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This Climate Business is the Kiwi podcast about turning the climate crisis into an opportunity. Every week host Vincent Heeringa talks to entrepreneurs, investors and experts about what they're doing to solve the climate crisis and get NZ down to zero emissions by 2050 – or sooner.
189 Episodes
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What would a journalist from outside New Zealand find if they ran the ruler over our current climate policies? Australian writer Royce Kurmelovs has done just that, and he tells Ross Inglis that the answer can be rendered in two words: quiet quitting.
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? Well, increasingly we are trying. Nature Based Solutions are embedded in our National Emissions Reduction Plan and in the Climate Adaption Plan - but adoption and action are slow. Just ask anyone trying raise money for conservation, predator control or green infrastructure. Investing in nature is not happening fast enough or at scale. Robin Mitchell is the founder of advisory firm Nature Positive. He is an international biodiversity management expert who advises governments, corporates and finance industry on nature climate strategies.
If you reckon our national strategy for reducing emissions is short on ambition, Jessica Palairet agrees. Jessica heads Lawyers for Climate Action which, together with the Environmental Law Initiative, is taking the government to the High Court for a judicial review of the plan. She tells Ross Inglis what's wrong with the plan and how the law can help fix it.
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 those already doing it right? That’s exactly what the Next Wave report has done. It talked to 44 leaders of breakthrough innovations to establish the barriers, the rewards and the opportunities for more innovation in cleantech, climate tech, nature and community. And we need it, with climate and nature under threat like never before. How do we accelerate the solutions? Vincent is joined by the co-authors of the Next Wave, James Griffin from the Sustainable Business Network and Dr Kate Prendergast of the University of Canterbury.
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 produce lower-emissions export dairy based on the principles of kaitiakitanga. Miraka's Brendan Haigh explains.
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 and Associate Minister for the Environment Andrew Hoggard, the government says it wants to establish ‘a market that is durable, measurable and transparent to help farmers, landowners, iwi, and conservation groups unlock new income streams for looking after nature on their land.’ One of the nine is the Sanctuary Mountain Maungatautari Biodiversity Credit project an international trade-ready biodiversity credits scheme developed by advisory firm Ekos. It launched officially launch on 24th of June and Vincent is joined by Ekos found Sean Weaver and Sancturary Mountain CEO Helen Hughes.Government announcement hereEkos & Sanctuary Mountain media release here
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 plastic waste in the dental sector, Laura founded Solid, which replaces unrecyclable plastic tubes with toothpaste tablets and powder in glass jars. Solid’s product lineup includes the world’s first in-store toothpaste dispenser, and teeth whitener. Solid was a finalist in the Sustainable Business Awards and was included in the exciting SBN Next 95 list of innovators.
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 result of slow, anaerobic burning. But it has not yet been widely tested in perennial tree or vine crops. Until now. Zespri has been trailing biochar as part of new innovation programme. This project aims to assess the impact of biochar application in kiwifruit orchards when applied with and without the addition of compost, looking at its effect on soil characteristics and fruit production, as well as the economics of application. The results will give growers increased confidence when trialling this promising product and also reinforce Zespri’s leadership in sustainable farming practices.Vincent spoke to Eu Jin Cheah, Global Leader, New Values Opportunities and Bryan Parkes, Head of Innovation Acceleration, both at Zespri.See the innovation fund here: https://www.zespri.com/en-NZ/zagfund
Lee Stewart has written the book on sustainable business...No, actually, he really has! He’s written the e handbook ‘How to build sustainability into your business strategy’ for managers across Australasia. A Kiwi with experience in the UK, Australia and the Pacific, Lee has worked for Fujitsu and Fonterra and now heads ESG Strategies, a consulting company to corporations, and he joins me from a glorious sunny Sydney.
