justGoodBusiness

Kaimira’s catalyst for change • Toyota’s steering values

CREATING CULTURE SHIFTAt Auckland University p26

ISSUE 02www.justgoodbusiness.co.nz

ADDING GEOTHERMAL HEAT

To NZ economy p31

editorialNovember/December 2012PUBLISHER Toni Myers

MANAGING EDITOR Vicki Jayne vickij@mediaweb.co.nz

EDITOR Alex Stone alexs@mediaweb.co.nz

PROJECT MANAGER Wendy Smith wendys@mediaweb.co.nz

CONTRIBUTORS Clare Feeney, Ian Niven, Matthew Simmons, Jamie Sinclair, Wendy Smith

ADVERTISING MANAGER Pam Brown 09-529 3000, 0274-790 691, pamb@mediaweb.co.nz

DESIGNER Chris Grimstone

COPY EDITOR Mary Smith

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Changing cultures is the stuff of patient persistence – inspiration plus perspiration, a spiral journey of steady steps that gain in breadth and momentum.

And, as the University of Auckland case study (p26) high-lights – sharing stories of success is part of the process.

When it seems that sustainability isn’t getting sufficient traction at either local or global level, writing up case studies for justGoodBusiness is therapeutic. Yes – organisa-tional cultures can be shifted into a greener spectrum. Yes, incremental changes are cumulative – gaining in density and mass, acquiring greater gravitas, or a more pervasive psychological weighting until it gets to a point where “this is how we now do things around here”.

Of course we recycle rubbish, save energy, walk when we can and take public trans-port in preference to further clogging the city’s arteries with cars that carry just one person…

And yes, it concerns us that social justice, equity, community compassion and envi-ronmental care are all too often sacrificed at the great altar of commercial gain – when it simply doesn’t have to be that way. A growing number of New Zealand businesses are busy proving that.

Whether the change is top down or bottom up (see discussion p30), leadership is vital. But it seems to have become our business, rather than our political leaders who are showing the way.

I recently listened to a presentation by Sovereign CEO Charles Anderson who re-turned from the Rio+20 Earth Summit this year energised not by what governments had achieved (very little) but by what some of the world’s biggest corporates had committed to in the way of action to reduce their own environmental impacts.

It’s a similar story in New Zealand where businesses of all sizes are discovering for themselves both the tangible and intangible benefits of their own green shifts.

Can we go further? How about creating built environments that are genuinely sustain-able (see cover story p8)? How about generating whole new economic opportunities on the back of our vast geothermal resource and expertise (p31)?

Charles Anderson concluded his presentation to the recent Fit for the Future confer-ence with the message that “business as usual is not an option”. He reckons we should just get out there, collaborate with whoever we can, find out whatever we need to know but do something. “Because the clock is ticking and you need to take some action.”

We’ll keep sharing the stories of those who already have.Following this issue, I’ll be taking a back seat on jGB with writer and artist Alex Stone

stepping into the editor’s role. He’s already making an enthusiastic start (p16).

Sharing stories

Vicki Jayne

vickij@mediaweb.co.nz

Phone 09-529 3000, Fax 09-529 3001 enquiries@mediaweb.co.nz www.mediaweb.co.nz PO Box 5544, Wellesley Street, Auckland 1141

Copyright © 2012: Mediaweb Limited.ISSN 2230-6552

justGoodBusiness | Issue 2 2012

Issue 2 2012 | justGoodBusiness 1

contentsCover Story

8 Future Foundations: New Zealand’s Green Building Challenge How does New Zealand’s built environment stack up when it comes to issues of quality, efficiency, environmental impact and human health? Who is laying the foundations for improvement?

2 Passing it on SBN turns 10, Yealands’ green cred earns global recognition… and more.

6 Sustainability Calendar

7 Book Review: Psychology for a Better World.

16 jGB Interview Sophie Heighway – taking the big words out of sustainability.

Case Studies

19 Smart Solutions: Powering sustainability

20 Jasmax: Building transformation

22 Toyota: Steering clear of risk

24 Kaimira Wines: Galvanised by horror show in the sprayshed

26 Auckland University: Creating cultural shift

Expert Input

28 Energy: Driving Efficiency Ian Niven

29 Counter Culture: Measures of Real Value Jamie Sinclair

30 Change Leader: Coalface or C-suite? Clare Feeney

31 Clean Tech: NZ’s Geothermal Future Matthew Simmons

32 Steps to Sustainability Wendy Smith

24

26

16

26

8

22

8

“We have been around for 170 years, and want to be around for another 170.”– Sophie Heighway

“Your programme has to resonate with your people.”– Lesley Stone, manager, sustainability & environment, Auckland University

justGoodBusiness | Issue 2 20122

Passing it on

SBN turns 10The Sustainable Business Network celebrated its tenth birthday at events in Auckland and Tauranga on Tuesday 16 October, and in Wellington on Thursday 18 October.

At the Auckland event, one of the co-founders of the SBN, Chris Morrison paid tribute to the energy, vision and unstop-pable drive of Rachel Brown, the CEO, who has managed the organisation from a dream shared by a few people, to a strong industry force in New Zealand, with cur-rently over 500 members. Morrison, of course was one of the three founders of the now iconic brand Phoenix Organics, makers of pretty damn good fruit drinks.

The SBN is committed to sharing information among its members towards the goal of true business sustainability; and in what has become SBN tradition, the events during the week were another op-portunity for members to network effec-tively with leaders and peers in this field.

The celebrations were also used by Brown and her team to launch a new iden-

tity for SBN and a new tagline – ‘Reshaping Profit’. Naturally here the word profit is used with its best and widest connotations – and so the new tagline perfectly encapsu-lates the vision of the SBN.

Which is all very appropriate, as in its ten years, SBN has already done much to reshape the business environment in New Zealand. Long may it continue! And congratulations to Brown and her team for reaching this milestone.

SBN also used the event to announce a Sustainable City Showcase exhibition, to be held at the Cloud on Auckland’s waterfront 22-24 November, in partnership with new supporter Meridian Energy. You can find out more on www.sustainablecity.org.nz.

Also announced were the finalists for the Vodafone People’s Choice Award, part of the 2012 NZI National Sustainable Busi-ness Network Awards, which will be held in The Cloud on 22 November. To find out more about the awards and vote for your favourite sustainable business go to www.sustainableawards.org.nz.

Issue 2 2012 | justGoodBusiness 3

“Think boldly, tread lightly - and never say it can’t be done.” That is the mantra of Marlborough winemake Peter Yealands; and it appears to have just paid off. Apart from being recently awarded ‘World’s best Savignon Blanc, Yealands Estate Wines have also made the shortlist in the 2012 International Green Awards™, representing the most sustainable organisations across the world. Winners will be declared at the awards ceremony at Battersea Power Station, London, on 20 November 2012.

This year, the awards introduced a new entry format in the bid to find organisations that have embedded sustainability across their processes.

Organisations were evaluated on sustainability vision, level of innovation and advocacy against eight sustainability indica-tors ranging from energy and carbon, through to supply chain and resources. Additionally, the awards have also partnered with WWF-UK to find one true ‘Green Game-Changer’ across prod-ucts, services and business models.

Judges were impressed by the diversity of this year’s applica-tions, in terms of geographical spread and the projects them-selves. As part of evaluating individual merit, judges also had to consider the relevance and topicality of each entry with a micro and macro perspective. The judging process itself was conducted by disguising organisation’s names or any relevant identifiers, to avoid prejudice.

Yealand’s competition in the catergory ‘Most Sustainable Medium Organisation’ is:• Ecotricity (UK)• Focus Press (Australia)• Kyocera (UK)• Numi Organic (USA)• Sydney Theatre Group (Australia)

Yealands among international finalists

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justGoodBusiness | Issue 2 20124

Passing it on

Conservation + business A conversation The links between ecosystem services,

conservation projects and sustainable

business practices can be strong and

enduring.

This was the core message to come out of

the World Conservation Congress in Jeju,

South Korea in mid-September

Penny Nelson, executive director of

the Sustainable Business Council of New

Zealand, attended the convention which

was hosted by the International Union for

Conservation (IUCN) and is the world’s

largest conservation event, held every four

years. She was accompanied by Emma

Parsons from Fonterra.

A focus for the convention this year

was biodiversity and ecosystem services.

Ecosystem services are the benefits busi-

ness and society obtains from ecosystems

– the goods and services of nature (eg

freshwater, food, fibre, climate regulation,

pest and flood control). Biodiversity is the

variability amongst living organisms.

The World Business Council for Sus-

tainable Development (WBCSD) was a

major partner in the event, with a view

to strengthening and expanding col-

laboration on business and public policy

solutions to biodiversity and ecosystem

challenge. Members of the WBCSD

showcased road-tested examples of what

business is doing. Over 9000 delegates

attended the event.

Nelson posted daily blogs about the

conference. These are all well-worth read-

ing and can be found on the Sustainable

Business Council’s website www.sbc. org.nz.

Sessions at the conference covered a

wide range of territory. Some interesting

examples from Nelson’s reports:

- A “knowledge cafe” session led by

Nespresso which sources high quality cof-

fee berries from Brasil, and has developed

a life cycle assessment which incorporates

biodiversity.

- A range of companies or their con-

servation partners (Nespresso, Syngenta,

Dow, UPM, Danone) talked about their

experiences of doing an Ecosystem Ser-

vices Review.

