We’ve heard a lot this year about the importance of being kind to one another, and for one Kiwi charity its ability to bring “moments of kindness” to New Zealanders having a tough time has been made a whole lot easier thanks to a corporate donation from New World. Good Bitches Baking (GBB), has a network of volunteers around New Zealand who make sweet treats for those in need, with the goal of spreading kindness and making someone’s day.
“Many New Zealanders are doing it bloody tough at the moment, and many more have only had already hard times made much harder by Covid-19,” GBB founder Nic Murray says.
Her organisation will use the donation from New World to recognise its thousands of volunteers nationwide during their Volunteer Week (June 21-27). “Our 25 chapters across New Zealand consist of more than 2,400 volunteer bakers; volunteer bakers who spend time in their kitchen, baking homemade goodies for people they will most likely never meet,” Murray says.
“But when recipients receive a sweet treat from a GBB volunteer, they’ll know that someone in their local community took the time to think about them and do something special for them.
“We also deliver our baking to organisations who work with and support people who are having a hard time. A little kindness, aroha and a sweet treat can go a long way in making someone smile and feeling recognised.”
“But our biggest sustainability initiative for 2020 so far has got to be our new, electric, refrigerated delivery truck.”
Co-funded through the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority’s Low Emissions Contestable Fund, New World’s 24-tonne electric, six-wheeler truck produces zero emissions.
“Being fully electric means there are no tailpipe emissions and, as a result, no carbon and no particulate matter going into the local environment or wider atmosphere,” Sammons says. “The truck was assembled through a partnership with SEA Electric, ThermoKing and Blackwells, and now it’s an almost-silent truck making a better experience for our drivers, pedestrians and residents.”
The truck is already on the streets in the Lower North Island, delivering chilled and frozen goods to multiple Wellington stores on different routes every day of the week, covering between 100-150km per day. Two smaller electric delivery trucks are also being rolled out in the South Island.
More than 85 per cent of New Zealand’s electricity is made with renewable energy, so electric vehicles result in a much lower carbon footprint overall.
“Transport emissions make up about 40 per cent of Foodstuffs’ overall carbon footprint, so it’s critical we test potential solutions and implement the ones that work to help us on our journey to reach New Zealand’s 2050 Carbon Zero target.
“We’ll be tracking how the different trucks perform in their day-to-day operations and if they go well, we hope to add further zero and low emission vehicles to our fleet over the coming years as part of our Low Carbon Action Plans.”
To learn more about Good Bitches Baking, visit www.gbb.org.nz/.
To learn more about New World’s social and environment sustainability efforts, visit newworld.co.nz.
READ MORE, Article by Stuff.co.nz (sponsored content by New World NZ) 29th June 2020
