How we’re performing

In December 2017, we became the first regional council in New Zealand to attain Certified Emissions Measurement and Reduction Scheme (“CEMARS”) certification – now called Toitū carbonreduce – for our carbon emissions management and reduction scheme in relation to our corporate activities.

Our latest results

In the ninth audit of its corporate emissions, excluding public transport emissions, the 20204/2025 results showed council achieved a 38 per cent reduction against the base year.

Waikato Regional Council is still on track to meet an emission reduction target of 68 per cent from its 2016/17 base year by 2030.

The results for 2024/2025 included several challenges, with an increase in electricity emissions due to a higher grid emissions factor, despite stable consumption and solar installations. Petrol emissions also rose temporarily because of the transition from diesel vehicles to petrol hybrids as part of the fleet decarbonisation strategy. Extreme weather events (e.g., Ex-Cyclone Tam) caused additional flood pumping, increasing diesel use.

Developed by Local Government New Zealand, CouncilMARK™ gives communities a clear picture of how their councils are performing, including where they are excelling and areas for improvement.

Participating councils are assessed across the areas of leadership, financial decision making, service delivery and community engagement every three years, and given a standard from AAA to C.

Our council’s performance was comprehensively and independently assessed in 2024 as part of the CouncilMARK™ local government excellence programme.  The assessment report will be available in the near future.

Find out more about the CouncilMARKTM programme.