- Pippa Howard, from Flora and Fauna

International, has been working with

WBSCD, IUCN and KPMG and ACCA

to research ways in which business can

reflect ecosystem services value on the

balance sheet.

- “What constitutes a resilient food

system?” a session presenting case studies

on food production systems that demon-

strate resilience over thousands of years.

- The Economics of Ecosystems and

Biodiversity (TEEB) a presentation on

the follow-up work being done in various

countries to implement the recommenda-

tions of G8+5 commissioned “The Eco-

nomics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity”

(TEEB) Report.

- “Engaging business in conservation”.

This session included a presentation from

IUCN on some “dos” and “don’ts” of busi-

ness and NGO/government partnerships

in conservation.

Future focused projectsA new website promoting future-focused projects created by sus-tainable practitioners has been launched by the Centre for Sustain-able Practice at Otago Polytechnic: www.sustainable-practice.org

The website is designed to create a global community of practice around sustainable development and to encourage people to collabo-rate on existing or new projects.

The first projects loaded have been created by participants in the Centre’s graduate programmes in Sustainable Practice.

Centre director Steve Henry said the work of the graduate pro-gramme participants is relevant and useful, and should be available to others.

“The projects are real rather than theoretical, so they’re useful for others and can be built upon.

“We are looking to develop this site so anyone in the world can log in and upload a project or contrib-ute to the ones already listed.”

The Centre for Sustainable Practice was established by Otago Polytechnic in 2008 to facilitate transformational change in students, businesses, professions and organisa-tions.

Over the past two years, its graduate programmes have grown, with numbers expected to double again for 2013.

Current projects hosted at www.sustainable-practice.org include the Hawea Flat Food Forest, Trash Foot-wear, and Bushland Park, a lodge on the Coromandel Peninsula.

Penny Nelson.

Issue 2 2012 | justGoodBusiness 5

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When it comes to recycling, New Zealanders could do a lot better. That’s according to Sian Coleman, coordinator of the first NZ Recycling Week.

“Most of us would consider NZ to be 100 percent pure. After all we have invested millions in creating this brand awareness, but scratch beneath the surface and you will find there are many impurities evident in many aspects of our daily lives. “One major impurity is our misguided ap-proach to waste management, which is in fact more aligned to resource management. Unlike many western countries, we do not have a centrally-directed recycling programme and we still divert excessive amounts of recycla-

ble waste to land fills –when we should be recycling as much waste as we can: keeping our land clean, our waterways safe and our air pure.” NZ Recycling Week is designed to help raise awareness of the issue. It will run from November 12-17 to coincide with the same event in Australia. To support the initiative, a new web-

site, www.recycle.co.nz, has been launched to assist eve-ryday Kiwis, schools and businesses make better, more

sustainable decisions when it comes to selecting and disposing of consumer goods. Coleman is confident the support for NZ

Recycling Week will be strong. “The Ministry for the Environment’s TV TakeBack pro-

gramme has just been launched. Many local councils, community groups and businesses

have said they will be getting behind NZ Recy-cling Week.”

A boost for NZ recycling

justGoodBusiness | Issue 2 20126

calendar

November 2012

December 2012

IAP2(International Association for Public Participation) in Wellington Presents: Perspectives from executive director Tanya Buchanan10.30-11.30am Committee Room Two, Wellington City Council, 101 Wakefield Street, Wellington Free – bookings essential.www.iap2.org.au/events/event/IAP2-in-Wellington-Presents-Perspectives-from-IAP2s-Executive-Director

12

See www.justgoodbusiness.co.nz for our comprehensive events calendar.

Auckland Conversations Series Hank Dittmar, CEO Princes Foundation for Building Communities, London5pm Auckland Conventions – Lower NZI, Aotea Square.www.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/EN/ newseventsculture/events/Events/Pages/ aucklandconversations.aspx

National Sustainable Electricity Association New Zealand (SEANZ) Conference, Wellington Town Hall, Wellington. www.smartenergyexpo.org.nz

SBN’s Sustainable City Showcase Public event, Auckland. www.sustainable.org.nz

Smart Energy ExpoWellington Town Hall, Wellington. www.smartenergyexpo.org.nz This is an industry and public event, 10am - 5pm daily, admission $10.00.

Powershift Youth Climate SummitUniversity of Auckland. http://powershift.org.nz

Auckland Conversations Series Sara Parkin OBE, Forum for the Future UK, 5pm University of Auckland Engineering School. www.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/EN/newseventsculture/events/Events/Pages/aucklandconversations.aspx

14

22

22-24 23-24

7-9

28

Enviro-Mark Introduction to Enviro-Mark and Bronze Certification, Auckland. www.enviro-mark.co.nz

21Sustainable Business SBN’s Sustainable Business Awards, Auckland. www.sustainable.org.nz

22

Issue 2 2012 | justGoodBusiness 7

books

Psychology for a Better World –Strategies to Inspire Sustainabilityby Niki Harré

Not all lessons for business come from busi-ness. That perhaps is not a new message, but seldom have I seen it delivered in such a direct and effective way as in Niki Harré’s book entitled Psychology for a Better World – Strategies to Inspire Sustainability.

This is not to say this slim volume is in any way simplistic. Harré uses many cred-ible and pertinent examples of academic research in her field of applied psychol-ogy to underline her points. She packs a lot into the book – but all her material is presented in a very accessible way. I found myself re-reading the book, delving into it at random after the initial read-through; a good sign for any inspirational text, I reckon. They’re not much good if they just lie there, are they?

Harré is an associate professor at the University of Auckland where she teaches social and community psychology. Previ-ously she edited, together with Quentin Atkinson, the book Carbon Neutral by 2020: How New Zealanders Can tackle Climate Change (2007).

Psychology for a Better World is ac-companied with a video conversation with Harré, illustrated with delightful animated clips, traversing her main points. Watch the video here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zExibEV_PY

In the video, Harré introduces the meta-phor of the kuaka (godwit) using a well-chosen tailwind to assist in its epic non-stop migration flight from the Arctic to the shores of New Zealand. Harré’s underlying message is that sustainability is becoming a positive wave, which advocates can only benefit from in their work, and which will have ever wider-reaching effectiveness. So, naturally, Psychology for a Better World is a heartening and positive read.

“People are happiness seekers,” says

Harré. “We want to grow year by year.”She emphasises three strands of effec-

tiveness in this area (and indeed in any change agent scenario): creativity, co-oper-ation and openness to change.

Throughout Psychology for a Better World, Harré approaches sustainability from a moral and ethical perspective, and turns these into powerful persuaders.

“Ultimately, sustainability is a moral issue,” Harré rightly asserts. “We should protect innocent others, and promote fairness.

“These behaviours are held in place by very positive emotions.” She talks about creating a ‘moral disturbance’ to promote social justice.

But on occasion Harré can be direct, too. “I am going to be blunt,” she writes in the opening lines of the section about moral leadership. “We take action in the name of sustainability that contributes to the prob-lem.” But in true Harré style, she returns to and finishes this section with positive responses to this conundrum.

The book is marketed in a way consist-

ent with its intent. I’ve got a hard copy in my hands, but mostly Psychology for a Better World is read from downloaded e-books.

An important note from the author inside the front cover reads: “Please do not circulate the electronic version of this book. Instead, pass on the website address psych.auckland.ac.nz psychologyforabetter-world and encourage people to download a free copy. I need a means to keep track of the book’s reach and the website is critical to this.”

Maintaining her positive approach, Harré spells out a cautionary message about spinning “too many tales of terror” in introducing sustainability issues to the wider community.

“It’s a dangerous tactic for a species that set up to imitate.” Rather, she says, it’s better to “make visible those tales about a flourishing future”.

Psychology for a Better World is rounded off with a practical self-help guide for sustainability advocates. This allows you to think about the possibilities for action at three levels:•lifestylelevel–yourownlife,yourhabitsand routines•organisationallevel–thisiswhereandhow you contribute to the sustainable running of the business you work in; and in Harré’s case it’s being a part of the Transition Town movement Pt Chevalier, and being on the staff at the University of Auckland •civiclevel–makingsubmissions,cam-paigning, being active politically, being part of the debate.

Harré offers all this as part of, “My own imperfect tale of joy, in the hope we can all work together to create a better world.”

In all, the package – the book, the vid-eos, the innovative marketing – are a must-have for any sustainability professional’s bookshelf and role modelling. If only we could all have “imperfect tales of joy” as effective as Harré’s. – Alex Stone

A positive view

justGoodBusiness | Issue 2 20128

coverstory

NZ’s green building challenge

How does New Zealand’s built environment stack up when it comes to issues of quality, efficiency, environmental impact and human health? Who is laying the foundations for improvement? Vicki Jayne checks out our ‘green building’ record.

Future Foundations

justGoodBusiness | Issue 2 20128Sustainability is at the heart of Tauranga law firm Sharp Tudhope and reflected in its Jasmax-designed office building.

coverstory

Issue 2 2012 | justGoodBusiness 9

Leaky buildings, shonky engineering – New Zealand construction often hits the headlines for all the wrong reasons. But recent announcements suggest a ground-

swell of change is under way.Just in the past month, the country’s first NZ Green Building

Council (NZGBC) six Green Star-rated office building, The Geyser, opened in Parnell, and the first five Green Star-rated distribution facility was announced for Mt Wellington – the latter a requirement for its lessee, Ceres Organics. Next year will see the boundaries of innovation pushed still further when the first building designed to meet the Living Building Chal-lenge of running on net zero energy, net zero water and net zero waste shifts from drawing board to site.

