sent to e-waste recycling.

Te Whare Tuuranga was built in 2021 with the aim of allowing our family business to operate in a purpose-built facility that enables efficiency and productivity within a safe environment. Where possible, sustainable materials were sourced for the building including:

• Carbon neutral carpet.
• Reclaimed and sustainably grown timber.
• Recycled and sustainability grown cork for flooring.
• Double glazed windows and treatments which reduce heat and UV transfer by up to 70%.
• An intergrated LED lighting system in the office and warehouse with energy saving monitoring and sensors.

We are upgrading our forklift fleet, working to replace all our old lead acid battery forklifts with lithium battery powered hoists. This enables us to charge our forklifts during the day using solar generated onsite. Hancocks warehouse does not generate measurable liquid, gas or solid emissions released directly into nature. We maintain several HVAC and refrigeration systems across our sites, to ensure the safe and appropriate storage of our wine, beer, and spirit stocks. These systems are sealed, and we have had no reported refrigerant leaks. There are occasional product breakages and spills (e.g. broken wine bottles), however these are cleaned in accordance with specific Hancocks procedures and do not release any hazardous substances. Our warehouse building envelope at Te Whare Tuuranga is constructed of insulated Kingspan paneling. This has an R2.4 insulation rating to limit the daily temperature variations. This helps to ensure our products are held at the optimum temperature.

Ensuring our stock arrives safely and to our stakeholders standards is important to Hancocks. At present, we use plastic wrap required to meet the safe delivery of stock. Though we acknowledge plastic wrap is not the most environmentally friendly, it allows us to meet the stringent delivery standards required of us and minimise breakage. The plastic wrap used is recyclable, and we continue to review new packaging methods as technologies and best practices develop. We use 71%-100% recycled board for cardboard delivery boxes and recycle bubble wrap and air pillows into soft plastic bins.

We do a large amount of in-house printing, and take steps to ensure we are reducing our environmental footprint in the process by:

• Using OfficeMax for most of our paper needs. All OfficeMax paper suppliers are Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) or Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) Certified.
• Using paper and gum-based tape, rather than synthetic tape.
• Ensuring compliance with B-Corp standards by sourcing non-synthetic options for all the physical aspects (e.g. printing, posters, booths) of our B-Corp accredited brand campaigns.
• Using KATZ board as an alternative to paylite and corflute, a lightweight composite board durable enough to withstand similiar wear to its synthetic equivalents, but which is fully recyclable in wastepaper streams and biodegradable should it end up in landfill.
• Printing onsite, which has reduced our need for couriering between the office and the warehouse, redcuing our emissions. We encourage local printing for our regional office to reduce freight.
• Phasing out champagne gift boxes and providing digital files to stores to create gift boxes locally.
• Storing generic display materials and accessories in the warehouse. These are checked in as products which can be ordered for use by staff.

Our events team works closely with event organisers to ensure we are reducing waste and creating efficiencies where possible. This includes:

• Creating assets that can be used across multiple brands by using fabric skins.
• Exploring options for digital promotional materials (e.g. QR codes at booth displays, use of TV screens).
• Working with event organisers to courier empty cans to recycling centres at the conclusion of the event.
A major initiative for our events is providing Globelet reusable cups. This helps divert thousands of single-use plastic cups from landfill.

We partner with Image Group who supply our promotional merchandise for giveaways. Image Group works with Sedex to audit their factory suppliers in China, ensuring they employ fair labour conditions and do not employ child labour. Image Group actively seek to reduce weight in packaging and consolidate their cargo to ship to New Zealand more efficiently. We work closely with Image Group to reduce plastic in packaging and are looking at ways to improve our marketing calendar to reduce the number of shipments each year and reduce our environmental footprint.

We are committed to reducing our carbon emissions and are actively moving our leased fleet to hybrid vehicles. At Te Whare Tuuranga we have electric car battery chargers onsite available for staff to use.

Hancocks is a registered food importer under the Food Act 2014 and complies with food safety requirements. We have National Programme 1 Food Safety Certification at our Auckland and Christchurch warehouses.