This Climate Business

What happens to all those acres of white plastic wrap that protect building sites? Ross Inglis talks with two people who know: Too much of it goes to landfill, and they’re doing something about it. In this episode: Tina Wieczorek (right) is the CEO of the industry organisation Scaffolding, Access and Rigging New Zealand, or SARNZ, and Penny Thomson, a research manager and designer with the Environ...

Conventional plastics recycling is fussy: it can handle only four of the 24 types of plastic, and even those have to be clean. Here’s the story of Auckland-based social enterprise Critical, which uses proprietary technology to turn a wide range of waste plastics, including more contaminated ones, into construction boards and countertops.

New Zealanders on average throw out textiles equivalent to 200 t-shirts every year. Finding a new home for all those garments is the mission of Australasian textiles recycler Upparel. Jeff Vollebregt, director of Upparel’s New Zealand operation talked Ross Inglis through the business of circular clothing.

The transport sector has experienced its share of drama this year, starting with Cyclone Gabrielle wiping out so many roads and bridges across the north island. The cyclone was blamed for a sudden change in the direction in government policy. Back in February, Minister Michael Woods announced a climate-friendly plan, in its three-year transport plan, the Government Policy Statement. For the first...

Last week the quarterly auction for carbon credits hit a remarkable snag: it failed to meet the clearing price. This means none of the 4.5 million carbon permits on offer were sold. The failed auction was attributed to Cabinet’s decision to allow more credits to be issued, in an attempt to keep the carbon cost low. And it worked! The carbon price slumped from $90/tonne to $65/tonne. Cost of living...

It's 10 years since the first companies were certified as B-Corp in New Zealand and since then the movement of ethical and environmentally responsible businesses has grown to over 500 in NZ and Australia and more than 6000 worldwide. But growing pains are emerging as the movement shifts from cutting-edge to mainstream. Last year a group of 30 B-Corps were horrified when Nespresso was certified des...

If the rain that deluged the North Island is the ‘new normal’, how are hard-hit growers meant to think about the future – and growing anything in the ‘normal’ way? Vincent Heeringa spoke to Brent Clothier, chief scientist with Plant & Food, about four ways to think about growing food in a warmer and (ironically) drier New Zealand. Note: this was recorded before Cyclone Gabrielle devastated Haw...

How can we make sense of the Biblical deluge that soaked Auckland, Northland, and the Coromandel in late January – and by the time this is being recorded is about to happen again. If only there was an articulate, slow-talking climate scientist who could explain what hell just happened. Oh, wait! Vincent just spoke with Kevin Trenberth a Distinguished Scholar at the National Center of Atmospheric R...

Building a new house in New Zealand produces on average two skips of construction debris. If a demolition is involved, added another 13 skips. As a nation, we’re really bad at diverting all that waste from landfill. Ross Inglis spoke with two people with a solution: property developer Nigel Benton and Doctor Terri-Ann Berry from Unitec Institute of Technology.

Part Three: Rohan MacMahon on investment and technology  Is 2023 the year that New Zealand seizes the nettle on climate action? Or is it another year of incrementalism? And what effect will the election, with a potential change of government, have on the direction and speed of climate policy? To shed some light Vincent dusted off the crystal ball and spoke to three experts about the year ahea...

Part two: Victoria Hatton on corporate strategy Is 2023 the year that New Zealand seizes the nettle on climate action? Or is it another year of incrementalism? And what effect will the election, with a potential change of government, have on the direction and speed of climate policy? To shed some light Vincent dusted off the crystal ball and spoke to three experts about the year ahead: Marc Daalde...

Part One: Marc Daalder starts with the year ahead in politics. Is 2023 the year that New Zealand seizes the nettle on climate action? Or is it another year of incrementalism? And what effect will the election, with a potential change of government, have on the direction and speed of climate policy? To shed some light Vincent dusted off the crystal ball and spoke to three experts about the year ahe...

Auckland’s climate plan Te-Tāruke-ā-Tāwhiri is an impressive and ambitious document that sets out a response to climate change that’s not just about mitigation (that is, emissions reductions) but also adaptation and developing a future that’s unique to Tāmaki Makaurau. Sarah Anderson and Parin Rafiei-Thompson have been instrumental in the plan and now are the driving forces behind Climate Connect...

