Blue Star Group - Investing in pioneering technologies

Executive Summary

Environmental impact is central to Blue Star Group’s long-term value creation. The company has built a reputation for acting early, investing in pioneering technologies that position it ahead of the market. By embedding Toitū’s verified environmental and carbon programmes into operations, Blue Star captures growing market demand, reduces regulatory risk, and delivers measurable commercial benefits — including market advantage, cost efficiencies, and strengthened long-term resilience.

Client Quotes

“Aligning with ISO standards and Toitū frameworks provided structure and credibility, while the Toitū platforms and practical guidance from their support team proved invaluable. Their accessibility and responsiveness helped us overcome challenges quickly and confidently.”

Megan Skinner, Shared Services Manager, Blue Star Group

“Achieving verified certifications, first with Toitū Enviromark Diamond, then with Toitū Carbon Reduce, were major milestones. Introducing supply chain carbon reporting became a game-changer for customer engagement, giving them confidence that we deliver on our climate commitments. Providing assurance through verified data strengthened trust and deepened relationships.”

Jill Cowling, Group Chief Executive Officer, Blue Star Group

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Overview: An early pioneer, developing a market-leading position
Challenge: Leading responsible industry in a tightening regulatory landscape
Solution: Turning innovative practice into verified environmental leadership
Results: Market advantage, cost efficiency and long-term resilience

Overview

An early pioneer, developing a market-leading position

Blue Star Group is New Zealand’s leading marketing execution partner, enabling businesses to deliver brand communications at scale. Its sustainability commitment, Blue Skies, is fully integrated into the organisation’s strategy and operating model. Environmental management is central to the group’s long-term value creation — responding to rising customer expectations for transparency, anticipating regulatory requirements, and strengthening organisational resilience. Rather than waiting for environmental solutions to become mainstream, Blue Star has built a reputation for acting early — proactively investing in innovative technologies that position the business as a market leader.

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Challenge

Leading responsible industry in a tightening regulatory landscape

Since the early 2000s, Blue Star has taken a proactive role in transforming a traditionally resource-intensive sector. Faced with the environmental and operational risks of unsustainable paper sourcing, chemical-based inks, and energy-intensive machinery, they saw a clear opportunity: replace the industry's legacy practices with innovative, low-impact alternatives that reduce costs, mitigate risk, and strengthen competitive advantage.

As regulatory frameworks evolved and mandatory climate-related disclosures emerged, compliance risks and potential barriers to market access became more pronounced. At the same time, rising stakeholder expectations made robust, independently verified credentials strategically essential to the group’s long-term business model. To reinforce its environmental leadership and future-proof the organisation, Blue Star selected Toitū Envirocare as a strategic partner.

Blue Star embedded the Toitū Enviromark and Toitū Climate Impact programmes into its operations, implementing a robust, audit-ready environmental management system aligned with international ISO standards and undertaking annual, independently verified emissions measurement. This enables the group to demonstrate reductions in environmental impact over time. Through Toitū’s Carbon Compatible Reporting service, Blue Star also strengthened supply chain emissions accuracy, equipping customers with verified data to support their own compliance and reporting obligations.

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Solution

Turning innovative practice into verified environmental leadership

Transforming a resource-intensive sector is a challenging undertaking. At Blue Star, the ambition to lead that change was championed from the top, with leadership backing a clear business case grounded in long-term value for people, planet and performance.

Their journey began with the ‘Blue Skies’ sustainability platform — a structured pathway focused on responsible governance, measurable impact and stakeholder value. Early on, Blue Star set new industry benchmarks: pioneering responsible paper sourcing, achieving FSC and PEFC certifications, introducing vegetable-based inks, and building a supply chain aligned with environmentally responsible printing practices across New Zealand.

They established a robust environmental management system at their Webstar site, achieving certification in its first year. The system enables them to identify key operational risks and opportunities, implement processes for continuous environmental improvement, and ensure compliance with current and emerging legal obligations. By 2018, all Blue Star Group sites had attained Toitū Enviromark Gold certification. In 2024, they progressed further — achieving Toitū Enviromark Diamond nationwide, exceeding international standards and formally verifying their environmental leadership.

Operational innovation continued to increase in significance. A circular process to capture, recycle and reuse chemical waste, still unique in New Zealand, demonstrates how environmental responsibility and efficiency work together. Waste diversion from landfill was 92% in FY2024 compared to the base year, reflecting a sustained focus on reducing impact and saving costs across the organisation.

In 2021, Blue Star set science-aligned emissions reduction targets and began measuring performance to Toitū’s ISO 14064-1 accredited programme. They committed to a 42% absolute reduction in combined Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 2030, alongside a Scope 3 intensity reduction target of 51.6% by 2030 from a FY2022 base year. Within three years, Blue Star has reduced total gross emissions by more than 40% from its base year — and remains on track to exceed its targets.

They reduced emissions through operational consolidation — including merging major Auckland operations into a central “super site” — lowering freight, logistics, and duplicated energy use. They further cut emissions intensity with energy efficiency upgrades, active electricity monitoring, and transitioning two sites to 100% renewable electricity.

Beyond operations, they influenced Scope 3 emissions by improving procurement and paper sourcing and working with customers to optimise distribution. Over 70% of suppliers have been reviewed for responsible sourcing, with ongoing collaboration to strengthen compliance. In 2023, Blue Star introduced independently verified supplier emissions data aligned with international standards — enabling customers such as Meridian and TSB Bank, to improve the accuracy of their own Scope 3 reporting.

Under the Toitū framework, organisations cut emissions by either reducing the level of an activity or lowering its GHG intensity. Blue Star’s reductions reflect both approaches.

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Results

Market advantage, cost efficiency and long-term resilience

Environmental performance has become a true competitive advantage for Blue Star, building stakeholder trust, reducing operational and compliance risk, and enabling the business to anticipate evolving regulatory and market expectations.

Embedding Toitū’s audit-ready environmental frameworks, aligned with global standards, has strengthened credibility with customers and regulators while positioning the group for long-term resilience and growth. The group has secured new contracts where sustainability was a weighted tender criterion, demonstrating direct commercial return. Cost efficiencies have also been realised, with reduced waste and improved energy performance, lowering operating expenses year on year.

Through 20 years of sustained innovation, Blue Star has redefined what is possible in a resource-intensive industry, embedding credible environmental performance at the core of the business. The impact is tangible: measurable environmental results, enhanced resilience, and a market-leading position as standards and expectations rise. Toitū is proud to support Blue Star as a strategic partner in this ongoing journey.

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