At National Mini Storage, we’re on a mission to look after the planet and our people (as well as your stuff), so we’re thrilled to win the 2024 SSAA Excellence in Sustainability Award for our Sustainability Strategy.
In 2023, our team took a good, hard look at all of our sustainability initiatives. We realised that, while we had the best intentions, we didn’t have an overarching strategy informing our decisions, nor any measurements in place to track our success.
So, with the help of Deloitte and KPMG, we put our heads together and developed a Sustainability Strategy outlining our clear goals and a roadmap until 2026 – with the aim of delivering better outcomes across our business, in particular our environment, community, customers, and people.
These sustainability initiatives are already making a difference, so it’s wonderful to have our efforts recognised with this prestigious award. Read on to learn more about our sustainability measures and why they matter…
Big initiatives for a smaller footprint
Following the weather events of 2023, we decided that focusing on environment initiatives was a must-do – and a must-do now! Here are just some of our environmental initiatives:
- Reduced emissions – increasing the number of hybrid vehicles in our fleet from 50% to 83% gives us immediate benefits by reducing fuel emissions. Watch this space for further emission reductions in years to come.
- Solar powered energy savings – installing solar panels has generated 87,700 KWh of savings for our Albany Tikoti Branch alone – with power consumption reducing by a third in the past year. Not only that, by increasing solar installation from just one to six of our thirteen branches across New Zealand, we anticipate a 23% increase in energy savings by 2026.
- Lighting the way with LED – already, we’re seeing a sizeable decrease in energy usage with the installation of LED in many of our branches. But that’s just the beginning. As part of our Sustainability Strategy, we aim to have 100% LED lighting across all of our sites by 2026, with 97% completion by the end of the 2024 financial year.
Giving back to our communities
Two years ago, we introduced Creating SpaceTM, a sponsorship initiative for Auckland based schools, sports teams, charities or organisations who need extra storage space.
Recognised by the SSAA (Self-Storage Association of Australasia) for Excellence in Community Engagement, this programme delivers five sponsorship packages to different local community groups each year.
Winners get a $10,000 cash grant, plus two free storage units for a year at their local National Mini Storage. It’s a very popular initiative – so far, we’ve had over 140 different community groups apply for free storage space each year!
Creating SpaceTM is our own unique way of giving back to the communities we serve. We’re regularly told what a difference this makes for the winners – and how, even after their sponsorship is over, their community discount helps them continue to provide amazing services to our community.
Creating happy customers 👍
Ensuring our customers always have an amazing experience with National Mini Storage is hugely important to us. So we’re pleased to report an average NPS score of 82 points (the average across the industry is 62 points).
NPS (Net Promoter Scores) are a measure used to gauge customer loyalty, satisfaction, and enthusiasm with a company, calculated by asking customers one question.
What’s more, our Google reviews average a whopping 4.8 stars out of 5 – another great sign that our customers are very happy with our storage and our service!
And happy employees 😀
Our people are the lifeblood of our business – and if they’re happy, we’re happy! To that end, we’ve put several initiatives in place this year to improve the wellbeing of our employees:
A focus on training and mental health – this included training on conflict management, mindfulness and menopause awareness for all employees. And it’s already made a difference with our quarterly wellbeing survey showing an increase in wellbeing – up from an average of 3.75 to 4 out of 5.
Health & safety first – we developed a health & safety management framework which has increased our employee engagement. Reporting of safety observations, risks and hazards has increased by a massive 93% in just one year.
Best practice for the best people – this year, we also introduced best practice parental leave and wellbeing policies, further enhancing the wellbeing of our employees.
Watch this space for more
As a New Zealand owned and operated business that cares deeply about our environment, employees, customers, and the communities we operate in, we’re passionate about creating action that helps make our world a better place.
So, watch this space as we continue to expand on these initiatives into 2025, 2026 and beyond – and continue to make a sustainable difference.
Want a sustainable storage option?
You can always put everything in storage and come back to the ‘list system’ later. We’ve got a range of vacant storage solutions throughout Auckland.
