News

A group of local and international businesses has joined forces to stop mountains of e-waste being created by the rising number of large lithium-ion batteries in New Zealand. Led by energy company Vector, the Battery Leaders Group aims to find circular economy solutions for the batteries that are powering everything from electric vehicles to Vector Lights when they reach their end of life.

Source: Voxy
New Zealand freight and logistics company TIL Logistics Group Limited (NZX: TLL) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with New Plymouth-based Hiringa Energy Limited to develop hydrogen fuel cell technology transport solutions in New Zealand. The project has the potential to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions from TIL’s national fleet of 900 trucks, 310 forklifts and 170 light vehicles.

A charity events space committed to producing 105% of its energy needs is already beating this by more than 50%, thanks to solar and battery solution from energy company Vector. Just one week into a year-long assessment period for the Living Building Challenge, the Sustainable Coastlines Flagship Education Centre is already generating 164% of its energy needs.

Waste Management’s Electric Vehicle (EV) Innovation Hub has recently completed our first local and 100% electric truck conversion! Our electric box body truck yesterday commenced operating out of our Technical Services branch in East Tamaki, Auckland, collecting medical waste from Middlemore and Greenlane Hospitals.

Ecostore has announced that more than 80% of its packaging is made with renewable, sustainable sugar, and thanks to this significant investment, ecostore has helped save 4,485 tonnes of carbon from being released into the atmosphere since the company converted its packaging from petrochemical plastic to biobased ‘sugar’ plastic four years ago. The total savings achieved to date are equivalent to the amount of carbon emitted during 8,500 car journeys from Cape Reinga to Bluff.

Source: Scoop
Saul Chambers, WSP Opus Manager Sustainability & Climate Change Solutions, is genuinely excited about the opportunity CLC presents to solve the challenging issues around climate change. “There’s no doubt that we’re in a time of unprecedented change as a business, local and national governments and cities get to grips with climate change, but that also brings the opportunity to collaborate for better outcomes. There’s a lot of positivity about how we can approach solutions and it’s a great time to take a breath and decide how, as a nation, we want New Zealand to be in the future.”

Vector today launched a new programme to raise awareness of the need to keep trees well clear from power lines, by planting thousands more of them to launch the initiative. The Vector Urban Forest initiative means the power company will replace every tree it must cut down for network management or safety purposes, with two new natives, planted in areas that help with local ecological restoration schemes.

Auckland Council, Watercare, Auckland Transport and Panuku Development Auckland have joined over sixty leading New Zealand businesses committed to addressing the issue of climate change.

By joining the Climate Leaders Coalition, the council and wider council whānau have agreed to collaborative action on the coalition’s commitments.

It was with great pride that we became signatories of the Climate Leaders’ Coalition in July of this year, joining forces with 60 other like-minded businesses from across New Zealand to work towards changing behaviours in the workplace, and everyday life, in order to reach a collective goal of reducing New Zealand’s emissions and ultimately a cleaner, greener New Zealand.

But is it possible for the rest of New Zealand and the New Zealand government to take action and change a long-standing mindset? To support a low emissions economy where people still prosper? The Productivity Commission thinks so.

Initiatives and announcements made in recent weeks show how the New Zealand business community is embracing the climate change challenge. The Climate Leaders’ Coalition, launched in July, is a group of chief executives and businesses committed to the measurement and reporting of their greenhouse gas emissions.

The group has publicly supported the Government’s zero carbon goals to set regular carbon “budgets” and establish a Climate Change Commission. This follows hard on the heels of the agri-food sector giving support to the Government’s goal of New Zealand achieving net zero emissions by 2050.

Gerri Ward, Sustainability Manager at Z Energy, looks at the recommendations in the Productivity Commission’s report and what they might mean for New Zealand.