Primary Objective:
Marlborough Lines will take a leadership role in environmental compliance activities and will demonstrate our commitment to caring for the environment whist:

Delivering electricity and providing all services to our customers; and
Meeting out obligations to shareholders.

In achieving our objective we will:

- Adopt legislative compliance as a minimum standard and where practicable will seek to exceed these requirements whilst complying with Company policies and objectives.

- Regularly review our practices, objectives, and targets relative to the environment to ensure ongoing compliance and improvement.

- Promote employee and contractor environmental awareness through appropriate training and education programmes.

- Adopt a co-operative relationship with all regulatory agencies.

- Responsibly manage transformer oil and all hazardous substances to avoid, reduce, or seek to mitigate the effects of any pollution of the environment.
- Where practicable components and materials shall be recycled.
- Promote energy efficiency to the community through the provision of advice in relation to energy efficiency.
- Facilitate the connection of renewable energy resources within our network.
- Ensure environmental considerations are properly taken into account in the planning of Network extensions or reconstruction of existing Networks.
- Seek to minimise losses through the operation of our network.
- Make our environmental policy publicly available.

With the evolving environmental considerations now necessary for our present day operation it was recognised that the ISO 14001:1996 environmental standard would allow us to focus on integrating business practices with environmental issues.

The new environmental management system means that environmental aspects are considered in the same way management considers quality, safety, cost and performance aspects of other decisions. This will affect the selection of chemical sprays, equipment and various plant design and power line route concepts together with contingency plans for accidental spills. It is a commitment to compliance with environmental regulations to reduce or seek to mitigate the effects of any pollution by Marlborough Lines of the environment.

Achieving the environmental standard is not an end in itself, but a platform from which Marlborough Lines will derive considerable ongoing benefits. Financial gains have already been realised through recycling of materials, minimisation of energy consumption and the proper and appropriate handling of waste.

For some years now Marlborough Lines has been complying with environmental considerations when contracting and maintaining power lines in the sensitive Marlborough Sounds area, and when handling quantities of transformer oil. Examples include:

· Recent underground projects - Nelson Street, Middle Renwick Road, Grove Road, Main Street etc.
· Bunding of transformer pads
· Colour opossum guards
· Identification of protected trees and significant landscape areas
· Disposal of used mercury and sodium bulbs
· Removal of BCF fire extinguishers

The directors and staff of Marlborough Lines are committed to continuous improvement to ensure all of our services are responsive to customer requirements and exceed their expectations. This commitment requires that the highest standards of customer service are provided in all aspects of the Company's operations.

To achieve our Environmental Policy targets and objectives it is necessary to ensure that our Environmental Management System is further developed and subjected to continuous improvement.