It’s been barely six years since Green Star certification kicked off in New Zealand –and we lag well behind the US or Europe in terms of mandatory minimum requirements. For example, in the UK, all new schools will be built to a zero carbon standard from 2016, all new public buildings from 2016 and all new non-domestic buildings from 2019.

New Zealand is not an early adopter of green building practices, notes NZGBC chief executive Alex Cutler. “But we are seeing the majority of new buildings in the current environment recog-nise the value of green features for energy efficiency and for staff productivity.”

The tally of certified “green” buildings now stands at 79; a fur-ther 36 are registered and going through the certification process. And while there’s more up-take in the new building market, green retrofits are also proving their value. Examples include the Christchurch Civic Building Te Hononga (a joint venture be-tween Ngai Tahu Property and the Christchurch City Council) which is a six-star project - as are office fit-outs at BNZ Harbour Quays and Stephenson & Turner in Wellington.

At Fletcher Construction, Services Manager Gemma Collins says most commercial clients appear to have good understand-ing of Green Star and green initiatives.

“Interest in greening buildings is definitely growing – personally I am finding clients are very keen to implement green practice into the design and operation of their buildings – including speculative builds.”

Jasmax Sustainability Officer Jerome Partington believes there’s something of a cultural shift happening as people realise building value is not directly equivalent to the dollars you spend.

“You have to think about this in a more integrated way. I think we’ve made huge progress in a relatively short time. That said, we’ve come from a very low base in terms of the quality of our built environment and quality of buildings in them.”

Issue 2 2012 | justGoodBusiness 9

“The majority of new buildings now recognise the value of green features for energy efficiency and staff productivity.”– Alex Cutler, cheif executive, NZGBC

Zurich House in Auckland’s Queen Street, built by Fletcher Construction for Precinct Properties, boasts a 5 Green Star rating.

justGoodBusiness | Issue 2 201210

coverstory

While Green Star certification is lifting quality and efficiency base-

line for buildings – should we be aiming for transformative rather

than just incremental change?

Several industry players suggest Green Star is a great start point

for better building and business practice. But instead of just going

for reduced energy or water usage, why not create buildings that

run on net zero energy, net zero water and net zero waste?

While that might seem like a pipe dream, one such building now

under way in New Zealand will join well over 100 worldwide that

are designed to meet the “triple net zero” certification standards

set by the Living Building Challenge.

It’s a stretch that people like Partington are up for and Jasmax

is designer for New Zealand’s first Living Building Challenge – the

new $15 million Te Wharehau O Tuhoe headquarters planned

for Taneatua in the Bay of Plenty. Already signed off by iwi, it’s a

project gaining real momentum, says Partington.

“It will be starting on site in January. Adopting the integrated

design principles around a living building is one thing – going for

gold to deliver certification is quite a step up. It’s a real first for

While more clients are expressing an interest in “green” buildings, they are often not sure what they’re asking for, he suggests.

“If you look at the big picture, things like saving on energy and water are fairly easy to achieve. Actually creating a healthy environ-ment for building users pays way bigger dividends than saving a bit of energy. There’s also the issue of aesthetics – beautifully designed buildings are appreciated and better cared for…”

The value that attaches to a green star rating has many facets – both for building owners and users. And there are plenty of reasons why it makes good business sense – from future-proofing building investment to attracting top tenants.

From a strategic standpoint, the global growth of legislation relating to carbon reduction and sustainability will inevitably wash up on local shores. The benchmarks for building performance will rise and those who are not already planning to meet them risk losing market edge.

That applies to retrofits as much as to new builds, notes Cutler.“Applying sustainability principles to the retrofit of buildings costs

less in the long run, prepares your portfolio for future changes in the market – such as energy price increases nd climate change impacts – and positions you as a global player.”

Many leading organisations are already starting to use their workplaces to meet a range of financial drivers and secure competi-tive advantage, says Collins. She lists these as: enhancing corporate reputation; attracting and retaining talented employees; enhancing employee wellbeing and productivity; enhancing and protecting organisation knowledge (where design encourages social interac-tion); reducing liability; and increasing profitability (lower power and energy bills have direct bottom-line impact).

It all makes good business sense.“Well-designed green buildings will save money, increase

Beyond the box

New Zealand. And I think it will be the most efficient office space

in the country when it’s built.”

With 240 photovoltaic (solar) panels mounted to its roof, the

building is designed to generate more energy that it will consume –

enabling the sale of surplus during sunny summer months. Largely

made of timber, it will collect its own rainwater and deal with its

own wastewater and sewage on site. It will be an education asset

to Tuhoe, New Zealand and the world, says Partington.

Such projects are the catalyst for a more integrated and collabo-

rative design approach, says Partington. If you share ideas and

solutions then you start to make real progress rather than coming

up with the same old answers, he suggests.

Cutler agrees that considering a Living Building forces you to

address integrated design from the outset.

“It’s great people are considering projects that are regenerative

as it radically changes how you think about designing, construct-

ing and operating buildings.

“Green Star has been a bit more compromising as you can

address it from a principles approach, which is how we would like

people to consider it, or a checklist approach, which is generally

where people start.”

It’s an approach, says Partington, that really addresses the

constraints of a finite planet rather than just offering incremental

improvements. And the resulting innovation could have much

wider benefits for our economy and society.

“In a way, for New Zealand, the macro picture is where the

value lies. If we can drive innovation in the way we design and

deliver our built environment, then we have the skills, ideas and IP

to export – as well as building a more resilient society at home.”

Issue 2 2012 | justGoodBusiness 11

“Well-designed green buildings will save money, increase comfort and create healthier

environments for people to live and work.”– Jemma Collins, services manager,

Fletcher Construction

comfort and create healthier environments for people to live and work – using improved indoor air quality, natural daylight and ther-mal comfort,” says Collins.

“Creating a great healthy working environment - and saving money on energy usage, too. It’s a no brainer.”

Cutler describes it as “an evolution in learning”.“Once you’ve applied green principles to your building, you’re

unlikely to go back as the result is generally a more efficient, pro-ductive and enjoyable building to be in.

Setting building sights higherMany current buildings barely meet current compliance codes and even “green” protocols work within the existing paradigm but make it a “bit less bad”.

Jason McLennan, the man who originally authored and launched the Living Building Challenge (LBC), reckons we need more aspira-tional goal setting than that.

“We need to reframe the questions – not of how we can be less bad, but what does good look like?”

In Auckland recently, the CEO of the International Living Build-ing Institute (https://ilbi.org) told local planners and architects that “good” is way ahead of current paradigms but totally achievable. There are now more than 160 case studies world wide demonstrat-ing how the performance bar can and should be set higher.

“When we originally launched the challenge in 2006, we didn’t know if we would get projects that were interested in the level of performance we talking about - net zero waste, net zero water, net zero energy… free of red list chemicals and a host of other indica-tors. And we’ve been blown away by the interest and uptake.”

That said, he believes we need to move a lot faster if we’re to create a built environment that is genuinely sustainable in the face of growing resource constraints. That means “leapfrogging” – utilising design and technologies to create radical jumps in building effi-ciency. The goal – buildings that actually work within the carrying capacity or water budget of a particular site, like trees.

The ‘challenge’ has already shown it’s possible to create buildings that function like self-sustaining organic systems – the aim now is to

Entry lobby at the 5-Star rated Quad 5 office building.

Maximising natural light reduces energy use in Sharp Studhope offices.

5-Star rated Ormiston Senior College – a Jasmax design built by Fletcher Construction.

justGoodBusiness | Issue 2 201212

coverstory

spread the word. He says the Living Building Institute is building a network of ambassadors around the world interested in this trans-formation.

“What we’re really trying to do is not just change buildings but change the stuff between our ears. This change is not 30 years away, we don’t have to wait for a technology to invent us. We just have to invent a different design process and different way of thinking.”

So what are the hurdles?One is the perceived added cost – both of the building and the certification process. However, as more investors take the plunge, the cost structures (including longer term paybacks associated with green technology and product life cycle analyses) become a lot clearer – and the associated risks diminish.

“New Zealanders do have a natural risk aversion and in the ‘busi-ness-as-usual’ culture we’re currently in, people want to minimise work and maximise dollar return,” says Partington.

“The key is to have good exemplars built so people can see what is possible – whether in schools or offices. It allows others to follow more quickly because they have the confidence that it is achievable and the outcomes are there to see.”

There are factors that make the local market different to many others, notes Cutler.

“The cost of construction is higher, buildings tend to be smaller and there are more owners. Additional factors such as a government

focused on productivity and an energy sector that is largely based on renewables means that the pressure to recognise environmental benefits is less.

“Although the financials stack up, they may not be quite as advan-tageous as they are in other countries.”

That could change early next year with the launch of a New Zealand version of the National Australian Building Environmen-tal Rating System (NABERS). Adapted to local conditions by the Energy Management Association, NABERSNZ will measure and rate the energy performance of office buildings – and promises to be a market changer, says Cutler.

“It will penetrate the existing building market more deeply be-cause it measures the operational energy performance of a building. As awareness of the tool grows, more tenants will realise that an energy efficient building is cheaper to run in the longer term.”

