Founder of Untouched World Peri Drysdale with a display for the company's Rubbish socks. Photo / Davina Zimmer, The Detail, RNZ
Good news for everyone hoping we’ll get on top of this climate thing: “The new transition is going to be led by accountants.”
At least, that’s what Gareth Hughes, a former Green Party MP, told the Climate Change and Business Conference last year. His point was that businesses are getting on board. And with good reason, apart from helping to save the planet and all that: it will make them money.
It’s also getting harder for the business world not to play its part. Thanks to a 2021 law, from April this year most publicly listed companies, large insurers, banks and investment managers will be required to produce legally binding climate-related disclosures. Trading arrangements commonly require emissions compliance.
And several organisations monitor progress. One of them is the Sustainable Business Network, which last year announced a list of “The Next 95”: companies with outstanding climate and sustainability achievements.
This story includes a tiny representative sample of what’s going on and includes many companies on the Next 95 list.
MIKE CASEY spoke at more than 100 events last year, in between welcoming more than 12,000 visitors to his all-electric Forest Lodge cherry orchard near Cromwell, and he made close to 100 media appearances.
Through his company Rewiring Aotearoa, Casey spreads the word, positioning climate action as financially beneficial and promoting household and business electrification. The orchard saves him $50,000 in energy costs and about 50 tonnes of emissions per year. One of his machines is a 40-year-old electric forklift.
Clothing manufacturer Untouched World makes Rubbish socks from leftover wool, shredded and spun into new yarns. The recycling process is water- and dye-free and helps with the company’s commitment to zero textile waste for landfills.
Untouched World also makes Rubbish beanies and Rubbish scarves.
Henderson Demolition has been busy in the wake of Cyclone Gabrielle. But instead of the usual “waste-heavy” approach, this company has successfully relocated 45% of the homes it was contracted to handle.
What if products carried a climate impact statement, similar to the nutrition facts label on foods? Those labels tell you how much of your recommended daily intake of carbohydrates, fats etc the food will give you. Could the same be done for planetary resources?
The answer is yes. We know, globally, how much of the energy and other resources of the planet should be used per person, per day, to prevent the environment from becoming hostile to life and keep global warming under 1.5C above pre-industrial levels.
These limits are known as planetary boundaries and address such factors as biodiversity loss, greenhouse gas emissions, deforestation, water consumption, plastics and other non-perishable waste.
The Planetary Accounting Network has piloted a way for businesses to use this information in order to “robustly calculate, manage and communicate the environmental performance” of their own products.
The process is digitised, so it’s easy for businesses to adopt, and the end result is a Planetary Facts label that consumers can understand.
There’s obvious value to every consumer: you’ll be able to avoid greenwashing and make reliably smart choices. There’s also value to politicians, corporates and other economic planners, if they choose to use it.
“If car companies had Planetary Facts 20 years ago,” the network’s founder, Kate Meyer, said at that climate and business conference last year, “they would not have wasted time and money on low-emissions ICE [internal combustion engine] vehicles. Because they are clearly not aligned with planetary limits.”
That is, we now know we need to stop burning fossil fuels, not find ways to burn them “more efficiently”. This is because of what’s called the Jevons paradox: when resources become more efficient to use, we use them more.
The Raglan Food Co (RFC), which makes coconut yoghurt, will be one of the first to adopt Planetary Facts labels: they’ve already been piloted with the company’s top-selling vanilla, Greek and blueberry yoghurts.
That’s not the company’s only claim to climate fame. It’s certified “carbon positive” by the government agency Toitū Envirocare and in 2022 became one of the top 5% of Certified B corporations in the world.
That requires it to be regularly audited for high standards of social and environmental performance, public transparency and legal accountability. The RFC uses recycled glass jars, pays “fair wages” and supports environmental programmes, community initiatives and food charities.
But its biggest climate-action challenge is the one faced by most manufacturers in this long, skinny country: transport emissions. That puts the focus on freight operators.
