This Climate Business

Why has the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) –said human influence on climate is now unequivocable? Didn’t we already know that? And what impact will this report have in the run up to COP26? Vincent was joined by Marc Daalder, climate change reporter for Newsroom and Dr Victoria Hatton, Director for Sustainability and Climate Change for PWC. See Marc’s IPCC s...

What future does sheep and beef farming have in a climate changed world? Serial entrepreneur and relentless optimist, Melissa Clark-Reynolds sits on the board of Beef & Lamb and sees a bright future for New Zealand farmers if the sector and government can get the settings right. Hint: it doesn’t involve pine trees. In a wide-ranging interview covering turtles, synthetic meat, Al Gore and of course...

Climate Venture Capital Fund is a new venture investment fund that invests in, you guessed it, climate ventures. It’s the first of its kind in New Zealand and has just made its maiden investment, in Australian energy company MGA Thermal. Vincent is joined by two of the founders of the fund, Rohan MacMahon and Dr Jez Weston. Disclosure: Vincent works for this very fund as an advisor.

This week Vincent spoke alongside PWC’s Annabell Chartres at Spark Innovation Studio about Sustainability in Tech, one in a series put on by the Spark IoT team. Hosted by Randall Miekle, agile coach at Spark the session started with the key question: what does sustainability mean to you? About Annabell Chartres  As the ESG Co-Leader at PwC New Zealand, Annabell is driven by finding innovative busi...

Chris Morrison does not stop. He’s the founder of Phoenix Drinks, All Good Organics and Karma Drinks (makers of Karma Cola). He co-founded the Sustainable Business Network, has been a director of the country’s main organic certifier BioGro, and chairs Organics Aotearoa New Zealand. This year he received an NZOM for services to fair trade and sustainable business and, along with his wife Deb, has f...

Pippa Coom is a rare Auckland Councillor who is championing climate change action and a faster shift to active transport. So how does she rate the council’s actions on transport, buildings and climate justice? And what’s it like to be an activist on the city’s front bench? Pippa is deputy chair of the Auckland Sustainability and Climate Change Committee and co-chair of the Hauraki Gulf Forum. Befo...

EcoStore’s Tony Morpeth has been making environmentally friendly household cleaners for more than 20 years. Back then he was a pioneer, working for Stephen Tindall and then Malcolm Rands. Now his products are in pretty much every supermarket, from here to New York. So what goes into an eco-cleaner, and what stays out? And how can EcoStore can stay ahead of the competition and keep driving to green...

In the heart of Mt Albert, Auckland, is one of the oldest gardens in NZ. The Sanctuary Mahi Whenua Community Garden was first planted by Maori in pre-European times and hasn’t been built on since. The vege gardens and food forest have been lovingly cared for over the years and flourished under the ownership of Carrington tech, now Unitec. But they face an uncertain future following the sale of the...

The Chia Sisters is the kind of food company we dream of in New Zealand. Lovingly created by a family business and bottled in a solar-powered factory, this healthy energy drink is delicious, premium, and wholly sourced from local ingredients. The company is certified carbon positive, pays its workers a living wage, and is a founding member of Future Foods Aotearoa, a network of pioneering food com...

Last Sunday a remarkable thing happened. Along with 2000 of my best friends I rode over the Auckland harbour bridge on my bicycle. I was surpirsed how gentle the gradient was and how pitted the tar-seal surface is. The views are some of the best in Auckland. The really surprising thing though is that were doing it all. The last time someone rode over the bridge is 12 years ago – also a protest at...

Transport represents almost half of CO2 emisisons in NZ. In Auckland, its higher, at 67%. After agriculture with our burbing cows, transport is the most imporant sector to decarbonise. Yet the just published 10-year plan for Auckland predicts a 6% increase in emissions by 2031. Critics have called the plan ‘baffling’ – at odds with the council’s commitment to halve emissions by 2030. The report is...

Dr Sean Weaver, CEO and founder of Ekos, is a pioneer in using carbon credits to fund indigenous forests, at scale. Which is handy, because we need them. The Climate Change Commission says we need fewer cows and many thousands of hectares of trees, exotic and native. Carbon farming appears to provide an effective mechanism to get there. Landowners plant trees on what was once pasture and sell carb...