Partington reckons New Zealand offers a perfect climate for green building options.

“We have such an incredible climate – bountiful solar, very mod-erate temperature swings. If you understand the climate, work with it and spend wisely, then it will give you great results for no extra money. I don’t think people are really cognisant of how easy it is to deliver high performance buildings in this country.”

Optimising design for the site is vital – a point emphasised by Parnell’s “Geyser” architect Andrew Patterson.

“We designed Geyser before the Green Building Council even existed – it was a long process. All the (6 Green Star) certification does, really, is validate our approach. Our belief is that the qualities of a space are intrinsically linked to the ecology of a space – and that is measurable.”

It is, he says, about designing a building as a system instead of just pumping energy into it.

“Although putting tick-box measuring in place is helpful because you have to be able to measure things, I think we have to look at buildings more holistically.

“The ‘parti’ of the building – its concept or shape needs to re-spond to simple things like sun, energy, light – rather than just taking a conventional building and putting in bicycle racks.”

“What we’re really trying to do is not just change buildings but change the stuff between our ears.”– Jason McLennan, CEO, International Living Building Institute

in

nova

tion

The Oliver Wall inside Jasmax-designed Quad 5.

Issue 2 2012 | justGoodBusiness 13

Its soaring double glass facades save energy,

its sophisticated 165-vehicle car stacker

saves space and time; and its occupants

can breathe 100 per cent fresh air. A tour of

the six Green Star-rated Geyser building in

Parnell, Auckland with architect Andrew Pat-

terson highlights the design innovation driving

green building.

A “parti” approach to utilising space means

that the block on Parnell Road houses six

separate glass-walled buildings all awash with

light and utilising the innovative double glass

skins to control temperature and air circulation.

Apart from the ability to use nearly a third less

energy than conventional buildings, the re-

cently completed 24-office space also reduces

water use through rainwater collection and grey

water recycling systems. Christened the Geyser

in deference to Auckland volcanic history, it is,

says Patterson, an attempt to create a building

that is essentially New Zealand in character.

Geyser Innovation

in

nova

tion

Architect Andrew Patterson highlights innovative green design at The Geyser.

justGoodBusiness | Issue 2 201214

coverstory

The sentiment expressed in the old Ogden Nash-ish aphorism (above) is no doubt shared by many

people. Gardens and greenery are lovely – but we don’t all have the time to create, maintain, and live in beatiful arbours.

Now, imagine if this was your experi-ence everyday. Once you’ve installed a Greenair Fytowall or Greenair Vertical Garden at at your office, you get to go to work in a garden, and one that you don’t have to work hard in. Sounds like a win-win to us!

Greenair started out as a plant hire and maintenance business, established in Auck-land in 2001 by Simon Chamberlain. His hired plantscapes contribute to a healthy work environment, and indeed healthier inner city all round.

Says Chamberlain of his business: “Greenair is a sustainably-managed plant hire, plantscaping and green wall business based in Grey Lynn, Auckland. We use ethics, creativity, skills and knowledge to design and install healthy, attractive natural environments. Architects and designers work with us for building fit-outs. Event companies call on us to give their events visual impact.”

Now Chamberlain and Greenair are progressing a step further – literally going up the wall.

Greenair has recently taken up the NZ agency for Fytowall – a modular system developed by another Kiwi in Australia, Geoff Heard. Based in Melbourne, Fyto-

wall are among Australia’s largest sup-pliers of green walls, having done some impressive installations. In ten years they have built about 1000m2 of vertical walls in Australian cities. Most recently they completed a 377m2 green wall on Bligh Street, Sydney, a Six Star Green Star of-fice design.

The Fytowall system is now Greenair’s premier product. It is ideal for commercial spaces and large private residences.

The Greenair Fytowall vertical garden system features a series of modular panels containing a lightweight soil-less grow-ing media in which a variety of plants can grow. The Fytowall is supported by a hydroponic watering system to ensure it is watered on a regular basis.

The panels can be attached to any

Photosynthesis at workBreathe Green Air

vertical surface such as a wall, fence or balcony.

At the time of installation, the plants are already pre-grown and trained for vertical growing, creating an instant estab-lished visual display. The Fytowall is then maintained by Greenair on a monthly basis to ensure the investment is always looking its best.

At the moment Chamberlain and Gree-nair are concentrating on the corporate market in the inner city environment. But he concedes there will be great possibilities for future expansion in the DIY market – smaller, own-assembled and maintained green walls for small (or home) offices, shops, boutique hotels, and apartments.

You’re bound to brush past a Greenair living wall sometime soon. – Alex Stone

“There’s nothing I like better than a garden, that someone else works hard in.”

Greenair is a sustainably managed plant hire, plantscaping and vertical garden business based in Grey Lynn, Auckland. We use ethics, creativity, skills and knowledge to design and install healthy and attractive natural environments.

Architects and designers work with us for building fit-outs. Event companies call on us to give their events visual impact. We work directly with corporate customers who need office plants to create healthy workplaces and boost staff productivity. Greenair’s plant hire business also encompasses ongoing maintenance so your environment is always looking its best.

Working with nature, as we do, our green convictions run deep. At the same time, we have a sharp design sense that ensures you will see a result that makes exactly the right impression. Our design team will make recommendations that are compatible with your budget, building style and company culture.

Your need for office plants and plantscapes with fabulous visual impact and energising air cleaning abilities, drives Greenair to provide the experience and creativity uniquely designed for your project needs.

Using interior plant hire concepts, from simple office plants to creating amazing living walls, we work together and share each other’s ideas about healthy workplaces and green buildings.

We also comb the world for sustainably sourced product innovations that help us to stretch our imaginations for your projects.

Green WallsGreenair is very passionate about creating living walls in urban environments that grow into the future. Our design team will come up with creative ideas that will bring your ideas to life. The green wall design and plant selection will be sustainable and compatible with the weather and light conditions, building style, company culture, and of course, budget.

Green Facades and the Greenair Vertical GardenGreenair creates beautiful internal and external green facades using trellis, cables and mesh to train climbing plants and shrubs to cover buildings and walls and create screening within the office space.

The Greenair Vertical Garden system is a lightweight steel frame that

contains lightweight pots stacked above each other. These can be used for indoor or outdoor environments. These are custom made and colour coded to your requirements. The pots and plants are chosen on the light and weather conditions of your environment. The Vertical Garden can be used to cover corporate buildings, or as office screening dividers. On recent installations the building owners and architects have found these to be cost effective compared to building an internal wall or recovering a building. Greenair are building and designing these in Auckland, the turnaround time is approximately 1 week depending on the size of the installation.

These popular lightweight green facades and vertical gardens offer benefits for amenity and thermal control – they can reduce building temperatures and air-conditioning costs, reduce reflective light and heat and offer acoustic insulation while producing oxygen and gorgeous greening effects. They are also highly appealing when used in an indoor setting to create screening in open-planned office spaces. Greenair’s green facades continue to grow and the changing floral and decorative effects delight and inspire people.

Contact us today!Speak to the team today to discuss the most appropriate product for your space at info@greenair.co.nz or on 0800 725 648.

www.greenair.co.nz

0800 725 648

justGoodBusiness | Issue 2 201216

jGB interview

Her influence within the iconic organisation, which employs around 10,650 people (or 8638 FTE) is as an effective catalyst, making Heighway a true Sustainability Cham-

pion. Heighway’s presence and energy will help be the impetus for changed behaviour towards true sustainability (both in the wider corporate area, and among individual employees), getting practical things done, and for reaching NZ Post’s ambitious targets.

The organisation structure of NZ Post Group and placement of Heighway’s role ensure this, as she works in daily contact with the CEO and the group executive team of nine senior managers.

Although reporting directly to the manager of the Group Assur-ance Directorate – a kind of all-encompassing corporate affairs unit – she is able, through internal communication streams and influence on middle managers, to reach everyone in the organisation, all the way to frontline Post Shop and KiwiBank staff, and to posties out there on their bikes.

Many sustainability professionals are interested in learning where their contemporaries sit within organisational structures, the better to understand influence and practical effectiveness. Heighway feels that her role is well situated for this, with the senior executive team all be-ing “totally behind and enthused by the sustainability challenge. “

“The fluent internal communications we have mean that this pas-sion from these managers can be streamed directly to their teams, and so onwards and outwards.”

To this end, Heighway sees her and her team of three direct re-ports, and another five people with assorted sustainability portfolios, most effectively employed in an advisory and support role for all the many and varied business units within the NZ post group. “We don’t see ourselves as being preachy – rather as facilitators. And so we can encourage and support initiatives from within these business units.

“We can work across all areas of the business.”

“I’m taking the big words out of sustainability.”Make it PersonalSophie Heighway has been the corporate sustainability manager at New Zealand Post for 18 months now, and is relishing this “hugely pivotal” role.

Heighway lists the sustainability goals at NZ Post, and typically is thinking big, and thinking long-term: “As our CEO, Brian Roche, says, we have been around for 170 years and we want to be around for another 170.”

More specifically, she lists another four goals: “To make money; to have no adverse environmental impact; to look after our people; and to have a positive impact on our clients, suppliers and the wider community.”

Heighway acknowledges a few challenges facing the financial sustainability of the traditional postal service model: “People are sending fewer letters, that’s true. But thanks to Trade Me, and other online selling operations, parcels are on the increase. KiwiBank is growing too.”

