With decades of environmental assessment and footprinting experience, Kimberly Robertson is a real expert. She’s assessed and verified the environmental impacts of products, services, whole companies and even whole countries! Prior to joining thinkstep-anz, she'd independently reviewed some of our work. We caught up to learn more about what all this involves.
You’ve worked as a reviewer of national greenhouse gas (GHG) inventories. What does that involve?
Every year countries submit their national greenhouse gas inventories to the UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change). These inventories cover things like energy, industrial processes, land use and forestry emissions, and are reviewed by a panel of international experts. I’ve worked as an expert reviewer in land use change and forestry, and we check whether the inventory has been undertaken in line with the IPCC methodological requirements. The first national review I did was in Finland when I worked at Scion (New Zealand Forest Research) before 2000. I would have been one of the early reviewers. The last review I undertook was in 2016, for Canada.
What makes a good reviewer or verifier?
Someone with the technical knowledge and understanding of the methodology involved, but also someone who is quite details focused. Both GHG inventories and environmental product descriptions (EPDs) have a lot of data to check!
You also work in life cycle assessment (LCA). Can you explain that?
LCA measures the environmental impact of a product or service over its entire life cycle. There are many reasons to do an LCA – we’ve had clients do them because there have been requests for proposals (RFPs) or projects that favour companies that have done one. Lifecycle assessment can be used to identify environmental ‘hotspots’ and supply chain issues. Without doing an LCA, you’re not really aware of your ‘upstream’ supply chain in particular – what are the environmental impacts of the products and services you use? An LCA can tell you. Energy use is often a hotspot and once that’s understood, companies can make reductions and savings – so there are economic benefits, too.
You do work on both sides of environmental product declarations (EPDs) – preparing clients’ EPDs and reviewing other peoples’. What goes into an EPD?
An LCA is the first step and it’s quite a detailed technical document. An EPD is supposed to be less technical and make it easier to communicate the information in an LCA. An EPD is kind of like an environmental ‘nutrition label’ for a product – it’s a report about the environmental impacts, such as carbon emitted and water used. thinkstep-anz has been involved in many EPDs, including construction products, salmon, merino fabrics and lighting.
There are many requirements and specifications when you're doing an EPD. A verifier will make sure that the LCA has been conducted with the correct goal, scope and methodology, then that it meets the EPD Australasia requirements as well. The verifier reviews the LCA report and provides feedback to the practitioners. The LCA gets updated and the verifier checks that the EPD reflects what's in the LCA report – the LCA report usually isn't publicly released, just the EPD.
And this helps tell the product’s story?
Yes, companies can use EPDs as a marketing tool – it shows they are serious about understanding their environmental impacts, with the verification to back it up. EPDs are becoming more of an industry requirement, like in construction.
Have you seen instances of greenwashing?
I haven’t seen anything too overt – especially if a company does an LCA. They would have a great understanding of their product or service and wouldn’t (or shouldn’t!) bend or distort what’s in the report. I had a really funny experience with an EPD though. It came back from the marketing department with a literal ‘greenwash’ over the whole thing. They just put a green filter over everything, just to make it more ‘green’.
What brought you to thinkstep-anz?
There's a good team of people for support, and also for knowledge sharing. thinkstep-anz work with a really wide range of different clients, so you’re able to increase the impact of your work. That range of clients gives real variety to the work, too – I’m currently working on biofuel, wood products and food projects.
How does sustainability influence your day-to-day life?
I've worked in the area for a long time and, because I'm a geek, I did our family carbon footprint. We bought an electric car about three years ago, to reduce our transport footprint. We use the EV for most of our travel, but still have a fossil fuel car for longer distance. I've reduced my flights. That was another reason for changing jobs – my last role had quite a lot of travel.
I've been vegetarian for a very long time. That didn't start off for environmental reasons, but it’s become very clear that a plant-based diet is far better for the planet. I shop at bulk shops and use reusable bags. When I redid my carbon footprint recently, it’s been greatly reduced
What's something unsustainable that you've done recently?
Well, it will be flying. My daughter went to Otago for university this year and I took her down there. I do always pay for carbon offsets when I fly and I hope that the airline is investing in quality offsets. But I know that reducing emissions is much more important than offsetting them.
What are you passionate about outside of work?
I really love my gardening. I've got lots of fruit trees: apples, lemons, limes, and mandarin. I like spending time in the garden – we have tūī, bellbirds and waxeyes fluttering around. It’s nice sharing any of the extra stuff that I grow with friends and family.
I also like mountain biking. I live in Rotorua, which has great bike tracks! My husband and I were thinking about getting an e-bike, just to make things easier as we get older.
June 2022