Sustainable Business: What the government is doing to support a sustainable future

Economic and Regional Development Minister Stuart Nash. Photo / Mark Mitchell

These are precarious and uncertain global times. Global stock market volatility, inflationary pressures not seen in a generation, and severely distressed global supply chains led to a fundamental change in business strategy and geopolitical positioning not experienced since the end of the Cold War.

Add in the increasingly apparent consequences of climate change, the ongoing impacts of a global pandemic and worldwide food insecurity, and it's not an understatement to say that we really are living in unprecedentedly challenging times.

I acknowledge that it has been a tough couple of years for a large number of New Zealanders. For many small and medium-sized business owners and operators, these pressures have created an environment of uncertainty within which it's been very difficult to operate.

It's during such times that good governments seek to work closely with the business sector to ensure potential is optimised and that challenges are turned into opportunities.

New Zealand businesses are strong, innovative and resilient, and it has been inspiring to meet with business owners and hear about how they have addressed these challenges — often turning them into new opportunities — and how they're now emerging from the pandemic with an eye to the future.

Over the past five years, we have significantly increased our support for small businesses, however, now we are investing even more resources into a number of programmes to support the shift towards more sustainable business models while also increasing profitability and customer attractiveness.

One of these is the Regional Strategic Partnership Fund (RSPF) a $200 million seed fund.

The fund has been designed to provide either debt or equity support to regional companies seeking to grow in a way that is congruent with their own region's economic priorities.

It is administered by the Kānoa — the Regional Economic Development Unit within the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, and every application must receive the support of the local regional economic development agency.

We have already made several funding announcements for projects that have won support including Southland-based oat milk producer New Zealand Functional Foods; the mussel spat hatchery in Te Moana-a-Toi Bay of Plenty where we are investing with Eastern Bay of Plenty iwi Te Whānau-ā-Apanui; GEO40, the company helping scale-up its lithium recovery technology at Ohaaki near Taupō, making environmentally-friendly batteries for electric vehicles; Sustainable Foods in Kapiti, a company developing sustainable, plant-based foods and meat alternatives; sustainable timber manufacturer Techlam; and sustainable plastics manufacturer Plentyful.

Our RSPF investments are part of our wider Government strategy to develop a low-emissions, highly-skilled economy that responds to global demands.

We know we need to partner with regions to deliver on that strategy and align investments for maximum impact.

In Budget 2022 the Government set aside $54 million for the Innovation Programme for Tourism Recovery. This is a forward-thinking new fund that will shortly be launched, which is designed to help stimulate a shift towards a regenerative, low carbon, productive and innovative tourism sector as the sector rebuilds following the pandemic.

The Government is also investing $44 million, over two years, into Digital Boost, helping businesses with digital training and advice. So far Digital Boost has helped more than 30,000 small businesses, many of which are on a sustainability journey, utilise the power of digital tools to help make their business more resilient and sustainable.

To help those small businesses who don't know where to start to take action, business.govt.nz has partnered with the Sustainable Business Network to develop the Climate Action Toolbox, a free, easy-to-use online tool that shows businesses how to measure and reduce emissions. It helps businesses create an action plan of what they can do to reduce their carbon emissions, and earlier this month I launched the newest tool in the toolbox, an emissions calculator.

Convincing businesses to start being sustainability champions will not happen overnight.

But as consumers become more conscious of the services and products they buy, businesses may have no choice but to change.

We know that sustainability can make a business more efficient, and less costly to run, and increase the chances of long-term success. And sustainable businesses also tend to achieve a better bottom line. Whether it's reducing waste, travelling less, being more water-efficient, cutting down energy use or choosing to work with sustainable suppliers, there are many ways for businesses to take action to be environmentally sustainable. We're up to the challenge to make sure that we're giving them the support they need to achieve this essential goal.

• Stuart Nash is the Economic and Regional Development Minister