For Heighway and NZ Post, sustainability is a broad, all-encom-passing imperative. They approach it through four routes: financial sustainability; environmental guardianship; community engagement; and the wider marketplace.

Issue 2 2012 | justGoodBusiness 17

This carbon reduction has been achieved in some traditional, some innovative ways. Upgrading the vehicle fleet, which involved re-considering the fleet maintenance policy, and establishing new vehicle replacement rules. Most of the fleet is an average age of five years old, or four years on heavy commercial. Most of NZ Post’s leased fleet is replaced after three to four years.

But buying a newer, more efficient plane (for airmail deliv-eries), and giving pilots’ rewards for smoother flying is really showing your commitment. There’s been a 22% reduction in fuel use between new and old 737 aircraft. (There’s nothing flash to show, as the planes are not branded, just plain white.) Details of fuel savings achieved by the pilots themselves is not at hand, but it is in their contract, and they must do better year on year. They have better tools available to make improvements, such as improved GPS, improved weather radars, and monthly updates on fuel use.

Other initiatives in the carbon reduction project are: • Energy audits at over 350 sites and subsequent improvements

leading to savings of over 19% in energy use since 2007 • New build fit-outs to high standards • Ongoing staff engagement • Driver training • Innovation eg, trialling new technology.

The carbon accounting system taken on by NZ Post is, as per industry best practice, using The GreenHouse Gas Protocol, a corporate accounting and reporting standard published by the World Resources Institute (WRI).

A few personal notes: Heighway has previously worked in London, in an economic development role at Camden Council. She graduated from Auckland University with a Masters Degree in Environmental Science, spent a few more years in NZ before heading off on her OE.

Heighway said this education has set her up well for a career in corporate sustainability. The holistic approach to business and environment and the obvious human influences on this are very important to understand, it’s not just about making business do better... you have to engage people’s hearts and minds.

In a governance capacity, she is on the Sustainable Business Network (SBN) Board and also sits on the Executive Committee of the Sustainable Business Council.

“Anyone who has worked with Sophie will be aware of her hard work and determination particularly around integrating sustainability into the fabric of the organisations she has worked in,” says Rachel Brown, CEO of the SBN.

Heighway lives in Auckland, and travels often to NZ Post head-quarters in Wellington, conceding “my footprint is not great”.

“But I do believe this is offset by the influence I can have with so many people, and that’s what really motivates me.” So, in the wider picture, Heighway is making a difference. – Alex Stone

“We have been around for 170 years, and want to be around for another 170.”– Sophie Heighway

Heighway has been instrumental in NZ Post adopting the company-wide Project Lightfoot initiative – the first New Zealand organisation to do so . This is an online commitment for individual employees and the teams they work in to reduce their environmen-tal impacts – at work and at home.

“I’m sending a personal message to everyone in our team,” Heigh-way said.

“We can all make a difference. We are making it an everyday thing. We can make it real.

“I am taking the big words out of sustainability.”NZ Post has just come to the end of their ‘12 by 12’ carbon

reduction project, a challenge they set themselves five years ago, to reduce overall group carbon usage by 12% by 2012.

Heighway couldn’t conceal the pride in her voice when she said the results have recently been analysed to reveal the actual reduc-tion was 16.1%. “It’s not enough though, so we’re aiming for an additional 2% reduction, per year, for the next three years.”

Casual, comfortable, humming with conversation and reeking of good coffee, Jasmax HQ in down-

town Auckland is a workplace buzzing with life – and productivity.

Staff audits reveal that perceived pro-ductivity has improved more than eight percent since the company moved into its new offices – retrofitted from a 1960s warehouse with sustainability, creativity and collaboration all firmly to the fore – three years ago. It all helps to highlight why the company sees its sustainability

Enriching the Lives of People With Disabilities.

There are many good reasons to work with Abilities Group, like great results, competitive rates and our ongoing commitment to recycling and sustainability.

But most importantly, when you outsource to us, you’re giving someone a reason to feel proud and valued, and that’s something truly worth sustaining.

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Issue 2 2012 | justGoodBusiness 19

case study

It costs no more than a new office chair – but the recent rollout of smart metering through its 180 branches is an

important step in Westpac bank’s ongoing sustainability journey. And it’s already pay-ing dividends.

While the technology behind smart metering is not new, this level of rollout – an initiative the bank is undertaking with power company Meridian – is a first for New Zealand. It’s also a great example of the old adage that what gets measured can be managed.

Basically what a smart meter does is provide realtime information of energy consumption – it records half-hourly con-sumption data, regularly transmits that data, and also receives meter configuration data. In other words, it offers facility managers the ability to view a snapshot of energy use at any site, to benchmark across sites – and to use that data as a platform from which to monitor additional improvements.

Knowing what, how and when power is used provides the opportunity to make changes, says Meridian Energy’s business marketing manager Hamish McEwen.

“In Westpac’s case, for instance, it identi-fied that one of its branches had an average night-time load way higher than it should have been – and that has enabled them to correct a problem that was costing them several thousand dollars a year.”

For Westpac, the rollout is part of its award-winning “Our Tomorrow Project”.

The energy management programme

started about four years ago when the bank started collecting information on power usage across its branch network, explains Westpac’s national facilities manager, Jack Crutzen.

“We used that to establish some bench-marks for energy use and to look at what opportunities we could find for reduction. Through that process, we have reduced our total energy consumption by 25 percent – for Westpac that is more than a seven-figure dollar value.”

But more detailed real-time analysis was required to achieve further gains.

“With this system I can go via my IT net-work to the smart meter and see how we are doing but can also give a signal to the aircon or lighting to turn on or off at any time. So it gives you more flexibility in how you run your buildings,” says Crutzen.

It’s all in line with a philosophy of work-ing smarter.

“If you want to make a serious difference in sustainability and energy management, you have to be smarter in how you operate – you can only run smart buildings if you have smart tools. That is the basis of it – the rest is all technology.”

McEwen says the smart meter project was part of the power supply agreement Meridian struck with Westpac last year. It probably helps that Meridian is 100 percent committed to renewable energy – “and we really do want our customers to use less power”.

Smart metering, he says, is part of the

Powering SustainabilitySmart Solutions

company’s own electricity waste reduction programme.

“It provides the basis on which you can build more smarts. For instance, we’re now looking at an LED programme and will be able to build very robust cases for the value of doing it because we have all the relevant data.”

He says the rollout took around six months with average installation cost per site around $250-$400.

Crutzen says the project didn’t require extra personnel as existing staff stepped up. Savings are a good incentive – and it’s not just about reducing Meridian invoices but, when carbon costing comes in, that will also be reduced.

“The good thing is that the savings you make in this, you can then use to invest in even smarter solutions. I call it the spinning wheel effect – once the wheel starts roll-ing, the savings become bigger. And its not just dollar savings, it’s also about customer experience, risk reduction, Westpac brand support and sustainability.”

Down the track are projects like smarter design of retail fitouts with the focus on things like LED lighting and solar gain. It’s all part of an ongoing journey, he says.

“It’s definitely part of the bigger picture of Westpac doing the right thing in sustain-ability management.”

Smart metering delivers a win-win for Westpac and Meridian.

Westpac’s Jack Crutzen with Mike Janus (Meridian Energy) and project coordinator Shannon McQueen (Westpac).

justGoodBusiness | Issue 1 201220

case study

Casual, comfortable, humming with conversation and reeking of good coffee, Jasmax HQ in down-

town Auckland is a workplace buzzing with life – and productivity.

Staff audits reveal that perceived pro-ductivity has improved more than eight percent since the company moved into its new offices – retrofitted from a 1960s warehouse with sustainability, creativity and collaboration all firmly to the fore – three years ago. It all helps to highlight why the company sees its sustainability

journey both as a natural fit and as simply the right way to do business.

The spaces in which people work or live inevitably influence how they work and live – walled off and functioning in specialist silos or open, integrated and col-laborative. Similar feedback loops operate between the built and natural environ-ments. Thinking and designing sustainably takes that into account. It’s about taking a systems-based approach, notes Jasmax’s sustainability leader Jerome Partington.

“Buildings are systems in their own

Building transformationJasmax

rights, which are also part of larger sys-tems – social, economic and the biosphere, which underpins our very existence…”

It’s why, both as core value and stra-tegic framework, he sees the company’s embrace of sustainability as a natural fit. Architects, he says, are trained to be sys-tems’ thinkers.

“The focus may be on design, but archi-tects have a good overview as to how the various components of the built environ-ment work as a whole. They are also the holders of the vision.

case study

What’s the difference between sustainability and smart design? Well – not a lot, which is why leading architectural firm Jasmax sees sustainability as both core value and good business practice.

Issue 2 2012 | justGoodBusiness 21

“They work in a profession that has to envisage the future and deliver it.”

And there’s little doubt that the future will involve work and living spaces that are healthier, less resource hungry and more in tune with the environment they occupy.

“We are well aware of what is going on around the world. We’re future thinkers,” says Partington. “We’re also aware that this is the right way to do business.”

Partington has long held a passion for sustainability and sees architecture as a good vehicle for that – but says it became more formalised as a strategic driver of company practice after he undertook The Natural Step training about six years ago. That prompted a company-wide strategic visioning process.

