
Making a dent in the tech universe
Sustainability in IT business. What you can do to decarbonise
Most of us are onboard with the fact that humans have been overconsuming the earth's resources at an unsustainable rate. Action from a global, government, and local government level is still unsatisfactory. Everyone needs to start doing their bit, and hopefully each little bit adds up and makes a big difference.

Sustainability in IT business. What you can do to decarbonise
Most of us are onboard with the fact that humans have been overconsuming the earth's resources at an unsustainable rate. Action from a global, government, and local government level is still unsatisfactory. Everyone needs to start doing their bit, and hopefully each little bit adds up and makes a big difference.

Partnering to solve Earth’s urgent challenges
We all love the satisfaction that comes with solving a problem – especially when it’s a gnarly one. So when we heard about Creative HQ’s Climate Response Accelerator, we couldn’t resist getting involved. Together, we’re helping some of the smartest people in New Zealand to solve some of the biggest climate-related challenges facing our planet.

Partnering for our planet’s wellbeing
Abletech is proud to have joined 499 other New Zealand businesses as an Investor for Impact in New Zealand’s Sustainable Business Network (SBN). Together we want to make the world a better place for generations to come.

World Environment Day
We are proud to have recently joined the Sustainable Business Network. To celebrate this, and World Environment Day, we took part in Conservation Volunteers NZ’s tree planting competition at Tawatawa Reserve in Island Bay.

Sustainable Business Network
How do our actions impact the environment? We want to reduce our carbon footprint — the greenhouse gases we emit. We run our office on carbon zero electricity, and we’ve reduced our software’s CO2 emissions, but what else can we do to protect our planet?

Lowering carbon emissions
Nigel’s household is on a mission to lower their carbon emissions. They’ve changed their central heating. It’s been a full month now — check out the numbers.

Gas to electric — zero carbon household
The Ramsay family is on a mission to use clean energy sources. Their latest improvement is a system that heats hot water during the middle of the day when their solar generation is at its peak.

Sustainable future
At Abletech we have embarked on the process of seeking advice and following recommendations. Read about some of our efforts below.

Driving from Taupo to Wellington in an EV
Today, we have returned from a lovely summer holiday near Taupō. The driving distance was 342 km, with an expected driving time of 4:40.

Driving to Whakapapa in a Nissan Leaf
We are on our way to Whakapapa for a few nights. We have a 2017 Nissan Leaf with a 40 kWh battery, which is good for about 200 km of highway driving (5 people with luggage).

Restoration
The story of converting the 1965 VW Beetle, to electric power, has gained quite a following.

Cycle commuting
Biking to work is increasingly popular with our developers. Electric bikes reduce the barrier of Wellington hills.

🥛 Moo-ving to glass 🐮
We’re keen to reduce our environmental impact so we’re using glass milk bottles. Remember the good ol’ days when the kids put out the empties? It’s just like that but instead of tokens inside a bottle, we order and pay online.

Carbon Zero electricity
We’re proud to be using renewable and carboNZero certified electricity, supplied by Ecotricity, at our Abletech headquarters.


EV Q&A: Sounds eco-friendly in that it doesn’t use fossil fuel, but what about the batteries?
Cars are not eco-friendly. Both fossil-fuel and electric powered vehicles require large amounts of energy to mine and process the raw materials. The by-products of the mining and manufacturing process are localised pollution (smog, chemicals) and global pollution (carbon emissions).

EV Q&A: Is it gutless on the hills?
We were asked: are electric cars able to travel up hills at a reasonable pace, or are they really slow when hard work is required?
: Total ownership rates](/img/1AKRHBH1Y1-798.webp)
EV Q&A — Is this EV thing just a fad or is it here to stay? Got evidence?
There’s a trend of transitioning from petrol and diesel vehicles, to vehicles powered by electricity. In this post, I’ll report on the growth rates of EV sales in NZ and similar overseas markets.

EV Q&A — If I go up a hill, do I gain power when I go down?
The car’s motor will slow down the car when you take you foot off the accelerator, and the byproduct is electricity which flows back into the battery. Technically termed Regenerative Braking, or Regen, this happens automatically (and silently) while you drive. It’s not something you think about.

EV Q&A —Charging: do you need a special plug at home?
Most people with electric cars (EVs) normally need to charge up the battery every 2 or 3 days. If you have a newer car with a larger battery, you might go a week without charging. If you drive longer distances in an older EV, you might need to charge daily.


Traveling to Palmy in an Electric Vehicle
Our car has a maximum range of about 150 km before the battery needs a top-up. The journey from Wellington to Palmerston North is 140 km.

Recording our carbon footprint at home
Last year I started recording our emissions, and we now have 6 months of data that is worth sharing.

