Menu
Menu
At Auckland Radiology Group we are committed to reducing our carbon footprint, and developing ways to optimise our energy use. We foster action to reduce environmental pollution, and to positively impact the communities that we live in.
Our journey is just beginning, we know there is more to do and we look forward to sharing our progress with you as we step up to look after the land, water, air and natural resources we all rely on for our health and wellbeing.
The introduction of myARG, our patient portal, in 2021 meant that we were able to nearly eliminate the use of thermal paper, USBs and CDs to provide images to patients. All these media types use chemicals and materials in their production process, harming the environment, as well as potentially becoming waste that takes decades to decompose.
We feel that the myARG Patient Portal is the best way to deliver on our promise to the environment as well as providing our patients with a sustainable means to view images in the digital age.
Using the IntelePACS Portal referrers can receive patient images and imaging reports. No more paper waste and postage from mailing reports, or faxes using paper and ink. We actively encourage all referrers to use this portal, and now have more than 3,000 referrer accounts.
We provide free water/water coolers at all sites, and recyclable paper cups for patients.
Our staffrooms have real utensils, crockery and glassware too!
In our scanning rooms we use wipeable surfaces with no covers OR resusable linen instead of paper.
We have reduced waste for our CT procedures by implementing the Transflux system, which reduces waste from plastic tubing and syringes as well as reducing the amount of contrast media used.
We have also moved almost all of our practices to using reusable and sterilizable items for procedures rather than disposable.
We support The Public Water Project who are campaigning to bring more water taps and fountains to public places within Auckland. They believe in looking after the health of our country’s environment and of our people. They aim to reduce the use of plastic bottles and decrease the consumption of sugary drinks.
Where ever possible we repair rather than replace, e.g. we use Dr Chair to fix all our office chairs.
As an organisation with 15 branches across Auckland, it is fair to say that we go through a fair amount of coffee. We have switched all of our coffee purchasing to sustainable coffee suppliers. Our chosen supplier for 2022 is Common Good Coffee – their beans are organic, ethically traded and profits go into investment in community transformation. We have also taken up their option of reusable 3kg packaging. Made especially for Common Good Coffee by Joyya in Kolkata, the bags mean no throwing away and no single use packaging.
NOTE: we also gave every staff member a reusable ‘Keep Cup’ for Christmas 2019, just in case they want to support one of their local cafes instead of making coffee in the staff kitchen!
With our many branches across Auckland, our organisation goes through a lot of toilet paper! In 2022 we supported ‘Water Us’, a social enterprise selling tree-free toilet paper with no plastic wrapping and half of the profits going towards the Public Water Project. In 2023 we are using ‘with small.’, a local company who are Toitu carbon zero certified.
As of 2022 we are buying our cleaning products from Will & Able, not only are they eco-friendly, they also create jobs for kiwis with disabilities.
In 2021 we had already switched to using Milton in a reusable bottle with reusable cloths as our cleaning protocol – saving on plastic and on disposable wipes.
Bulbs that need replacing are now replaced with LEDs. This year saw us upgrading our lightboxes at 101 Remuera Rd and 212 Wairau Rd with LED replacements.
Our branches use three suppliers for our energy requirements. Both Mercury Energy and Meridian Energy generate 100% of their energy from renewable sources including geothermal, hydro and wind. Contact Energy is our third supplier and their generation is over 80% renewable.
Every branch has paper & cardboard recycling. We also recycle confidential documents by using Document Destruction Bins which are picked up and the contents used as an environmentally friendly way to package products.
We encourage battery recycling and polystyrene recycling through our main branch in Remuera.
All of our old IT equipment gets recycled using one of a few IT recycling companies, including Data Erasure NZ. They process the old equipment and recycle as much of it as possible.
We donate uniforms (& other clothing from staff) to Dress for Success.
We use Terracycle Zero Waste boxes in our branches to recycle masks, gloves and ear plugs.
We have reduced the routes driven by our courier and consolidated our ordering processes. We have ongoing projects to streamline the procurement of products to sites.
We encourage cycling to get to work, staff at three of our branches have access to secure bike racks currently, with more in the pipeline.
© Copyright Auckland Radiology Services Group Ltd. All rights reserved.