“We agreed that we wanted to be a sustainable company delivering sustainable environments. Out of that came my job de-scription – to ensure we deliver sustainable and innovative designs; that we educate all our stakeholders; and that we green our own business.

“That has really defined my work for the past five years. And out of that we’ve devel-oped a strategic integrated design process which, although we’re still learning and evolving with it, we are already using with very powerful results.”

In terms of its own business, Jasmax achieved Enviro-Mark Diamond certification in 2011– and its waste to landfill is one of the lowest audited quantities in the country.

“We recycle what we can, have an on-site battery of worm farms dealing with organic waste, use mainly rainwater to flush the toilets and our next major move is retrofit-ting a building management system (BMS) which will probably save us about 25 percent of our present energy use.”

The company has earned several sustain-

ability awards and its own HQ proved “an incredible learning journey for us”, says Partington.

“The building is very good for our culture and productivity but is also fantastic for some of the learning as well, so we can share with clients what is good and what needs improvement.”

Getting buy-in could be described as a slow build – as one successful project feeds learning to the next.

“You do need articulate champions – you need people who really understand the context of the industry, the sector you work in, where the blockages are. And it’s a slow process. I’m always hunting for opportuni-ties that allow us to engage, to create the case studies that mean others can sign off on the risk – because it’s already been done, been proved possible.”

In this way, each sustainable project incrementally stretches the art of possibil-ity as well as feeding into a way of working that is more collaborative – with different specialities pooling knowledge and sharing what they know to push the boundaries of innovation.

“After a while, I don’t manage it – it just happens. I never cease to be surprised by what is popping up. That leads me onto the fact that buildings are not stand-alone, even though we often treat them as such. But we really need to be looking at eco-precincts or eco-campuses and how the natural unit of land operates as a whole – the water flows

and climate. Is it in denial of the ecological system it is sitting in, or is it something that can adapt over time?”

A sponsor for the recent visit to Auckland of the Living Building Challenge founder Jason F McLennan, Jasmax is keen to keep pushing the green building envelope. Introducing McLennan’s Auckland Conver-sations presentation, Partington said that, “The NZ construction sector has been on a race into the abyss – delivering the low-est possible value at the cheapest cost on day one without factoring in longer energy costs, health impacts or environmental impacts, let alone the ‘fixing up’ later.”

He says the beauty of the Living Building Challenge is that it defines where we need to get to so we have common goals.

“It is a performance or outcome driven program, not just about engineering less harm but addressing quality of life issues around beauty, culture, food, living more sustainably. We get an incredibly powerful connection from clients and people exposed to that. It’s really a no brainer. This is where we need to be going.”

It’s not just about reputation, he says, but survival.

“It’s about building a resilient society, surviving as a culture to be part of that global family of countries getting on with providing solutions, sharing and helping and learning. The task is so relatively easy for us here in New Zealand that if we can’t do it, why would anybody else engage?” – Vicki Jayne

“We agreed that we wanted to be a sustainable company delivering sustainable environments.”– Jerome Partington, sustainability leader, Jasmax

They’re scattered around the coun-try, come in all sizes and probably hold a bunch of different opinions

about sustainable business practice. So why – and how – is Toyota NZ encouraging its many local dealerships to gain Enviro-Mark certification?

It’s a story that starts at global level – with a parent company commitment that dates back two decades. But there is also a strong local rationale, as Toyota Sustainabil-ity officer Tristan Lavender makes clear.

“For me, it’s about being smart in how you operate your business and that is a lot to do with what are the risks it faces. Is

there a risk that the business might have negative impacts on the environment or on the community in which it operates, or on staff? It just makes sense to look at those issues and do things properly.

“And the flip side is that there are ben-efits for doing that – like connecting with customers, providing a competitive edge, gaining efficiencies around cost and just offering a framework for focus on what is contributing to overall business profitability. So it’s about fool-proofing your business and making it more viable in the long term.”

It’s also a case of brand congruence. When the parent company is pioneering

Steering clear of riskWhy is Toyota NZ embracing the challenge of rolling environmental management systems out through its New Zealand-wide dealerships? It’s just smart practice.

Toyota NZ

hybrid technology and taking a life-cycle approach to its manufacturing operations, then it’s a case of getting in behind and walking the same talk.

“We need to show a responsibility and commitment and leadership in New Zea-land as well. So we focused on what we can do in this country because we think people should be scrutinising companies on that basis,” says Lavender.

The process has been a two-phase one. Toyota’s refurbishment plant at Thames already has ISO 140001 because the parent company requires all its manufacturing facilities to meet that level of environmental

case study

Issue 2 2012 | justGoodBusiness 23

standard. But that single step to certification was seen as a jump too far for dealerships, says Lavender.

“It’s very difficult for smaller businesses to dedicate the time and resources it requires. We already have Enviro-Mark certification at our Head Office so we looked at that for our dealerships as well. One advantage is that it offers a staged process via five levels: bronze, silver, gold, platinum and diamond.

“It means you can bite off chunks of it, building up robustness and activity over time. So that was a key appeal for us. The other thing was the level of support you get from Landcare. They have some real ex-perts in terms of giving you guidance, sup-port and help. It is a hand-holding process that is of great benefit to the range of issues a dealership might face.”

Gaining buy-in is an on-going challenge, he says. Toyota has around 32 core dealers – some with its own branches – all of which tots up to some 67 sites. Trying to keep eve-ryone progressing and ensuring they have the information they need on hand, is just the nuts-and-bolts part of it.

“Introducing new activities inevitably means confronting established practices and ingrained behaviour – and that is one of the main obstacles. You’re coming up with something new that can take a while to be fully understood and accepted as normal practice.”

Different dealerships are also likely to have different motivations. While some relate to the environmental aspect of behaviour change, others are more likely to buy into a risk management rationale or opportunity to save money on overhead expenditure. The dealerships also vary quite widely in size and resources, which means that the extra work involved in run-ning an environmental management plan

has to be fitted around existing workloads.“We asked them to nominate champions

in their dealership to progress activities and that person can range from an administra-tive assistant, department manager or CEO – so they have a lot of other stuff across their desk,” says Lavender.

He has prepared materials specific to dealer operations and held training courses around the country to deliver them. It wasn’t entirely new – Toyota NZ had intro-duced environmental requirements five to six years back but these were self-assessed, notes Lavender.

“We wanted something a bit more rigor-ous and something that was independently audited.”

The first training sessions kicked off in March 2011 with a requirement that dealers achieve Enviro-Mark “silver” before the year’s end. Some got the bit between their teeth and progressed even further, says Lavender

“By December, we not only had everyone up to the second step (bronze and silver) but seven sites had progressed to gold. Some of the dealers are quite competitive and for some of the smaller ones who can’t compete on sales or profit, this represented something they could run ahead on.”

He admits to being “quietly surprised” by the pace of progress and is now planning to work with one site to keep pushing the boundary – up to platinum.

As to wins – Lavender says that people are starting to share positive stories. Many have reduced their electricity consumption with at least one large dealership having re-

duced energy costs by a massive 30 percent. On the risk side, another dealership was able to quickly convince the local council that a pollution incident in the nearby river didn’t emanate from its site.

“The dealer talked through the envi-ronmental management activities and the Council went on with their investigations among neighbouring businesses,” says Lavender.

Others are saving money on waste col-lection because they are recycling more; several are initiating their own activi-ties, setting up new processes for the oils, solvents, batteries, coolants and many other substances removed from vehicles during their servicing. Improvements range from significant investments, such as new heat exchangers or oil tanks, to smaller projects, such as the setting up of a worm farm to divert paper hand towels and kitchen waste away from the general waste bin.

In terms of market reaction, it’s probably early days.

“We need to raise awareness of the great work our dealers are undertaking but I’m sure it is going to be positive. People like to see businesses taking responsibility for their environmental impacts and taking leader-ship – and I think we are doing that.”

As the case studies start building up, people will start getting the message and see the value of what is being achieved, he believes.

“I think perhaps we are showing that we are tackling the issues here in New Zealand. We are not leaning on our parent com-pany’s reputation.” – Vicki Jayne

Faced with “a horror show in the sprayshed” Hamilton and Miller found a catalyst for another move

soon after – to establishing their own wine-growing operation, Kaimira Wines, and the journey towards Sustainable Winegrowing Practices (commenced in 1996), Car-boNZero accreditation (achieved in 2006), Organic Certification (achieved for the

vineyards in June 2012, after a three year process) – and just recently in September 2012 winning the Central and Southern Region Sustainable Business of the Year award from the Sustainable Business Net-work (SBN), as well as the Small Business-Trailblazer Award. A great run so far, for this family-owned business!

During their truncated time as apple

Galvanised by horror show in the sprayshedKaimira Wines

growers, Hamilton said they were dis-mayed by the heavy reliance on spray re-gimes, and in those days the recommended practice of ‘spraying by the calendar’, whether there was a real need for it or not. “There was a system to stick to – rather than a supple view of sustainability in ac-tion in the real world, or reduced foot-prints where possible.”

case study

It was a bold change-of-life decision that lead former public servants June Hamilton and Ian Miller to buy a rural property near Nelson and briefly become apple orchardists.

