News

Air New Zealand is urging more passengers to join the war on climate change as its Fly Neutral voluntary carbon offset scheme passed the $NZ1 million milestone. The Kiwi carrier offsets staff travel and since late 2016 has allowed passengers to tick a box to offset the carbon emissions associated with their flight.

Increasing pressure on firms globally to reduce emissions throughout their supply chain is a genuine opportunity for New Zealand, Contact Energy says.

Chief generation and development officer James Kilty says there has always been a level of interest from firms overseas keen on seeing whether they could establish businesses here to take advantage of the country’s geothermal energy and its high – and growing – share of renewable electricity.

More and more businesses are considering going down the road of electric vehicles. While it’s a good way to show business leadership on climate change, reduce emissions, and help create the critical mass of demand necessary to truly launch the EV market in New Zealand, it’s not quite as simple as replacing your company fleet with EVs and installing a few plugs. Here, some of New Zealand’s biggest corporates and members of the Climate Leaders Coalition, such as Meridian, Spark, Orion and Westpac, share what they’ve learnt when it comes to transitioning their corporate fleets into EVs.

Tawa residents will now be able to see New Zealand Post’s new electric delivery vehicles in operation as driver training has started. NZ Post has worked closely with the Wellington City Council to gain approval to operate the Paxster electric delivery vehicles on a 12 month trial. The rollout of these vehicles around the country started in 2017, and the vehicles have now arrived in Tawa.

Dairy giant Fonterra believes its latest initiative to cut carbon emissions could make the difference of the equivalent of taking 18,500 cars off the road. The co-operative’s Te Awamutu site has just completed a trial to run its existing coal boiler exclusively on wood pellets.

“With employees and board members becoming increasingly aware of climate risks and motivated to protect the environment, measurement of carbon emissions will soon be a standard practice for New Zealand businesses.” Rob Campbell tells the National Business Review why SKYCITY Entertainment Group and Summerset Group Holdings Limited are measuring their carbon footprint with Enviro-Mark Solutions Limited (Subscription access).

Contact Energy has become the first energy company in New Zealand to have its emission reduction targets approved by the Science Based Target Initiative (SBTi). This verifies the company’s commitment to reduce its emissions in line with what is required to achieve global targets in the Paris Agreement.

Sustainability is becoming one of the most important ways by which consumers choose to purchase from a particular company – one that doesn’t display sustainable business practices and an environmental mindset will find itself at a disadvantage to those companies that are doing their part to create a circular economy.

Office multifunction devices and consumables like toner cartridges can generate a significant amount of waste, but with sustainable business practices and processes, that doesn’t have to be the case.

Fuji Xerox is a company that is leading the print industry in sustainable business practices and it has already made waves by creating contributing toward a circular economy that works.

One of Queenstown’s biggest tourism players is looking to make waves in the eco-tourism sector.

Ngai Tahu Tourism, which owns Shotover Jet, confirms it’s investigating how to power its famous jetboats with electric engines.

Chief executive Quinton Hall says: “We currently have a project investigating how to electrify our jetboats, so hopefully we will see electric power in the not-too-distant future.”

The responsibility for fighting climate change doesn’t just rest with farmers – urban businesses and city dwellers need to take action too, writes Rod Oram. He hopes the example of some leading businesses will inspire more companies and urban households to get involved.

ANZ has announced a new home loan product for customers wanting to upgrade their homes to higher, more sustainable standards.

The Healthy Home Loan Package offers a 0.70% discount off ANZ’s standard fixed home loan rate and 1.00% off standard floating and flexible home loan rates, along with fee waivers across a range of accounts. It is available for new builds or upgrades to homes with a Homestar rating of six or above.