The RFC’s main carrier is the refrigerated trucking specialist Big Chill, which is currently trialling electric and green-hydrogen trucks. They may not prove efficient over long distances, but they will almost certainly have a future in short-haul work.
It doesn’t stop there. Last year, Big Chill opened a depot at the Ruakura “inland hub”, a massive freight and transport centre near Hamilton owned by Tainui Group Holdings and Port of Tauranga. Ruakura is connected to rail as well as road, so it will soon be possible for Raglan yoghurts to be carried by electric trucks to Ruakura, only 46km away, where rail will carry them to market and electric trucks will provide the “last-mile” delivery to shops.
Other companies already relying on KiwiRail range from the relatively small, like Sawmill Brewery in Leigh, north of Auckland, all the way up to the very large. Kmart has relocated its national distribution centre to Ruakura, so it can use rail; Coca-Cola has a new warehouse complex in Mt Wellington on a specially built railway siding. It’s expected to handle 350,000 pallets a year.
KiwiRail chief executive Peter Reidy told last year’s New Zealand Rail Conference that because of Ruakura, they’ll eliminate 849 million kilometres of truck trips over the next 30 years. That’s the equivalent of 1100 return trips to the Moon and will reduce emissions by 890 kilotonnes.
At the same conference, Dave Christie from Tainui said this wasn’t just a feel-good operation. “Nothing happens without a commercial-value proposition. We don’t ask: ‘Is this an economic value or an environmental value?’ We ask: ‘How do we make environmental values make money?’”
Reidy noted that every truck replaced by rail reduces carbon emissions by 77%. “Put your name on the side of a diesel truck,” he reckoned, “you’ll be redundant in 10 years.”
Here’s a disruptor that could have an even greater impact. Daisy Lab is developing a precision fermentation process for yeast, to create a range of dairy protein substitute foods without the use of livestock.
“Now without the cow,” as they say.
The process has the potential to create foods with higher protein, enhanced nutritional profiles, increased vitamins and “nutraceutical” qualities.
Here’s another disruptor. Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei, the iwi that grew its Waitangi Tribunal settlement from $18 million to $1.5 billion in under 15 years, has a vision for the whole of Tāmaki Makaurau in 2080.
It blends the principles of manaakitanga, whanaungatanga and kaitiakitanga (think of them as generosity and respect, connection with others and guardianship) with the urban planning principles of a sponge city (let the floodwaters soak into the whenua, or land). And it presents all this as an astonishingly bustling, thriving, high-tech, high-rise, super-connected, deeply green, energy-efficient urban landscape.
In breadth and depth, the iwi’s vision is far ahead of council and governmental thinking about the city’s future.
Lodestone Energy is also a disruptor. It operates five solar farms that will soon generate enough energy to power 50,000 homes, or a city about the size of Hamilton, while offsetting more than 40,000 tonnes of emissions.
Lodestone uses rotating panels that are 30-40% more productive than fixed panels, and raises them 2m above the ground, to allow sheep to graze beneath.
In 2024, the company signed a 20-year deal with Inghams, the chicken company, to provide 100% of its electricity from solar farms in the Bay of Plenty and Coromandel.
Ikea’s first retail store will open at Sylvia Park later this year. The company’s motto, as the Australian chief executive Mirja Viinanen told that climate and business conference, is: “A better everyday life for the many people.”
Unusually for a chief executive, Viinanen is also the chief sustainability officer. By 2030, she said, Ikea’s global ambition is “to inspire and enable one billion people to live a better life within planetary boundaries”.
As part of Ikea’s recycling strategy, customers receive a 50% credit off the original price if they return a “pre-loved product” for a second life.
Construction company Mansons TCLM has just completed a new office block for 3000 employees of Spark and other tenants at 50 Albert St in Auckland and has another complex as big nearing completion in the Wynyard Quarter. Both are rated 6 Green Star, have Platinum Wellness Specification and will operate with 120% carbon offsetting, with a native forest planting programme to back that up.
That’s how commercial construction is done now. “It’s appealing to the corporates,” says company boss Culum Manson. “They love that stuff.”