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 about their emissions and the risk they’re exposed to from climate change. Now the government is considering relaxing the reporting regime because, we’re told, it’s onerous and expensive. Victoria University’s Dr Yinka Moses has studied climate reporting practices in New Zealand, Australia and the UK, and he tells Ross Inglis that cutting back on them is simply bad for business.
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 better, kinder glue made from recycled plastics. Managing director Tim Williams tells Ross Inglis all about a sticky business.
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 event down under. Now in its 17th year, Sustainable Brands is a ‘community of optimists who believe in brand-led market transformation’. It takes a brave man to feel optimistic right now and perhaps even braver to run a conference. Vincent talks to SB’s NZ leader Lewis Patterson.
In September 2023, a group of scientists and writers had a paper published in a niche academic journal. The paper “World scientists’ warning: The behavioural crisis driving ecological overshoot” might have quietly retired in a graveyard along with a thousand other important but forgotten tomes - except it didn’t. At last count the paper has had 70,000 downloads and ranks in the top 1% of academic papers. In short, the paper describes how our modern human behaviour means we consume too much and waste too much. That’s called overshoot - as terrible as it is, it's now new news. What’s novel, is the paper’s proposition that it’s human behaviour - not technology, not law, not economic systems not even our values - that are the drivers: it’s human behaviour. And just as our maladaptive behaviours got us here, so too can better behaviours get us out. To expand on the paper and to explain its popularity, Vincent was joined by the lead author, Joseph Merz of the Merz Foundation.Merz Institute New Paper Identifies ‘Behavioural Crisis’ Driving Overshoot – Merz Institute
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 average to be $4.85 but good luck finding that in Auckland or Wellington. The reason: coffee beans. The price of the most popular bean, arabica, soared 70% in 2024 and nearly 20% so far this year to an all-time high.What’s going on - is someone skimming a profit here, is it climate change? To help us through this bitter news Vincent was joined by Richard Goatly, one of the brothers from Altezano Brothers coffee roasters. https://altezanobrothers.co.nz/
How do you promote sustainability effectively? Do you sugarcoat the bad news? Or scare them with the facts? When does green marketing become greenwashing or the reverse, greenhushing? The way we talk about sustainability can make a massive difference in its adoption. Especially in this febrile atmosphere of anti-woke, techbro, climate-denying toxicity. To get some insight on how to hold our tongues better, Vincent was joined by Rebecca Styles, who leads the investigations team at Consumer NZ and Fiona Stephenson, who leads comms at the Sustainable Business Network - both of whom are speaking at the Communicating Sustainability Masterclass in March 2025.
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 Ross Inglis why the target matters, why it is so modest, and what it means for business.
As New Zealanders struggle with the worst recession in 34 years, a group of economists have warned that the government’s austerity programme is making it worse. One of those critics is Dr Ganesh Nana, former Productivity Commissioner and Chief Economist and Research Director at BERL, Business and Economic Research Limited. Ganesh is a regular advisor to industry and government and was part of the government’s Welfare Expert Advisory Group. He’s a cricket fan, numbers guy and has a passion for seeing Aotearoa New Zealand reach its full potential in all aspects, social, environmental and economic. Ganesh’s concerns about our approach to managing the economy is incredibly timely. Vincent recorded this interview largely during an event at the Sustainable Business Network late last year.
With both science and storms pointing to a warming world, New Zealand food producers must prepare for climate change. But is the sector sleepwalking into disaster? How can food sector not just survive but flourish in a hothouse climate?
1New and novel proteins could threaten New Zealand’s traditional strengths in dairy, red meat and seafood. Predicted to be lower in emissions, lighter on water and land, cruelty-free and at industrial scale, new and novel proteins may become the first choice in a climate-constrained world. Can we adapt?
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 niches. New Zealand’s strength in co-ops and single-desk trading gave this tiny country global clout in commodities. But with consumer demand fracturing along almost individual lines - and combined with ever-improving innovation and rapid manufacturing - can we rely on our historic strengths to flourish? Are we investing in the right skills and products to dominate the niches?
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