News

The Warehouse has signed a $70 million sustainability-linked loan with Westpac.

Warehouse chief executive Nick Grayston said the group will have to meet five sustainability performance goals including sustainable packaging, carbon emissions and gender targets to receive discounted rates, under the agreed terms.

In the bowels of the Māngere Wastewater Treatment Plant, a team of engineers diligently grow small poo-eating organisms which will help pave the way to a greener future.

It’s the first time anammox bugs have been farmed in New Zealand on such a scale, and the team behind the project are hoping the micro-organisms drastically reduce the energy needed during part of the wastewater treatment process.

Genesis Energy is working with Christchurch based company Evnex to trial new electric vehicle smart charging technology that removes pain points in the adoption of electric vehicles.

Think of it as renewing our vows.

Almost three years ago, Stuff announced it was prioritising climate change with insistent coverage aimed at disturbing our collective complacency.

What was then called Quick! Save the Planet has morphed into The Forever Project, a dedicated team of climate journalists working on a multi-platform effort to articulate the peril, and share solutions.

Genesis Energy will be required to meet ambitious carbon emission reduction targets if it’s to avoid penalties under a Sustainability-Linked Loan agreed with Westpac New Zealand.

The $100m loan financially incentivises Genesis to meet sustainability targets, which include reductions across all scopes of emissions, ramping up renewable energy generation, and a future of work programme. Genesis will pay a lower interest rate on the loan for achieving its goals but will have to pay higher interest if it falls short of its commitments.

Bank of New Zealand (BNZ) has today signed up to the Net-Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA), committing it to work with customers to increase sustainability and reduce emissions that align to net-zero emissions by 2050.
In becoming the first New Zealand bank to commit to membership of the Net Zero Banking Alliance, an industry-led, UN-convened alliance of banks worldwide, BNZ will accelerate a reduction in operational and attributable Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions across its lending and investment portfolios. It will do this by incentivising emissions reduction and working with customers on transition plans that align their businesses to net zero pathways.

We have joined the UN’s Race to Zero campaign, adding our voice to a global call for industry to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050 to minimise global warming.

We have signed up to the global alliance along with 13 Australian water utilities supported by the Water Services Association of Australia (WSAA) and those represented by Water UK, who have also pledged to reach net zero emissions by 2050 or earlier.

Dryland Carbon was established to match its investor partners’ (including AirNZ, Contact Energy, Genesis Energy and Z Energy) need to source carbon offsets with farmers’ potential ability to provide them.

In order to achieve that, general manager Colin Jacobs says rather than buying land, Dryland Carbon works in partnership with existing landowners. Having identified suitable non-productive or ‘least’ productive land on a property, they undertake all the planting and deliver the landowner an annual cash payment akin to a lease for 16 years – aligned with the ETS determination of a forests’ average age. The landowner will then get a 50% share of the timber harvest and the land will be replanted with a new forest. In return, Dryland Carbon gets the carbon credits from the plantation.

Auckland Transport’s zero-emission bus fleet will be showcased in a virtual exhibition at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 26) in Glasgow this month.

The COP 26 summit improves the global efforts of countries all over the world to play their part in limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees.

Auckland Transport’s (AT) transition to zero-emission buses has been recognised in a C40 cities exhibition at COP 26, along with a number of wider Auckland Council initiatives to reduce carbon emissions.

Hawke’s Bay Airport has taken an important step in its goal to become New Zealand’s most sustainable airport, this week securing tens of millions in sustainability linked funding from ASB.

The regional airport’s $23 million sustainability linked loan uses ASB funds allocated under the Reserve Bank’s Funding for Lending (FLP) programme which the bank has committed to using to support projects that meet sustainability or regional infrastructure criteria.

Lower-emissions alternatives “unlikely to become available and affordable” under the new clean car scheme’s timeframe.

The transport sector accounts for 47 percent of New Zealand’s carbon dioxide emissions. It will be a focus for decarbonisation to meet the country’s new climate pledge to cut emissions by half by 2030.