Abletech and CO2 emissions — growing our understanding
One area we omitted from our first attempt is the contribution that comes from Cloud Hosting, the majority of which, for Abletech, is on AWS in Sydney.

Sustainability in IT business. What you can do to decarbonise
Most of us are onboard with the fact that humans have been overconsuming the earth's resources at an unsustainable rate. Action from a global, government, and local government level is still unsatisfactory. Everyone needs to start doing their bit, and hopefully each little bit adds up and makes a big difference.

Partnering to solve Earth’s urgent challenges
We all love the satisfaction that comes with solving a problem – especially when it’s a gnarly one. So when we heard about Creative HQ’s Climate Response Accelerator, we couldn’t resist getting involved. Together, we’re helping some of the smartest people in New Zealand to solve some of the biggest climate-related challenges facing our planet.

Partnering for our planet’s wellbeing
Abletech is proud to have joined 499 other New Zealand businesses as an Investor for Impact in New Zealand’s Sustainable Business Network (SBN). Together we want to make the world a better place for generations to come.

World Environment Day
We are proud to have recently joined the Sustainable Business Network. To celebrate this, and World Environment Day, we took part in Conservation Volunteers NZ’s tree planting competition at Tawatawa Reserve in Island Bay.

Sustainable Business Network
How do our actions impact the environment? We want to reduce our carbon footprint — the greenhouse gases we emit. We run our office on carbon zero electricity, and we’ve reduced our software’s CO2 emissions, but what else can we do to protect our planet?

Lowering carbon emissions
Nigel’s household is on a mission to lower their carbon emissions. They’ve changed their central heating. It’s been a full month now — check out the numbers.

Gas to electric — zero carbon household
The Ramsay family is on a mission to use clean energy sources. Their latest improvement is a system that heats hot water during the middle of the day when their solar generation is at its peak.

Sustainable future
At Abletech we have embarked on the process of seeking advice and following recommendations. Read about some of our efforts below.

Driving from Taupo to Wellington in an EV
Today, we have returned from a lovely summer holiday near Taupō. The driving distance was 342 km, with an expected driving time of 4:40.

Driving to Whakapapa in a Nissan Leaf
We are on our way to Whakapapa for a few nights. We have a 2017 Nissan Leaf with a 40 kWh battery, which is good for about 200 km of highway driving (5 people with luggage).

Restoration
The story of converting the 1965 VW Beetle, to electric power, has gained quite a following.

Cycle commuting
Biking to work is increasingly popular with our developers. Electric bikes reduce the barrier of Wellington hills.

🥛 Moo-ving to glass 🐮
We’re keen to reduce our environmental impact so we’re using glass milk bottles. Remember the good ol’ days when the kids put out the empties? It’s just like that but instead of tokens inside a bottle, we order and pay online.

Carbon Zero electricity
We’re proud to be using renewable and carboNZero certified electricity, supplied by Ecotricity, at our Abletech headquarters.


EV Q&A: Sounds eco-friendly in that it doesn’t use fossil fuel, but what about the batteries?
Cars are not eco-friendly. Both fossil-fuel and electric powered vehicles require large amounts of energy to mine and process the raw materials. The by-products of the mining and manufacturing process are localised pollution (smog, chemicals) and global pollution (carbon emissions).

EV Q&A: Is it gutless on the hills?
We were asked: are electric cars able to travel up hills at a reasonable pace, or are they really slow when hard work is required?
: Total ownership rates](/img/1AKRHBH1Y1-798.webp)
EV Q&A — Is this EV thing just a fad or is it here to stay? Got evidence?
There’s a trend of transitioning from petrol and diesel vehicles, to vehicles powered by electricity. In this post, I’ll report on the growth rates of EV sales in NZ and similar overseas markets.

EV Q&A — If I go up a hill, do I gain power when I go down?
The car’s motor will slow down the car when you take you foot off the accelerator, and the byproduct is electricity which flows back into the battery. Technically termed Regenerative Braking, or Regen, this happens automatically (and silently) while you drive. It’s not something you think about.

EV Q&A —Charging: do you need a special plug at home?
Most people with electric cars (EVs) normally need to charge up the battery every 2 or 3 days. If you have a newer car with a larger battery, you might go a week without charging. If you drive longer distances in an older EV, you might need to charge daily.


Traveling to Palmy in an Electric Vehicle
Our car has a maximum range of about 150 km before the battery needs a top-up. The journey from Wellington to Palmerston North is 140 km.

Recording our carbon footprint at home
Last year I started recording our emissions, and we now have 6 months of data that is worth sharing.

Abletech and CO2 emissions — growing our understanding
One area we omitted from our first attempt is the contribution that comes from Cloud Hosting, the majority of which, for Abletech, is on AWS in Sydney.