About Lowe & Co
Lowe & Co is an innovative and award-winning Wellington real estate agency who prides itself on getting sellers the best price for their home. Established in 2015 they are the leading Wellington city agency by number of listings.
The business is led by Craig Lowe the Managing Director. Kyla Hamilton is the Director of Operations and Projects and Nadia Martinez the Marketing Executive.
Challenges not finding an easy, fast and cheaper solution
Lowe & Co is a brand deeply rooted in community engagement, having established strong social partnerships like their ongoing support for Wellington City Mission. However, they realised their environmental impact needed more attention.
The team, led by CEO Craig Lowe and Anji Foster, was aware of their carbon footprint and considered various ways to address it. ”We knew that we wanted to do more than we were doing for the environment. I think a lot of businesses can give lip service to their environmental response to climate change, what we wanted to do was actually measure our true footprint and do something real about it” said Craig.
They explored engaging consultants to measure their carbon emissions but were deterred by the complexity, time, and cost involved.
Anji Foster explains ”we looked into the options for us as a business to become more sustainable and more responsible… and they took quite a bit of time, effort and energy from at least one or two people within the business to champion that through. And we just didn't have the capacity. ”
Craig and Lowe & Co are leaders in the industry and have a keen eye for authentic ways to differentiate their brand. They saw the opportunity to be the first agency in New Zealand to truly measure their footprint and mitigate it by planting 3 native trees for every property sold.
Lowe & Co sought a solution that would align with their brand and environmental intent, allow them to take meaningful action without overwhelming their resources, and deliver a compelling story to their community.
CarbonInvoice as the right solution
Fast and easy to measure their carbon footprint
Lowe & Co partnered with CarbonInvoice to measure their agency’s entire carbon footprint. The platform analysed all their operational data, including business expenses, travel and waste, to provide a comprehensive footprint calculation. Anji Foster explains, “we came across CarbonInvoice and they took all the heavy lifting away from us”. This user-friendly approach made it easy for Lowe & Co to understand their environmental impact and take action.
Funding trees for every property sold
For every property sold, Lowe & Co now plants three native trees locally in the Wellington region, contributing to the city’s green spaces. In 2024 to-date, the agency has funded over 1,850 native trees across key locations such as Tawataka, Huia Farm, and Otaki River. These initiatives bring nature into the heart of Wellington while directly mitigating their carbon emissions.
CarbonInvoice provides marketing content
To amplify their sustainability efforts, CarbonInvoice provided Lowe & Co with all marketing content needed to communicate their carbon action. This included digital assets such as an email signature, a dedicated landing page with a powerful partnership video, and social media campaigns like “Keys for Trees.” In the physical world, CarbonInvoice allowed Lowe & Co to integrate their sustainability efforts into their appraisal documents, open home magazines, and billboards around the city, all proudly communicating their carbon action and the CarbonInvoice badge.
Lowe & Co’s team of 50+ agents received three briefing sessions about the CarbonInvoice partnership, the proposition and how to accurately and authentically communicate it to their clients and prospects.
Automatically funding native trees
Since 1 January 2024 Lowe & Co has partnered with CarbonInvoice to measure their carbon footprint and plant 3x native trees for every property sold. Lowe & Co has funded over 1,850 native trees - track their progress here.
How Lowe & Co is benefiting
Lowe & Co’s partnership with CarbonInvoice has delivered a clear return on investment, in terms of brand differentiation, team engagement and operational efficiency.
Brand reinforcement
The partnership has been well-received by the market, positioning Lowe & Co as a forward-thinking real estate brand. According to Nadia Martinez, "The data tells us the CarbonInvoice campaign has successfully raised awareness of the Lowe & Co brand and our sustainability steps." For example the partnership video has been watched 37,000 times representing 15% of Lowe & Co’s market. Kyla Hamilton adds, "I think the part that has worked well is the actual part that we are ‘measuring’ our carbon footprint. That seems to have hit the right spot with the public." As a result of their leadership in this space, Lowe & Co earned second place in the Sustainability Category of the 2024 REINZ Innovation Awards.
Clients choosing an agent taking climate action
Lowe & Co’s sustainability efforts have also resonated with potential clients, making environmental responsibility a key differentiator. For example, Tom Hovey, a recent client, chose Lowe & Co because they were committed to taking climate action, explaining, "It made sense to choose an agent taking climate action by reducing their carbon footprint."
Increased team engagement
The company’s sustainability initiatives have also been a huge cultural win. Craig Lowe shared that the team has embraced the cause with enthusiasm: "All of our agents and employees have really got behind the company's drive to be better corporate citizens and do more for our environment." The team even participated in their own Planting Action Day at Belmont National Park in July 2024 where the team of 60 planted 600 native seedlings and relished strengthening team moral and engagement through the shared experience of planting real native trees in their backyard. The agents relayed feedback including: "We are building a literal forest out here"…"it gives us a chance to get outdoors"…"everyone has banded together and it’s been really enjoyable".
No changes to daily operations
Lowe & Co has been able to achieve all of this without adding to their operational overhead. The seamless integration with their accounting system and processes allowed them to take meaningful action without adding additional resources. As Craig noted, "the CarbonInvoice service allows everybody to step up and to get behind a proper environmental policy that will help our future generations in a way that's easy."
Anji Foster summarises "Now we're planting three trees for every house sale. So whether you're selling with us. or buying through us, you know that you are actually giving back to our region as well."
