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Dave Bryce started monitoring his family’s carbon dioxide emissions about 12 years ago. At the time, they were emitting something close to the average for a New Zealand family. These days, he and his wife are emitting about one-eighth of the emissions of an average family, he says.
Bryce knows this because he uses Landcare Research’s Household Emissions Calculator, a free online tool that captures electricity use, transport and household waste and estimates CO2 emissions in kilograms.

The barriers to switching may not be as great as they seem.

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The Co-op has been working closely with Z Energy since 2014 to help introduce biodiesel to New Zealand as part of its commitment to reduce emissions across its operations.

Fast forward to 2019, Fonterra now has its 156 tankers in the Waikato and Bay of Plenty area producing 4% less emissions per year.

Meridian Energy’s commitment to EVs has gone global with the company joining the international EV100 initiative by pledging to operate a 100% electric fleet by 2030. Meridian joins overseas companies like Baidu, DHL and HP as well as local companies including Air New Zealand and Christchurch Airport.

Emissions reductions initiatives, governance and value chain engagement were among the company’s highest scoring categories.

Vector, the country’s largest electricity distributor, was yesterday given the ‘best first-time performance’ award, and an above average overall score for the sector and region, at an event marking the release of the CDP 2018 Regional Disclosure Report Launch.

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Among the world’s biggest consumer companies, Europe’s Unilever NV, L’Oreal SA and Danone are best prepared for the effects of climate change relative to their peers, according to a report from the nonprofit CDP.

Climate change has already affected how electricity gets delivered to customers, and it’s only going to get more challenging. Vector’s Chief Networks Officer Andre Botha outlines what the lines company is doing to respond.

We’re the largest company in New Zealand – and only the third major retailer globally – to be carbon neutral. We’re doing this because we care about the health of our people, Aotearoa New Zealand, and the planet.

We are committed to this journey. Our target is to reduce emissions by 32 percent by 2030 (from our 2015 base level). This is in keeping with the target of staying within 2⁰C of warming, based on pre-industrial levels, set by the 2015 Paris Agreement.

A regenerating native bush block owned by former Wellington mayor Celia Wade-Brown is not only providing biodiversity and a haven for birds, it’s also generating income in the form of carbon credits.

For the fifth year in a row, ecostore has come out on top of the unprompted list of sustainable brands in New Zealand. The Colmar Brunton Better Futures report, released yesterday evening, asked New Zealanders which brands were leaders in sustainability and ecostore was again mentioned unprompted by those surveyed as being leaders in sustainability. Furthermore, when prompted, eighty-three percent of those surveyed named ecostore as a leading sustainable brand in New Zealand.

Use of renewable resources, care for the environment through business practice, and a focus on quality natural ingredients were among the reasons people thought of brands as sustainability leaders.

SKYCITY Entertainment Group has revealed its climate change strategy that will see the company’s New Zealand sites carbon neutral by the end of this year, with Adelaide following next year. SKYCITY will be among the first major New Zealand companies to go carbon neutral with its plan to set up a green fund, paid for via an internal carbon levy on all its emissions.