This Climate Business

An insurance industry outsider's take on climate change – Michael Stiassny

19 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The outgoing chair of major NZ insurer Tower says climate change is costing lives and money but there are bigger fish to fry before we cut emissions. ...

Unwrapping Our Latest Energy Package - Professor Barry Barton

11 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

 What does October's energy policy announcement mean for the future of NZ's electricity market and the climate? Law professor Barry Barton s...

Big Storage Batteries Are Here. Can They Fix Our Electricity Market? – Dr Jen Purdie

18 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Earlier this year New Zealand's first and largest big storage battery began selling into the grid; there are signs that it is already softening prices...

Sneaky sustainability - Orba Shoes

13 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Every year the fashion industry produces over 24 billion shoes made largely of synthetics, with little regard for the materials sourced, the wellbeing...

The Low-Waste House – Paul Webster-Young, Twin Solutions

09 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Auckland builder Paul Webster-Young is turning a new home for his sister into a case study for construction that sends less waste to landfill and cost...

Your next house doesn't have to be a climate criminal – Mike Hartley, Lloyd Hartley

28 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

New Zealand's houses have come a long way since the '70s but there's plenty we can do to make them more sustainable. Auckland architect Mike Hartley i...

Small, circular, resilient economics - Ken Webster, NextFest keynote speaker

23 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Ken Webster is one of the world’s leading thinkers in the circular economy. For eight years, he led innovation at the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, th...

Fat Cats Versus a Kinder, Gentler Kind of Business – Andrew Davies, B Lab

13 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

A chubby feline is the star of an awareness campaign for the B Corp certification that says your business is getting real about sustainability. B Lab'...

Think Like a Forest - Simon Millar, Pure Advantage

23 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Think Like a Forest is a beautiful short film about NZ’s ngahere or native forest and is now showing on TVNZ On Demand, PureAdvantage.org and soon A...

Hope and frustration - Joanna Silver & Alec Tang

12 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The annual Climate Change and Business Conference is the biggest corporate meet-up on the climate agenda, attracting delegates from industry, politics...

New Zealand, the climate change quiet quitter? - Royce Kurmelovs

07 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

What would a journalist from outside New Zealand find if they ran the ruler over our current climate policies? Australian writer Royce Kurmelovs has d...

Funding nature better - Robin Mitchell, Nature Positive

29 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Why is it so hard to invest in nature - not for extraction but for nature itself? We invest in human health. Why don’t we invest in nature health? W...

NZ's Emissions reduction plan heads to court - Jessica Palairet, Lawyers for Climate Action NZ

23 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

If you reckon our national strategy for reducing emissions is short on ambition, Jessica Palairet agrees. Jessica heads Lawyers for Climate Action whi...

The Next Wave - Dr Kate Prendergast and James Griffin

15 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

What does it take to build a globally significant clean tech or sustainability innovation from New Zealand? To answer that, you’d be best to talk th...

Dairy Done Differently - Brendan Haigh, Miraka

10 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

New Zealand's dairy sector has an awful environmental record, but what if we decided to do dairy differently? Iwi-owned Miraka is figuring out how to ...

A new biodiversity credit - Sean Weaver and Helen Hughes

26 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In June, the government announced nine pilots to trial a voluntary nature credits scheme - the closest so far to a biodiversity credit. Led by Act MP ...

Dental as anything - Laura Nixon, Solid

18 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Everyone’s got an idea for a business at some point in their life. Laura Nixon did something about it. A hygienist, troubled by the volume of plasti...

Why is Zespri trialling biochar?

22 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Biochar is a much-touted but rarely used carbon-rich material derived from organic waste, great for soil health. Kind of like charcoal it’s the resu...

Why ESG boxes on and on: Lee Stewart, ESG Strategies

09 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Lee Stewart has written the book on sustainable business...No, actually, he really has! He’s written the e handbook ‘How to build sustainability i...

Climate Disclosures: Onerous and Expensive, or Far-Sighted - Dr. Yinka Moses, Victoria University

16 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

New Zealand was an early mover in corporate climate disclosure; these days around 200 of our largest companies publicly report on what they’re doing...

