Aqus has a strong commitment to environmental management which is implemented at a scheme level through an Environmental Management System based around individual farm environment plans and the independent auditing of these.
Aqus' Environmental Management System is a framework that encompasses processes related to:
The Aqus environmental team is responsible for implementing, managing, and monitoring resource consents to achieve environmental outcomes, maintain compliance and preserve our social license to operate. This ensures schemes maintain the ability to deliver water to shareholders. The schemes we manage have resource consents to take and use water from the Waitaki River for the purpose of irrigation. These resource consents require shareholders to ensure that:
Scheme resource consents to use water for irrigation requires all irrigators to have a Farm Environment Plan (FEP). FEPs are unique to each property and reflect the local climate and soils, the type of farming operation, and the goals and aspirations of the land user. It is a tool that helps farmers recognise on-farm environmental risks and set out a programme to manage those risks, plan for future activities and record any changes made. It can assist with understanding and demonstrating environmental compliance, record progress towards achieving good management, and demonstrate how they are working towards balancing farm productivity while reducing a farm’s environmental footprint.
We actively work to support our shareholders to ensure that they can implement FEP’s for the betterment of the environment and assist with implementing routine audits through an independent process – please contact Mike Searle msearle@aqus.co.nz / 0272672451 or Anita Walton awalton@aqus.co.nz / 0273266966.