Issue 2 2012 | justGoodBusiness 25

When they did plant grapes the pro-grammes of Sustainable Winegrowing NZ were just being introduced (in a roll out across the country starting in 1996). Kaimira Vineyards immediately elected to exceed those requirements. As an aside, Sustainability Winegrowing NZ set ambitious objectives, largely achieved, of having the vast majority of New Zealand vineyards across the country following voluntarily-accepted guidelines by 2010.

See their website http://wineinf.nzwine.com/swnzabout.asp for more on this history.

Sixteen years later, Hamilton and Miller continue to be open-minded, experiment-ing incessantly, always looking for natural advantages to be found in sustainable techniques or practices in the vineyards and winery.

For example, they’ve heaped mus-sel shells under their young vines. These help reflect light upwards to the ripening grapes, and also keep weeds down.

Like many other low-impact vineyards, they have seeded the sward, the area between the vine rows, with mixed grasses, and allowed these to grow to knee height. This becomes the home for insects ben-eficial to the plants – usually predators that take out the pest insects with a taste for sweet grapes. Hamilton and Miller have also planted wildflower seeds on the outside verges of the vine block – this for the pure beauty of it all (there’s a strong aesthetic aspect to winegrowing as Miller, an amateur artist, is well aware), plus the insect hosting properties.

These small examples are just a part of a wider ethos of careful guardianship of the land, and of a commitment to environ-mental and financial sustainability for the business.

They have succeeded in creating a

green business – and producing top qual-ity wine. Celebrated master of wine Bob Campbell said “Kaimira is one of Nelson’s rising stars.”

A core driver behind the building of the new Kaimira winery in 2007 was future proofing the facility – and ultimately the business itself – as the winery complex is usually such a major investment for a boutique vineyard. To this end, the roof of the winery has been designed to take an extended array of solar panels, so when the time comes to install them and make the switch to total, independent solar power generation, then they can do that with the minimum of disruption and cost. At present, use of solar energy is limited to water heating only.

Also, looking ahead to climate change developments, Hamilton predicts that re-liability of water supply could become an issue. “We must treat water as a precious resource, even now, even in New Zealand where we’re fortunate to have a gener-ous supply.” Consequently, she and Miller are proud of the state-of-the-art waste water treatment plant they have installed at the winery. By recycling treated water back to irrigation for the vines, they have

managed to reduce their property’s water usage to about one quarter of the indus-try average, using only about two litres of water for each litre of wine produced. (The New Zealand wine industry’s aver-age water use is eight litres for every litre of wine made.)

Kaimira Ventures owns and operates three vineyards totalling 26 hectares. All the vineyards are certified organic (by Asure Quality) and viticultural practices are overseen by the Kaimira manager. The winery is currently certified Sustain-able and will be accredited organic from vintage 2013.

Hamilton, who is also Kaimira Wines’ sales manager, is refreshingly direct about the benefits of the sustainable pathway she and Miller have chosen. “I absolutely detest greenwashing.” What they do is for real; and it comes from the heart.

When I asked her if they had looked to overseas models for their vineyard’s journey, she simply said, “Our inspiration comes from being Kiwis,” though she did add that visits to vineyards in France confirmed and validated where they were going. And that appears to be to ever greater success through sustainability in practise. – Alex Stone

Sustainable Winegrowing NZSustainable Winegrowing New Zealand was developed in 1995 to:

• Provide a ‘best practice’ model of environmental practices in the vineyard and winery.

• Guarantee better quality assurance from the vineyard through to the bottle.

• Address consumer concerns regarding products which are made taking care to respect

the environment.

The programme aims to deliver the following benefits to its members:

• A framework for viticultural and winemaking practices that protect the environment while

efficiently and economically producing premium wine grapes and wine.

• A programme of continual improvement to ensure companies operate with a goal of

improving their operational practices.

• A platform for technology transfer so that companies are kept up to date regarding any

new technology and its application.

• An external audit structure with integrity and rigour to comply with market expectations.

• Opportunity to be a part of the positive future and the New Zealand Wine industry goal

of 100% of grape growers and winemakers operating under approved independently

audited sustainability programmes.

justGoodBusiness | Issue 2 201226

case study

Sprawling across five campuses, with a property portfolio that in-cludes 212 buildings and a popula-

tion of over 44,000, Auckland University is the size of a small town – and growing. So is its commitment to sustainability.

Initiatives put in place over the past few years have seen a rapidly rising energy bill flatlined – with estimated savings of $3 mil-

lion. Water consumption has levelled, waste been reduced and more efficient procure-ment practices introduced – just for starters.

More importantly, there has been a major shift in organisational culture – and sustainability objectives are now being formally incorporated into the university’s strategic plan for 2013-2020.

That basically means each of the many

Creating cultural shiftAuckland University

divisions within the university will have specific sustainability objectives they are accountable for – making sustainability a formalised part of how the university delivers its core purpose.

That’s a biggie, says Dr Lesley Stone who, as manager, sustainability and envi-ronment, Office of the Vice Chancellor and Property Services, has been busy per-

case study

“Your programme has to resonate with your people.”– Lesley Stone, manager, sustainability & environment, Auckland University

The story of how Auckland University learned to take sustainability into its strategic heart is all about engaging people.

Issue 2 2012 | justGoodBusiness 27

colating sustainability projects throughout the university for the past six years.

“The great thing is that our new strategic plan will have specific objectives around this – whereas everything we’ve done so far has been about working with and encouraging people, communicating the results of what they do, and building on those. There’s been lots of projects, lots of things bubbling away but it was all done without much explicit mention in the 2005-2012 strategic plan.”

What that six years worth of bubbling has helped create is culture change – a subject that is both Stone’s expertise and passion. Essentially, it’s about engagement.

“The first thing – and the approach I’ve taken working with a wide range of groups – is that your programme has to really resonate with your people. You’re never going to change culture without getting people on board.”

So, her first move when she took on the job was to ask people from student reps to academic staff and senior managers what they thought was the most important priority for her position.

“From this you get a whole list of ideas that are going to have the most resonance across the board and focus on those.”

Results were not entirely predictable. Ahead of concerns about climate change or energy use, a common theme proved to be communication, says Stone.

“People wanted to know what is hap-pening, what could happen, where could they help, what outcomes there would be if they did…it was all stuff around com-munication.”

Another theme with wider resonance was leadership – how the University could provide it, how individuals might be able to generate initiatives themselves, how they could support others or get involved.

And next on the list – rubbish.“If I had known I was going to spend the

next six years inspecting rubbish bins and rolling our recycling programmes, I might just have stayed home,” Stone laughs. “But

you can’t ask your people what is impor-tant and then ignore it.”

Nor can you get too exclusive about where you put your focus, she adds.

“For instance, energy, and its associated carbon emissions, is critical. It costs us $9 million a year. So you can’t just ignore that and say we’re going to mess with rubbish now. You have to find a selection of projects and initiatives that will resonate broadly with people.”

While the range of fronts on which sustainability programmes can operate is daunting, it’s not difficult to get engagement, she says. People do want to get involved – but they want to focus on what is important to them. A recycling enthusiast may not be quite so focused on turning lights off – but if they get a recycling project, then it’s easier to engage them on energy saving initiatives as well.

As well as getting a range of projects under way, it is important to share success stories – building on existing achievements so people don’t feel they are starting from scratch. One example, says Stone, was the university’s historically low energy consumption.

“We’ve had an energy manager beavering away for years, doing amazing work. That’s a great story to tell – it’s about respecting and communicating those achievements.”

Story telling, she emphasises, is a huge part of the change process – the challenge is getting those stories out to what is a fairly disparate and transient community.

“Around 38,000 students, 6000 staff – that’s a lot of people who have different focuses, work in different disciplines, live off site and are only randomly connected. Engaging students who are there for only a short period is a challenge.”

That said, there are now about 1800 stu-dents enrolled in a ‘greening the university’ initiative, many of them actively involved in power usage surveys or spotting gaps in the recycling programmes.

As well as the operational side of “cam-pus greening”, the University of Auckland’s academic programmes increasingly incorpo-

rate sustainability principles and practice. It has signed up to the global Universitas 21 Sustainability Project which commits the university to progressing global sustainable development in five key areas.

There’s also a university-funded research centre that offers a cross-disciplinary ap-proach to “transforming cities” – an exciting space for building a common language and direction. But the sustainability journey, says Stone, has only just started.

“We’ve really just scratched the surface of what can be achieved.”

So far, progress has all been achieved without adopting a specific environmental management system because, she says, it was important to get the cultural buzz happen-ing.

“Now we have a need with the strategic plan to deliver on key performance indica-tors within a period of time, I think there would be some merit in having an acces-sible measuring system to help people plot progress.”

Getting this far, she says, has required patience – and nerves of steel.

“There are times to try and drive things and times to just let them percolate, so you do a bit of both all the time. The feedback loops keep the whole thing moving along. “We’re getting to the point where people at the University of Auckland do this stuff be-cause it’s what we do here – it’s not periph-eral or being imposed from outside.”

Not keen on making a distinction between incremental and transformational change (“it’s all just about time”), Stone suggests you can only do what you can within the context of what you have.

“I think it’s about flexibility of purpose and process – how you work with your people and with what you’ve got, how you help others do what they need to do. I can’t change what 44,000 people do. Only they can change what they do. We can set up a context to nurture and build that impetus, so we maximise the potential for them to do it. But ultimately they have to do it them-selves.” – Vicki Jayne

justGoodBusiness | Issue 2 201228

energy

From Google to General Electric, some of the world’s most successful businesses are moving ahead with

what has been termed the fifth fuel – en-ergy efficiency.