A Sticky Business – Tim Williams, Nilo

07 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The industrial adhesives essential to MDF, particle board and the like are a health hazard and a $12billion business. New Zealand company Nilo has a b...

The ROI on sustainable business - Lewis Patterson, Sustainable Brands

01 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

On May 13 the best and brightest descend on Rotorua for the Sustainable Brands conference, the first time this global franchise will host a major even...

Oh, behave! The real reason for overshoot - Joseph Merz

18 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In September 2023, a group of scientists and writers had a paper published in a niche academic journal. The paper “World scientists’ warning: The ...

Coffee prices and climate - Richard Goatley, Altezano Brothers

05 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Just three years ago, the average price of a takeaway coffee was $4.33. Since then prices have marched north with Stats NZ officially recording the av...

Greenwash v Greenhush - Rebecca Styles and Fiona Stephenson

20 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

How do you promote sustainability effectively? Do you sugarcoat the bad news? Or scare them with the facts? When does green marketing become greenwash...

A Climate Contribution that contributes very little - Marc Daalder, Newsroom

09 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

New Zealand’s newest target for reducing greenhouse gases is as little as one percent better than our previous one. Newsroom’s Marc Daalder tells ...

A better economic model - Ganesh Nana, former Productivity Commissioner

23 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

As New Zealanders struggle with the worst recession in 34 years, a group of economists have warned that the government’s austerity programme is maki...

Future of Food 05: Climate change. The threats and opportunity in climate change

16 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

With both science and storms pointing to a warming world, New Zealand food producers must prepare for climate change. But is the sector sleepwalking i...

Future of Food 04: Emerging proteins. Will new and novel proteins eat New Zealand’s conventional lunch? Or is there room for both traditional and new and novel proteins?

09 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

New and novel proteins could threaten New Zealand’s traditional strengths in dairy, red meat and seafood. Predicted to be lower in emissions, lighte...

Future of Food 03: Riches in niches. How well is the New Zealand food sector innovating to meet global demand?

02 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

 An explosion in the number of small food brands in the last 20 years hints at where New Zealand's future food opportunities exist: in global nic...

Future of Food 02: Sir Jonathan Porritt: What changes are coming for the food sector? Interview with Sir Jonathan Porritt

26 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

 Sir Jonathan Porritt is patron of the Aotearoa Circle, the founder of Forum of the Future and a leading advocate for sustainability and cli...

Future of Food 01 Gene Technologies: How Gene Technology is changing the Future of Food

19 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

New Zealand’s food and fibre industry is built on generations of selective breeding - from ryegrass and cows to kiwifruit and apples. But recent imp...

Nature, commerce and COP 16 - Manu Caddie

09 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Every two years, delegates meet at the UN Convention on Biological Diversity - a sort of nature version of the more famous climate COPs. This year, CO...

The Global Warming Premium – Kali Mercier

01 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

As sea levels rise, home insurance premiums follow. A new report from the Helen Clark Foundation and engineering consultancy WSP New Zealand says it’...

A fair trade in Cola - Albert Tucker, Karma Cola Foundation

20 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Vincent had the pleasure of interviewing Albert Tucker, chairman of the Karma Cola Foundation, and a leading figure in the Fairtrade movement. The int...

Facing up to Managed Retreat - Kelly Flatz

14 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

If 2023's Cyclone Gabrielle proved anything, it was that New Zealand is woefully exposed to the risks of climate change and has no coherent strategy f...

Climate is a Health Issue too - Dr Jan Raymond, Ora Taiao

03 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

A new report by medical journal The Lancet shows heat-related deaths, food insecurity and the spread of infectious diseases caused by climate change h...

Clean Sweep: Loo Roll goes Geothermal - Mark Stevens, Essity

14 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

You probably know Essity more what’s in your house: Purex and Sorbent in your loo and Handee towels in your kitchen. You may also know that this tis...

A Natural at Business - Helen Paul Smith, Oku

11 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Few businesses have figured out how to make Aotearoa's native bush 'pay'. Helen Paul Smith husband Scott have patiently created a health and beauty br...

Will more oil and gas lower energy costs? Christina Hood and David Hall

19 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In late August the wholesale energy price spiked as high as $1000 mwh (megawatt hour) as the country felt the effects of a dry winter - when the hydro...

