As we kick into 2023, we thought it'd be a great opportunity to look back at the challenges and achievements of 2022 and highlight our focus for 2023.
In many ways, 2022 was a year of preparation. From manufacturing to sales and marketing, significant investment was undertaken to prepare Envirocon for future growth.
On the operations side of our business we continued to expand our engineering capacity, doubling the mould-making team in preparation for new collection points and manufacturing locations to be opened. Late 2022 saw the opening of East Tamaki, and as we return to work January sees the opening of Timaru and Cromwell. We’ll target to open an additional three locations over 2023, bringing manufacturing closer to our customers and lowering the cost and environmental impact of freight.
We also put a big emphasis on product development and R&D , as a result 2023 will see Envirocon launch three new Stonebloc products to round out the range and offer a complete solution. We’ll continue to launch new and improved counterweight block designs in larger weights. Finally, we’ll be launching an improved version of the Stonebloc standard block, incorporating more tolerance into the block, improving the installation experience.
Ram raiding across the country provided the opportunity to showcase the flexibility of our concrete blocks. We combined the strength of our 1000KG concrete block with a timber seat to help Kiwi businesses protect their assets, creating BollardBloc.
A core focus for the company is continuing to improve the ease of design and use of our Interbloc and Stonebloc construction systems. 2022 saw the launch of Envirobuild, a custom built, cloud based 3D design software system that dramatically speeds up the design of Interbloc and Stonebloc structures. Envirobuild quantifies the blocks required for the design and creates high quality 3D visualisations of structures that can be explored by third parties via our Envirobuild Viewer functionality. As we move into quarter one of 2023 we’ll be launching Envirobuild for public use.
As foreshadowed at the beginning of 2022, sustainability continues to sit at the core of our business. We completed and registered NZ’s first precast concrete Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) which demonstrates the very low embodied carbon footprint of our precast construction systems.
The registration of our EPD rounds out our CarbonSmart® sustainability story - arguably the most comprehensive approach to sustainability in NZ today. Our focus for 2023 will be to spread this message to larger audiences, bringing the benefits of fast, efficient, durable construction with impeccable sustainability credentials to organisations facing increasing demands from government and asset owners.