The primary sector has been in the gun lately for its reluctance to resolve its emissions profile. You’d almost think there’s some denial going on. Well, that might be true of some, but not all. In 2021 a broad industry effort went into a primary sector document called Fit for a Better World. The strategy lays down the challenge to be sustainable, inclusive and profitable, with specific targets fo...

Rohan MacMahon and Jez Weston are co-founders of the Climate VC Fund – a fund that invest in emission reductions technologies in NZ and Australia. They were on the show to announce their ambitions but a year on, what’s happened? Did they raise the money require? Have they invested in anything? What new tech or ideas are on their radar? And what’s the state of change? Full dsiclousre Vincent is an...

Auckland’s ferries, which burn 13 million litres of diesel every year and produce 20 percent of the city’s public transport emissions, are about to clean up their act. Two electric ferries are being built right now for the Waitematā, with design and engineering in the hands of ambitious zero-emissions boatbuilder EV Maritime . CEO Michael Eaglen told Ross Inglis that the two new boats are just the...

In 1993, school boy Mark Sorenson got 20/20 for an essay about the dangers of plastic packaging. 29 years later Mark and his business partner and wife, Ellie, have established Cleanery, a kiwi start-up that’s attracted millions in venture capital and now has products ranged across NZ and Australian supermarkets. Cleanery removes the water and the plastic bottle from household cleaners, offering in...

Michelle Kennedy is the co-founder of the Auckland Climate Festival, a celebration of all things climate change, ranging from bike tours to investor meetings, beach clean-up, a transport tech conference, film screenings, and the O Tatou Ngahere native trees conference – and so much more. Michelle speaks to Vincent about why she started the festival and how it’s going in the second year. https://au...

Simon Coley is the co-founder of All Good Organics, the pioneering importer of ethical bananas, and also of Karma Drinks, famous for its Karma Cola. Karma just celebrated 10 years, a notable achievement for any brand, but especially noteworthy because 1% of total revenues goes back to the Karma Foundation, which funds health and development in Boma, Sierra Leone, the source of the Karma cola nut....

Next week sees the return of the Climate and Business conference, New Zealand’s most important get-together for government, business, and community leaders about climate policy and action. This Climate Business is pleased to be invited to the conference and to talk about it - Vincent was joined by Mike Burrell, Executive Director of the Sustainable Business Council.   There are still online t...

 2035 Oceania Summit is an ambitious event combining the food, agriculture, and tech sectors to address the impact of climate change on food. Held in Auckland 10-11 October the summit will feature delegations from the US, Australia, and the Pacific Islands and includes a keynote address from Karen Ross, the secretary for the California Department of Food and Agriculture. Peter Wren-Hilton is...

If Waikato-based lawnmowing franchise LawnRite has anything to do with it, petrol-powered garden equipment is on the way out. It has replaced its mowers, trimmers, and even a concrete mixer with battery-powered versions, and it charges those batteries with solar panels fixed to its trailers. LawnRite managing director Troy Hillard (on the left in the photo) explained the transition to Ross Inglis...

Auckland-based Urgent Couriers was the country’s first carbon-neutral transport company; if you were in Auckland in the 90’s you’ll likely remember its fleet of courier bicycles. The bikes were mostly displaced by electronic messaging, but now they’re back. Late last year managing director Steve Bonnici bought five electric cargo bikes and set them loose on the streets of Auckland. Steve told Ross...

Fast fashion is responsible for packaging, energy use, waste and consumerism at their worst. If there was ever an industry ready for a make over, it would be fashion. How about a very fashionable shoe made of wool, pineapple, bamboo, algae and sugarcane? That’s right it could be delicious, if a little fibrous. YY Nation is taking a circular economy approach to shoes that makes your All Birds look...

What goes around comes around. The toxins we build into products come back to poison us sooner or later. It’s the circular economy at work. So imagine if we could design systems to remove those toxins in the first place, or at least capture them and return them to the process. Building a cradle-to-cradle economy is a mammoth task, and it’s the mission of Louise Nash, the CEO of Circularity, a cons...