An App for the Forgetful Business - Ben Redwood, Mutu

12 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

If you think you’re forgetful, spare a thought for New Zealand businesses. Mutu, a Kiwi start-up, says they routinely forget assets they bought and ...

Staring into the Abyss - James Hughes,Tonkin + Taylor

05 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

James Hughes looks into the future and tells New Zealand’s councils just how bad life could get as a result of climate change. James, technical dire...

Sunny Days for Solar - Jason Foden, Rānui Generation

29 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Solar developer Rānui Generation started ground works the Twin Rivers Solar Farm, near Kaitaia. The 31MWp project could power 6,000 households or 25,...

Steven Moe, purpose-driven lawyer and quiet revolutionary

09 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

You might know Steven Moe as a lawyer for Christchurch based Parry Field, specialising in charities and the impact sector; or as the chair of Communit...

The Business of Nature - Sam Rowland and Kirsty Brennan

29 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

What does ‘nature’ mean for business? How do companies incorporate nature dependency and nature opportunity into their strategy and action? And wh...

Congestion pricing to lower emissions: eRoad’s Mark Heine

09 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Could congestion pricing be the way to address traffic gridlock and reduce emissions? Auckland Council seems to think so, suggesting congestion pricin...

Aviation Emissions are taking off: Economist Dr Paul Callister

29 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

When it comes to aviation emissions, New Zealand is far from clean and green. Economist Dr Paul Callister tells Ross Inglis that we are the world’s ...

What’s land for anyway? Geoff Simmons chief economist, Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment

19 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

You’d be hiding under a rock if you haven’t noticed that there’s fierce disagreement about the growth of pine plantations on rural New Zealand. ...

Busting the Bikes and Business Myth – Karen Hormann, Bike Auckland

02 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

So businesses love parking and hate cycleways. Or do they? Bike Auckland chair Karen Hormann tells Ross Inglis about a new campaign that tackles a lop...

The big picture on food waste - Kaitlin Dawson and Iain Lees-Galloway

30 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

We know that about a third of food is wasted.  If global food waste was a country, it would be the third-largest emitter of greenhouse gases behi...

Sustainability Reporting is here. How should Kiwi Businesses respond?

23 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

There’s a fast-growing thicket of regulations and trade agreements standing between corporate New Zealand and its overseas markets. This emerging la...

Is civil disobedience effective? David Williams, Newsroom

14 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

David Williams is a journalist with Newsroom. He recently interviewed Extinction Rebellion protesters, Nick Hanafin and Siana Fitzjohn who climbed abo...

Disrupting the bottle business – Jayden Klinac, Anew

01 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Is another plastic bottle the way to disrupt the plastic bottle business? Jayden Klinac of Anew believes so. The Anew system builds on years of trying...

Unilever as B Corp - Why and what’s changed?

16 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Two years ago Unilever Australia-NZ became a B Corp. It was the first really large corporate, with household brands Surf and Persil, to join a scheme ...

Climate Change Activism heads to the courts – Nick Chapman, Simpson Grierson

09 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Climate change activism is everywhere: in politics, in business, on the streets and, increasingly, in the courts. Simpson Grierson’s Nick Chapman te...

Electric Homes - Mike Casey, Rewiring Aotearoa

27 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Mike Casey is the CEO of Rewiring Aoteraoa, part of an international movement to accelerate the shift to a renewable, electric-powered economy. Rewiri...

Disinformation exposed – Byron Clark and Mandy Henk

25 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Whether it’s swallowing bleach to treat Covid or casting climate change as a Chinese conspiracy, disinformation takes nutty ideas from fringes and m...

A Sustainable Commute at a Discount – Connor Read, Workride

12 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

If you’ve wanted to get yourself a discounted bicycle or scooter under something like the UK’s Cycle to Work Scheme, here’s the good news: you c...

How to change carbon behaviour, big time - Ben Gleisner, Cogo

21 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The conscious consumer movement has an impact but it’s still small - a minority of people choose to change their behaviour. Imagine if you could mak...

Copping flak: Rod Oram at COP28

21 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28) closed last week with a notable first: an agreement to transition away from fossil fuels. Not qui...