This week Vincent talks to the indefatigable Glen Herud, dairy pioneer and founder of the Happy Cow Milk Company – where cows keep their young, the calves are not sent to slaughter and the milking shed is mobile, that is, it goes to cows rather than cows coming to the shed. Hard at it since 2006, Glen faced technical, political and financial hurdles to get Happy Cow launched. Now on the cusp of it...

Where there’s muck there’s brass. In this episode Vincent talk to two entrepreneurs using technology to address waste problems at source. Oliver Hunt is co-founder of Medsalv, which cleans and refurbishes single-use hospital equipment. And Toby Skilton is co-founder of Mutu, an online exchange for sharing and hiring household gear. Especially trailers! Both are recent startups, both deploy tech to...

This week Vincent attended the launch of O Tātou Ngāhere , a joint venture between Tāne’s Tree Trust and business lobby group Pure Advantage. They’re calling for a major shift in thinking about native forests, arguing that it’s not just the job of government but of farmers, landowners and all New Zealanders to plant and nurture native trees. They have a target of 2 million hectares of new native f...

Climate change sucks, but there are some upsides. Electric skateboards being one. E-scooters being the other. In fact the whole micromobility revolution is so much fun. And no one is having more fun than Oliver Bruce, the ex-Uber exec who has returned to NZ to become an angel investor and agitator for micromobility in our cities. Oliver is the co-founder of the Micromobility.io – a conference, pod...

As the co-leader of the NZ Greens and the minister for Climate Change, James Shaw has defied his critics to get climate change on the government agenda with the overhaul of the Emissions Trading Scheme, cross-party support for the Zero Carbon Act, and the creation of the Climate Change Commission who’s daft report has just been published. All wins for sure but wins that feel about a decade too old...

The NZ Climate Change Commission released its landmark report late January. The 650-page discussion document sets an agenda for how New Zealand could achieve GHG emissions reductions to align with our international obligations, such as the Paris Agreement, and achieve the goal of being carbon neutral by 2050. It’s a big document, with lots to say and implications that some say are as radical as th...

Welcome to Climate Briefs, the summer series for This Climate Business. I ask a simple question, our experts give a succinct answer. Because in the end everyone likes a tight brief, right? This week I ask Rohan MacMahon about Project Drawdown, most comprehensive list of greenhouse gas reductions projects, from peat farming and poo fuel to photosynthetic paint and synthetic cows. >> The World's Lea...

Welcome to Climate Briefs, the summer series for This Climate Business. I ask a simple question, our experts give a succinct answer. Because in the end everyone likes a tight brief, right? This week I ask Jo Spratt of Oxfam NZ to explain climate justice. Not everyone will experience the consequences of climate crisis in equal measure. The most vulnerable are typically the already most disadvantage...

Welcome to Climate Briefs, the summer series for This Climate Business. I ask a simple question, our experts give a succinct answer. Because in the end everyone likes a tight brief, right? This week I ask Eloise Gibson, climate change editor of Stuff, to explain the role of methane in global heating, why it’s such a contended topic and whether emitting gas through mammalian orifices will ever be a...

Welcome to Climate Briefs, the summer series for This Climate Business. I ask a simple question, our experts give a succinct answer. Because in the end everyone likes a tight brief, right? This week I ask Alex Johnston of Oxfam NZ to explain climate finance – the arcane world of country-by-country commitments to fund the transition to a low-carbon world. Who sets these sums, who pays and who ensur...

Welcome to Climate Briefs, the summer series for This Climate Business. I ask a simple question, our experts give a succinct answer. Because in the end everyone likes a tight brief, right? This week I ask Barry Coates of Mindful Money to explain shareholder activism and how it is checking the behaviour of polluting and unethical companies.

The Auckland Climate Plan sets a target of reducing GHG emissions by half by 2030. Now, we know that largest single chunk of Auckland’s emissions – that’s 37% - comes from land transport. So to achieve that bold target, transport emissions need to fall by  a massive 64% - in just 10 years. That puts Shane Ellison in the hot seat. Shane is the chief executive of Auckland Transport, the council-owne...

Last week Prime Minister Jacinda Adern declared a Climate Emergency. In Parliament she said: “This declaration is an acknowledgement of the next generation … of the burden that they will carry if we do not get this right and do not take action now.”  The declaration has been a long time coming and follows the example of many other countries and cities, including some in NZ. So what is a climate em...