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Ports of Auckland has signed a contract with Dutch company Damen Shipyards to take delivery of the world’s first full-size, fully electric port tug in 2021 as part of its zero emissions policy.

The new tug, a Damen RSD-E Tug 2513 will have a 70 tonne pulling power, the same as the port’s strongest diesel tug, Hauraki, also built by Damen. It will cost about $18 million.

Businesses in our ‘clean green Aotearoa’ are becoming more responsible for the waste they emit as much as consumers are. From the new movement of the conscious individual came a need for our businesses to cater to that. Yet reducing waste and becoming more environmentally conscious is not an easy task for already solid businesses. Here, five industry experts give their insights and advice on how businesses can pivot towards a more sustainable outlook.

Waste Management, which operates its rubbish collection and recycling services in 19 centres in New Zealand, plans to convert all its 850 trucks to electric.

Sam Donaldson, Waste Management’s senior project engineer, told the National Road Carriers’ Future of Freight forum in Auckland the company now has eight EV trucks on the road, with two more in the process of being converted. It is planning to have 15 trucks and 100 light vehicles converted to electric by the end of the year.

Most people would have no idea that the anaesthetic gases released by just one hospital annually in New Zealand has the carbon footprint of 500 return flights between Auckland and London.

Electric vehicles rather than hydrogen-power cars have the most potential to green the transport industry, Z Energy has concluded in a report.

The process of creating hydrogen from sources such as natural gas or the electrolysis of water uses more energy than can be created from burning the hydrogen that is then produced.

LIC is helping reduce dairy’s impact on the environment while increasing production, writes Bill Bennett.

For 23 years New Zealand added around 100,000 dairy cows a year to the national herd. The growth stopped about four years ago. In fact, there has been a small reduction in the number of cows since then.

Yet, production continues to rise because, thanks to the work of the Livestock Improvement Corporation (LIC), the cows are getting better. Corporation chief executive Wayne McNee says: “They need to be more profitable and they need to be more efficient. This has always been our job. Now we also need our cows to have a reduced environmental impact.”

Just when you’ve got your head around low-carb eating, up pops low-carbon eating.

But the similarities stop with the name: while low-carb eating favours lots of meat, cheese, cream and eggs – low-carbon eating is an entirely different beast.

Suncorp New Zealand is a member of the Climate Leaders Coalition and has committed to reporting and reducing its greenhouse gas emissions to targets in line with New Zealand’s proposed Zero Carbon Bill.

The emergence of clean, efficient and economically viable electric technology for industrial process heat will help the country meet its climate change commitments, says Transpower.

The national grid owner and operator today released its report Taking the climate heat out of process heat, highlighting the opportunities and challenges of replacing fossil fuels with renewable electricity for process heat.

Port Nelson has joined 108 other organisations pledging their support to help reduce emissions in New Zealand.

The Climate Leaders Coalition is a collective of signatories who make up 60 per cent of New Zealand’s gross emissions, nearly a third of private sector GDP, and employ more than 170,000 New Zealanders.

A coalition of business leaders says the Zero Carbon amendment bill has to be ambitious and have all-party support in order to drive our transformation to a low carbon economy. And that means they need to have words with the National Party, says Rod Oram.