Our Sustainability Strategy sets out how we improve the sustainability of our operations, support a lower-emissions and climate-resilient electricity system, and embed responsible ways of working across the business. For FY27, the programme focuses on three key challenge areas: Climate Change, Nature, and Business Sustainability.
Transparent reporting is an important part of this. We have a responsibility to our customers, communities, service providers, suppliers, Government shareholders, and investors to consider the social and environmental impacts of our work and make our progress visible. We report on this primarily through our annual Integrated Report, Climate Statement and Greenhouse Gas Inventory Report.
Climate Change
Aotearoa New Zealand has a target of net-zero emissions by 2050, which is driving the increasing electrification of its economy and communities. While New Zealand’s electricity system is highly renewable by international standards, with average renewable generation reaching 94% for the 12 months ended 30 June 2026, fossil fuel sources still fulfil approximately 54% of overall energy in New Zealand – mainly through transport and process heat. We have a significant role to play in enabling the transition from a predominantly fossil-fuel based energy sector, to one that is based on renewable energy.
See our Climate Statement for more information on Transpower’s climate risks and opportunities arising from both physical climate change risks and the climate transition. Alongside this, our Climate Adaptation Plan is focused on enhancing the resilience of New Zealand electricity transmission system in response to climate change.
Forming part of our Climate Statement, our Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory Report sets out Transpower’s emissions reductions targets – both short-term and long-term, and our progress towards meeting the targets. Our Sustainability Strategy Programme includes delivering Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions reductions across priority areas such as SF6, our vehicle fleet, solar generation, and refrigerants, as well as progressing a Scope 3 programme aligned to business priorities. These actions support more consistent emissions management across our operations and help identify where reductions can be made in areas we control or influence.
You can read more about where our emissions come from, and what we’re doing to record, manage and cut them here. Read our strategic publications here.
Nature
Given the scale and reach of our assets across landscapes and locations with environmental and cultural values, we have a responsibility to minimise our environmental impact and use materials and resources efficiently. Our focus is on delivering biodiversity initiatives and improving our baseline nature data. This supports business priorities and helps enable regulatory obligations by strengthening the information we hold about nature and biodiversity across our asset base.
This work sits alongside our broader environmental responsibilities, including reducing contaminants and waste discharges, restoring the natural environment around our assets with the goal of creating a net gain in biodiversity, and reducing waste to landfill. Together, these activities keep our approach to nature connected to operational delivery and the places where our assets are located.
The sustainability of our operations can only be delivered in partnership with communities. We acknowledge mana whenua connection with the land and seek to partner with them (supported by our Māori partnership strategy) to remediate the natural environment and minimise the impact of our work on sites of cultural significance.
Business Sustainability
Our Sustainability Strategy Programme includes developing and implementing a comprehensive modern slavery risk management framework, that builds on our existing tools, in preparation for annual disclosure reporting. This will strengthen how we identify, assess, manage, and report modern slavery and worker exploitation risks across our operations and supply chains, and support a more consistent approach to supplier and service provider engagement.
To operate sustainably over the long term, we need to embed responsible and resilient ways of working across Transpower. This means further embedding carbon and sustainability considerations, alongside cost, risk, reliability, and long-term value, into how we plan, invest, procure and operate.
People and partnerships also remain central to business sustainability. We rely on highly engaged, skilled, and capable people, and we are committed to making the most of the strengths that come from a diverse and inclusive workforce and culture. We are also committed to developing our workforce and promoting health, safety, and wellbeing across our operations.
More broadly, we acknowledge our responsibility to promote kaitiakitanga. This includes recognising the enabling role our assets play in reducing emissions and protecting Aotearoa New Zealand from the worst impacts of climate change. We also seek to work with local communities to minimise the physical presence of our assets, including by working closely with landowners to reduce disruption associated with our work.