Scope 4 and the new reporting - Dr Jodi York, Climate VC Fund, Kilara Capital

11 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Heard of Scope 4? Us neither. If you thought Scope 3 emissions are hard to count and reduce then Scope 4 lifts the ambition yet again. Scope 4 or so-c...

The Kiwi Company taking the pain out of Climate Disclosure - Dougal Watt, ClimateTracker

06 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Climate-related disclosures are on their way. Auckland-based ClimateTracker has cloud-based software that eases the compliance overhead and makes sens...

Watts up with car charging in NZ? Stephanie Smits O’Callaghan, Hikotron

27 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Armed with its own IP, Hamilton-based car charging innovator Hikotron is rolling out a national network of charge points. Ross Inglis asked co-founder...

Climate Leaders Coalition turns five – Jolie Hodson of Spark and Mike Burrell, SBC

27 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The Climate Leaders Coalition turned five years old. Its signatories, which include some of NZ’s largest polluters, are a group of 88 companies that...

What’s behind the sunny spell in solar power? Matt Ward, solarZero

16 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Every 35 minutes solarZero installs a new residential solar system. It plans to invest $1 billion in new solar and battery systems over the next decad...

Around the world in an ETS – Ian Parry, IMF

06 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Ian Parry is the Environmental Fiscal Policy Expert at the International Monetary Fund. He came to speak at a series of events in New Zealand about ta...

Will Auckland’s climate plan survive a change of government? Richard Hills & Parin Rafei-Thompson

30 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

How is the Council progressing with Te Tāruke ā Tāwhiri, Auckland’s Climate Plan? In the three years since it was ratified, we’ve had Covid, a ...

Sustainability? We’ve got a Strategy for that

24 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Sustainability’s elevation into corporate strategy suggests it’s on its way to becoming integral to New Zealand businesses. But why are businesses...

NZ’s Biggest ever Windfarm - Giacomo Caleffi, Taranaki Offshore Partnership

18 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In June this year, a new piece of equipment was anchored 37km off the coast of Pātea in the South Taranaki Bight. Called the Floating Light Detecting...

Farming indoors - Darryn Keiller, Way Beyond

09 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The future of farming may be indoors. With eroding coastlines, droughts and unpredictable downpours, farming may be better done in controlled, indoor ...

This Climate Business - Live! James Shaw, Sophie Handford, Alec Tang

03 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

How does change happen? And what can we learn from political and community leaders? Vincent hosted a live event during the Auckland Climate Festival t...

Climate Investing: Panel Discussion from Auckland Climate Festival

25 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

What does climate change mean for investing - is it a disaster, creating havoc due to storms and ecosystem collapse and ultimately stranded assets? Or...

Greening the Commercial Property Sector: Scott McKenzie, PMG Funds

18 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Commercial property is more polluting that you might imagine. Twenty percent of New Zealand’s carbon emissions come from the property sector. What w...

Are we there yet? Andrew Caseley of EECA on Sustainable Energy

10 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Andrew Caseley is outgoing CEO of EECA, the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority. He arrived in 2017 to launch a refreshed strategy and resign...

Mātauranga and Climate Change: Cornell Tukiri

04 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Cornell Tukiri is the senior Māori advisor for Tataki Auckland United and also for Climate Connect Aotearoa – a climate action accelerator by Tatak...

Climate + Business: Antonia Burbidge & Rebecca Lowe

30 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Next month is the biggest event on the  corporate climate calendar, the Climate Change + Business conference by Environmental Defence Society, th...

Brianne West: from shampoo to fizzy drinks with no water (not much anyways)

23 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In Aotearoa New Zealand, we throw away a staggering ​97 million single-use plastic drinks containers each year, with less than 7% of those ever gett...

Investing in the transition - Jason Patrick, NZ Green Investment Finance

24 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Back in May, the government injected another $300m into NZ Green Investment Finance – or NZGIF – taking the green bank’s investment pool to $700...

The trouble with food - Emily King, author of Re-food

17 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Emily King is the author of Re-food, a challenge to reimagine and reconstruct the food system in Aotearoa. It’s a timely book, with farmers and grow...

Recycling Farm Plastics: Neal Shaw, Plasback

25 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

What happens to all that silage baling wrap you see when you’re whizzing around the countryside? Until recently, nearly all New Zealand farmers burn...