Thousands of buildings in New Zealand, mainly private dwellings, have green credentials, and over 300 commercial ones have a Green Star rating. in 2024 alone, 50 new builds gained that certification. The reason isn’t just altruism.
Tyrone Hodge, global head of risk advisory with commercial real estate specialists JLL, told the Green Property Summit in 2024 that green-certified office buildings sell for around 10% more than comparable ordinary buildings, command around 10% higher rents and have a vacancy rate more than six times lower. And their energy efficiency makes them much cheaper to run.
In Sydney and Melbourne, Hodge added, unless there’s a decent Green Star rating, property owners won’t find tenants.
Making a building green can involve hundreds of companies in the supply chain. Clevaco, for example, reduces construction emissions with its recyclable Cleva Pods, a replacement for the polystyrene commonly used in concrete foundations. Lanaco reduces emissions with woollen EcoStatic air filtration systems.
New Zealand will never create a low-emissions economy without leadership from the large “gentailer” power companies – and they have not moved as far or as fast as they could have. But that doesn’t mean they’re doing nothing.
Genesis is the largest and its chief executive Malcolm Johns likes to say he wants to “be a good ancestor”.
The company is raising its investments in wind, solar and geothermal plants and, by 2030, says it will have spent $1.1b to build new renewables and grid-scale batteries. It’s trialling biomass pellets as a substitute for coal.
At the customer level, Genesis offers half-price EV charging at night and discounts at public charging stations, and it advises consumers and business customers how to grow their energy efficiency.
It’s also a leader in staff transport. When the company moved its 485 head office staff to new 6 Green Star premises in 2020, it eliminated all 220 staff car parks and there are no longer any personally assigned vehicles in employment packages. Car-pool EVs and hybrids are available.
Staff receive a 25% subsidy on public transport, accessed directly through Hop cards by arrangement with Auckland Transport, and there’s a shuttle service for parts of East Auckland that don’t yet have good public transport. Those who cycle to work can use the secure bike lock-up, with charging plugs, lockers, showers and a towel service. Nearly half the staff have used these facilities.
A key element: Genesis appointed a manager to make it happen – Hope Allum. Ongoing support includes a bike refresher course for staff who haven’t ridden for a long time but would like to start again, and mechanics who come in to do bike maintenance.
Datacom offers this for its cycling staff, too, on a twice-yearly basis.
Small things that make a big difference and also send a message: it’s cool to ride a bike.
Allum says they were able to do all this because the company engaged early with staff, explained the “why”, and because the whole thing was led from the top. Johns cycles or buses to work.
“There is a cost to bear, short-term,” Allum says, “but over time, these changes will have financial benefits. There’s a bigger picture to consider here. The one-to-one model where everyone has a car is old, outdated and expensive.”
As mentioned, this is a small sampling of the companies taking climate action in Aotearoa New Zealand. And there are many outfits that are set up to help those who want to get involved.
The Lever Room calls its approach “measure, manage, remove”. As a consultancy, it helps companies create “sustainability transformation plans” and has worked for clients big and small in construction, agriculture, transport, urban development, communications and more, on projects covering nearly half the entire country. On behalf of clients, it currently manages 16.6 million tonnes of carbon reductions.
“Action comes first and hope follows,” says Emily Mabin Sutton of the Climate Club. And “every job is a climate job”.
That is, becoming a low-emissions business is not only the job of a sustainability officer or the CEO, but has to be taken on by everyone: the IT department, marketing, admin, manufacturing, retailing, all the operations and all the staff. The Climate Club helps companies work out now.
Among the umbrella organisations, the Sustainable Business Network has a membership of almost 500 companies and other organisations working in all sectors of the economy. Te Kaunihera Hanganga Tautaiao / the New Zealand Green Building Council has more than 700 members involved in the construction, management and maintenance of buildings.
Both organisations have very active programmes of training, advice and support.
Simon Wilson is an award-winning senior writer covering politics, the climate crisis, transport, urban design and social issues. He joined the Herald in 2018.
OPINION: Kem Ormond is busy with onion seed trays & preparing the ground for strawberries.