Mills Albert questions contracting, drainage and forestry

“Sustainability is an ongoing process, and it's essential to continually improve and adapt our efforts. By integrating sustainability into our workplace, we not only reduce the environmental impact but also enhance our reputation, attract like-minded employees and customers, and contribute positively to society.”

Mills Albert Ltd is a family owned Kāpiti civil contracting and forestry business operating across the North Island. The team recently won the 2023 Electra Business and Innovation Award.

The company is led by directors David Mills, Lisa Mills-Albert, and Paul Albert (GM) who ensure that Mills Albert Ltd provides quality services and solutions for civil and forestry. The business is dedicated to achieving excellence in all earthmoving operations and services including construction, excavation, drainage, roading, landscaping and general contracting.

Contracts and Sustainability Manager Peter Jenkins, together with team members DJ Mills and Grace Lozano, chat about the journey the team has been on to deliver better outcomes in the sustainability space.

Mills Albert's ongoing sustainability journey

Peter and DJ have been involved in the urban-rural partnerships for equal change movement facilitated by Our Land and Water NZ. It fosters a shared responsibility approach to environmental change.

“Being involved in the partnering for change project allows me to connect with a diverse range of businesses and discuss progress, providing me with knowledge to bring back to Mills Albert.”

Mills Albert is engaging with the team to develop a comprehensive formal sustainability policy, including how to better measure the changes they're making. Peter shares highlights of initiatives they have already implemented. 

“We have increased our fleet of hybrid vehicles to over five, including the purchase of a diesel electric D7E bulldozer in 2022 which is 30% more fuel efficient than its predecessor, the D6H,” says Jenkins.

The team is particularly proud of implementing a storage site at Otaihanga for the reuse of products between jobs. They were already using SiteApp Pro on their phones which could also be used to capture data to support the repurposing of rock and other resources to other sites.

“Another example of reuse was a job completed in April 2023 at Poets Park in Upper Hutt where we stripped 1400m3 of topsoil for hardstand areas, excavated 2300m3 of material for garden hollows and reused it onsite for building raised garden features and covering disestablished hardstand areas. The only material taken offsite was scrap metal and other rubbish. Plus, over 46,000 plants were planted, offsetting the project carbons emissions within 5 years.”

“We need to recycle and reuse as much as possible on projects to reduce costs and waste to landfill, but also to demonstrate to our clients that we are an environmentally conscious company.”

Measurements of these initiatives are still being refined by the business for better tracking.

“In the future, we will work on better measurement of our carbon footprint. We need tools to measure and track our progress and a meaningful tick box that is relevant to our business and stakeholders. The company is on a journey and moving towards deeper thinking in this area.”

Peter shared valuable insights about implementing new sustainability initiatives for the business, including testing how a new process will function operationally.

“We make sure we test our initiatives and how they will work for the business before fully implementing them. We chose leaders in the business to trial a test version of a new process. This allowed us to make sure the process was working well before we rolled it out to the wider business. Get your processes right and then communicate them to the wider team.”

Peter is passionate about working with other businesses to support their own sustainability progress.

“It’s all about talking to other people, it’s hugely beneficial for me to be a part of the civil contractor’s sustainability committee, helping with industry knowledge and expanding our capability by tapping into outside groups.”

“We need to show people that it can be done, that it’s not too difficult. We want to grow and develop our practices. Yes, we have limited resources, but we can expand and scale up our sustainability initiatives.”

There are many challenges of implementing sustainable practices and Peter talks about how collaboration is integral to success.

“It is important to get the internal communication right and then work out how it flows to other stakeholders. Another challenge is dedicating time and energy. We have a passionate team, but often other business areas take priority.”

Peter, DJ, Grace and the Mills Albert team are passionate about growing their knowledge in the sustainability space and key operational team members will be undertaking further education and training to enhance internal knowledge.

“Team members who are champions in the sustainability area will complete extramural online learning as part of professional development in the future.”

Mills Albert are open to collaborating with other businesses in this area and share advice.

“You don’t know what you don’t know, but you can learn. Work with a diverse range of businesses that help you think outside the box,” says Jenkins.

To find out more about the Mills Albert Sustainability journey, visit https://www.millsalbert.co.nz/