The sustainability journey of a scaffolding company with roots in the petrochemical sector – Paul Cunningham, Cunningham Construction

20 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Taranaki-based scaffolding and rigging company Cunningham Construction has deep roots in the petrochemical sector. It’s also on a journey towards su...

Reporting on progress – Mike Murphy and Nick Morrison on Kōkako Coffee

13 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

It’s hard running a small business. It’s harder running a small business that takes it’s environmental and social responsibility serisously. And...

Getting rid of cling film: Jon Reed, Compostic

04 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

You will know about cling film. Perhaps you wrapped your lunch in it this morning. Or you’ve seen swaths of it used to wrap suitcases at the airport...

Comvita - David Banfield

28 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Comvita is a publicly listed mānuka honey specialist – the OG of mānuka money if you like. For a moment it was a sharemarket darling peaking in 20...

Carbon, trees and seaweed - Finn Ross, CarbonZ

23 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Finn Ross is a young guy on a mission. He’s completing a PhD on seaweed carbon sequestration, he’s also co-founder of CarbonZ, a company offering ...

The Big Business Alternative to Landfill: Joe Youssef - All Heart NZ

14 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

A framework for any corporate, anywhere, to divert anything from landfill. That’s the promise from Auckland-based social enterprise All Heart NZ. Ro...

Taking on the Plastic Building Wrap Challenge

30 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

What happens to all those acres of white plastic wrap that protect building sites? Ross Inglis talks with two people who know: Too much of it goes to ...

Yes, there’s a better way to Recycle Plastics: Rui Peng, Critical

22 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Conventional plastics recycling is fussy: it can handle only four of the 24 types of plastic, and even those have to be clean. Here’s the story of A...

A second life for our throw-away clothing: Jeff Vollebregt, Upparel

05 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

New Zealanders on average throw out textiles equivalent to 200 t-shirts every year. Finding a new home for all those garments is the mission of Austra...

Harbour bridges! Potholes! Light Rail! – with Paul Winton

03 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The transport sector has experienced its share of drama this year, starting with Cyclone Gabrielle wiping out so many roads and bridges across the nor...

What the heck just happened to the carbon market? Dr Christina Hood

26 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Last week the quarterly auction for carbon credits hit a remarkable snag: it failed to meet the clearing price. This means none of the 4.5 million car...

A decade of B-Corp. Now what? Qiulae Wong, NZ manager of B Lab

17 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

It's 10 years since the first companies were certified as B-Corp in New Zealand and since then the movement of ethical and environmentally responsible...

How food growers can think about climate change: Brent Clothier

02 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

If the rain that deluged the North Island is the ‘new normal’, how are hard-hit growersmeant to think about the future – and growing anything in...

Making sense of Auckland’s floods – Kevin Trenberth, Climate Scientist

20 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

How can we make sense of the Biblical deluge that soaked Auckland, Northland, and the Coromandel in late January – and by the time this is being rec...

A Constructive Use for Building Waste – With Nigel Benton and Terri-Ann Berry

14 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Building a new house in New Zealand produces on average two skips of construction debris. If a demolition is involved, added another 13 skips. As a na...

What’s in store for 2023? Investment with Rohan MacMahon

06 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Part Three: Rohan MacMahon on investment and technology Is 2023 the year that New Zealand seizes the nettle on climate action? Or is it another y...

What’s in store for 2023? Corporate strategy with Dr Victoria Hatton

03 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Part two: Victoria Hatton on corporate strategy Is 2023 the year that New Zealand seizes the nettle on climate action? Or is it another year of increm...

What’s in store for 2023? Climate politics with Marc Daalder

01 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Part One: Marc Daalder starts with the year ahead in politics.Is 2023 the year that New Zealand seizes the nettle on climate action? Or is it another ...

A climate action accelerator for Auckland - Climate Connect Aotearoa

06 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Auckland’s climate plan Te-Tāruke-ā-Tāwhiri is an impressive and ambitious document that sets out a response to climate change that’s not just ...

Growing food in a hotter NZ – Jenny Cameron, Fit for a Better World

12 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The primary sector has been in the gun lately for its reluctance to resolve its emissions profile. You’d almost think there’s some denial going on...