Community & Environment

Since 2007, EBOS has worked with Greenfleet, a leading not-for-profit, to offset our annual transport emissions from customer deliveries in the Healthcare segment (excluding Medical Technologies and pre-wholesale.)

2022 was Greenfleet’s 25th year of delivering climate action, revegetating land in New Zealand, Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland. The forests planted in 2022 are expected to be protected beyond this century and will remove nearly 450,000 tonnes of  carbon as they grow. This equates to removing over 104,000 average cars from roads for a whole year, or offsetting the energy  consumption of around 33,000 households.

The climate action that EBOS has helped Greenfleet to deliver means we are also supporting the conservation of biodiversity and  restoring habitat for our native wildlife. In 2022, Greenfleet restored 362 hectares of protected koala habitat, which equates to planting nearly a hectare each day, and triples the 2021 koala conservation impact.

In FY23, EBOS offset 16,600 tonnes CO2e with Greenfleet. 

In response to the emerging climate crisis, EBOS supports the global consensus that governments, corporates and civil society must work together to limit global warming within 1.5 degrees Celsius of preindustrial levels.

We believe that our business and our stakeholders stand to benefit from effective strategies to transition to a low carbon economy. EBOS has committed to achieving carbon neutrality for buildings in Australia and New Zealand over the next five years, during FY28.

Pathway to Carbon Neutrality

EBOS is on a pathway to becoming an accredited carbon neutral organisation. This means reducing greenhouse gas emissions and  achieving “net zero” by offsetting the remainder. In FY23, we continued to invest in operational improvements and carbon offset solutions to achieve net zero Scope 1 emissions. We also completed the first phase of new investment in zero carbon onsite energy
generation.

Scope 1 offsets

In FY23 we achieved net-zero Scope 1 emissions.

To help us achieve this goal, we offset emissions using Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs) generated from the Darling River Eco-Corridor project.

In 2022 the EBOS Board took action towards carbon neutrality by approving the scoping of an 18.8MW solar array, which is forecast to meet all of the Group’s Australian electricity requirements during FY27. In FY23 we installed the solar array project’s first phase, a 500kW roof-mounted array at our pet food manufacturing facility at Parkes, NSW.

We are now doing the engineering work and are working on the  regulatory approvals for phases 2 and 3 of the project with the construction of the first part of the ground-mount solar array due to  commence during 2024.*

*Subject to regulatory approval and lead time on key equipment

Since 2018, Black Hawk has partnered with New South Wales youth support program BackTrack to help vulnerable young people receive the holistic, flexible, and long-term support they need to get their lives back on track.

BackTrack was founded by Bernie Shakeshaft in 2006 with the objective to “keep kids alive, out of jail and chase their hopes and dreams” through a combination of education, life skills, employment, accommodation and wraparound youth work.

A key program is Paws Up  which teaches participants (aged 12-18) valuable skills such as responsibility, by caring and training a team of 30 dogs for jumping competitions, handling demonstrations, visits to nursing homes and school visits around the area.

Older participants gain additional trades skills by building new yards for dogs at the BackTrack shed and residential property. Black Hawk supports BackTrack and the Paws Up program by ensuring the dogs have the best nutrition and veterinarian care and by providing young people with clothes and uniforms, helping youth chase their dreams with the support of some incredible canines. 

For nearly two decades, TWC has been a charity partner of Ovarian Cancer Australia (OCA), raising over $2 million for critical research  and to support women living with the disease.

Some examples of TWC’s fundraising efforts this year included more than $20,000 raised in a special fundraising gala event at their  annual Masterclass event and $100,000 in February as part of Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month.

Ovarian Cancer is an insidious disease with the five-year survival rate sitting at 48 per cent; each day five Australian women are  diagnosed with ovarian cancer and three will die from the disease.

In FY23, TWC and 16 industry partners donated part proceeds from product sales to OCA, raising a total of $322,000.

MALPA is a charity organisation that seeks to address the inequality in health outcomes between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians and empower First Nations communities to take charge of their health and wellbeing.

One of the organisation’s primary initiatives is the Young Doctors program, which employs respected community members to teach traditional and contemporary methods of creating healthy communities to younger generations.

Over 15 weeks, grade four Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal school students participate in the program, which equips them with knowledge about a wide range of health topics, including nutrition, hygiene, health literacy, environmental health, well-being and identity. Importantly, the Young Doctors program is designed to empower young people to become health leaders among their peers and in their local communities.

The idea of children being ‘doctors’ is deeply embedded in Indigenous culture and life and this program brings an innovative, community centric approach to closing the gap in health and contributes toward reconciliation.

Since 2014, EBOS has been supporting the MALPA Young Doctors program by providing health packs, which are presented to students during the project graduation ceremonies. The packs include a range of essential healthcare items and empower these Young Doctors to take their learnings forward for the benefit of their local communities.

Land Search & Rescue New Zealand (LandSAR) is a national volunteer organisation with a team of over 3,500 trained volunteers who provide 24/7 search and rescue assistance to missing and injured people across New Zealand.

A special unit of the LandSAR team are the LandSAR Search Dogs which use their highly-attuned scent and tracking skills to assist and locate people in rescue missions.

Black Hawk is proud to continue its partnership with LandSAR by feeding its team of 45 highly-trained search and rescue dogs.

Annually, Black Hawk donates 4,800kg of Black Hawk dog food as well as Aristopet worming tablets to ensure the dogs are provided with the  highest quality nutrition and pet care to perform optimally during the physically demanding rescue situations.