As global demand for energy rises, pres-sure is being put on the four traditional fuels of coal, petroleum, nuclear and alter-native energies. Increasingly businesses are looking to energy efficiency to hedge against rising costs and supply security issues.

From direct cost savings to reduction in carbon emissions, and enhanced brand val-ue, the business benefits of energy efficiency are many and varied. Regardless of sector or size, optimising energy efficiency in business requires commitment from management and a systematic, strategic approach.

In my last column for this magazine, I challenged New Zealand’s business leaders to answer some tough questions about their energy use. These questions ranged from finding out how much businesses spend on energy each year across an organisa-tion, to the likely impact on brand value of not meeting customer expectations about managing carbon emissions.

Getting answers to these questions enables business leaders to understand how they use energy, making them better equipped to make energy efficiency im-provements that impact the bottom line.

When designing its recently launched Heavy Vehicle Fuel efficiency programme, these were the sorts of questions EECA asked fleet operators.

In New Zealand some fleets are perform-ing much better than others. These are typically those where management has an-swered the tough questions on energy use.

However, EECA’s research showed that many operators didn’t have good answers to the tough questions and this helped us to shape the programme.

Focusing on overcoming what are the biggest barriers to greater fuel efficiency – a lack of information, time and capability – the programme will help fleet operators with a range of practical measures.

These range from providing training for a number of Heavy Vehicle Performance Advisors, who go into fleets and review driver and vehicle performance, to funding assistance for driver training and a compre-hensive on-line information resource.

The programme seeks to help fleet opera-tors of all sizes lift their game. To be truly effective, the initiative needs the support of the C-suite – senior managers and owners.

By asking and answering the tough ques-tions, business leaders can transform the way fleets in this country use energy.

It is clear that there are significant op-portunities in New Zealand’s road freight sector, which is one of the least fuel efficient in the OECD. As an industry that trav-erses many sectors from dairy to forestry, the energy efficiency of New Zealand’s 130,000-strong heavy vehicle fleet is a significant issue.

Transporting nearly everything we use and consume, road freight is a key link in the supply chain and, using around one billion litres of diesel every year, it is a major user of energy. And because the cost of diesel makes up a component of the price of nearly all goods we use or export, the benefits of a more energy-efficient heavy vehicle fleet are felt across the wider economy.

A good example of improved fleet ef-ficiency is New Zealand Post Group, which has made fuel cost savings of $4.5 million since 2008 and was a finalist in the trans-port category of the 2012 EECA awards.

To enjoy these levels of savings, firms need to have the right policies and plans in place. This has been key for New Zealand Post where such plans have supported ef-fective measurement and monitoring of fuel consumption.

On the question of how energy manage-ment forms an overall approach to produc-tivity and minimisation of waste, NZ Post’s success is again a good example. Alongside a host of high-tech solutions and policies, its focus on waste minimisation extends across the company and even includes old-fashioned, zero-energy mail delivery, via foot and bike.

Finally, the food-miles debate of several years ago, during which some in the UK used the distance our exports travel (with-out calculating energy use during transit or the amount of energy required to produce goods) to discourage consumers from buy-ing them, was an important lesson.

Increasingly it is necessary for business leaders, whether their firms are export or domestically focused, to think about the impact of their firms’ carbon foot-print on customers and suppliers.

With improved fuel efficiency, fleet op-erators will be more productive and profit-able, with the wider economy accruing the many associated benefits – including a reduced carbon footprint and enhanced New Zealand brand.

Ian Niven is general manager, business at EECA.

Fuel efficiency deserves more than a fleeting thought – that’s because it can really deliver bottom line value, as Ian Niven explains.

Driving efficiency Ian Niven

Issue 2 2012 | justGoodBusiness 29

counter culture

In the last issue of JGB, I argued the first place to look on your sustainability journey was in the books. But we know

that the books don’t tell the whole story about the value of your business.

In fact, the 2010 Ocean Tomo study of intangible asset market value (www.ocean tomo.com) indicates that only 20 percent of market value is explained by physical and financial assets – down from 83 percent in 1975. Much of the remaining 80 percent is not represented in the financial statements and reports available for investors and the general public.

This situation tells me two things: 1) there are a range of factors that business depends upon that are not measured or communicated; and 2) accounting rules and corporate reporting have failed to keep up with the changes and complexity in the business environment.

To help understand what we might be missing and what your business can do to prepare, I recommend two recent pieces of thought leadership.

The first is Expect the Unexpected by KPMG. This document outlines the 10 megaforces that will be impacting all business in the next 20 years. It highlights the massive changes taking place in terms of what our future export markets might look like and the environmental and re-source constraints that these markets will be facing.

The report also attempts to put a dollar figure on environmental impacts – noting that of the companies analysed, EBITDA earnings would be reduced by 41 percent if environmental impacts were costed and included in the accounts. The sector

analysis of this result is illuminating, with food producer profits being completely wiped out by environmental costs and the automobile sector being a stand-out performer.

The scope of the KPMG report is global but serves as useful context for a more specific discussion about your situation.

The second thought leadership piece is recommended for this purpose. The Sustainable Business Council (www.sbc.org.nz) has recently released Vision 2050, a report which outlines how a sustainable New Zealand might look in 2050 and the key milestones, risks and opportunities along the way. The Vision document is not a definitive picture of the future, or a step-by-step guide to prosperity, but a great structure to begin some very important discussions.

Taking the Vision framework and re-search, articulate a vision for your busi-ness in 2050. What might your products and services look like? Who will your customers be? How will you interact with them? This visioning process might be difficult but will help to understand how “business as usual” will need to change. It should provide for an honest assessment of where you are now and what you will need to begin developing, measuring or reporting to meet your future state.

Once the future drivers of business value are identified, there is still the gap in terms of the accounting. The current rules and frameworks do not provide for analysis beyond short-term, backwards looking, financial performance. One de-velopment in the move towards a more

holistic representation of business value is natural capital accounting.

Natural capital accounting involves measuring and reporting on the stocks of natural resources that are used by an organisation. As noted earlier, much of this is currently outside the current account-ing model. At present, natural capital accounting is more art than science but its application provides significant business intelligence.

A great example is the Puma envi-ronmental p&l (www.puma.com). The sportswear giant has calculated that the unrecognised environmental costs of its business were €145 million – the major-ity of which occurs in its supply chain. They have now taken this concept further, to measure the environmental costs of individual products, providing meaningful consumer-level information.

While constructing an environmental p&l is advanced, the take-away for New Zealand businesses is that there are many impacts relevant to a sustainable and pros-perous business that we are not currently reporting.

I recommend that every New Zealand business have a go at the visioning exercise outlined in the Vision 2050 report. Think about what significant impacts are not being reported and identify measures to address these. Sooner or later the account-ing and/or reporting of these impacts will be required, but by then it may be too late to respond.

Jamie Sinclair is a director in KPMG’s

Advisory team and leads the firm’s

sustainability services practice.

Is money the only measure of corporate value? Not by a long way. Jamie Sinclair explains why the bottom line is deeper than you might think.

Measures of real value Jamie Sinclair

justGoodBusiness | Issue 2 201230

change leader

Clare Feeney

My last column looked at whether companies need a CSO – chief sustainability officer – as part of

the C-suite team. While that’s still an open question, I’m

extending the debate to whether sus-tainability is best promoted through an organisation from top down or bottom up. Or maybe from the middle – down and up?

A great exemplar of C-suite leadership is that of the late Ray Anderson of Inter-face Carpets. Back in the early 1990s, the company’s clients were starting to ask about its environmental policies and, not getting the answers they expected, were heading off to the competition. The story of Ray’s epiphany has attained the status of legend.

Two Interface managers suggested setting up a task force on the company’s environmental vision and policies to help sales staff respond to customers’ ques-tions. Naturally, they wanted Anderson to inaugurate this task force with a stir-ring speech on his environmental vision. Problem was, he didn’t have one.

The only thing he could think of to say was that, of course, the company com-plied with current laws.

Then a staff sales manager put a book on his desk – Paul Hawken’s The Ecology of Commerce. Thumbing through it, An-derson came to a chapter headed, “The Death of Birth”, about the extinction of species – and wept as it hit him like “a spear in the chest”.

Two weeks later, Anderson duly made his visionary speech to under 20 people whom he charged with the mission of

leading Interface to sustainability. The eventual goal? To take nothing from the earth that is not naturally and rapidly renewable; to take not another fresh drop of oil; and to do no harm to the biosphere.

It was a challenge that he said stunned that little group and even shocked himself.

In the 20-odd years since then, the company has climbed high up what it called Mt Sustainability, defined its Mis-sion Zero® goals, and embedded sustain-ability deeply throughout the company.

Yes, Anderson committed the com-pany to that process. But would he have started it without the prompting of his senior managers, his long-standing com-mitment to listening to customers and the serendipitous landing of the right book on his desk at the right time?

Either way, the pace, extent and depth of Interface’s sustainability pro-cess was undoubtedly accelerated by the genuine commitment of its CEO and the active support he gave his staff to get it under way.

This inspiring tale stands in stark con-trast to many other stories I’ve heard in New Zealand and offshore where sus-tainability efforts were doomed because they lacked the right leadership impetus. These have included various versions of the following: •peoplewithnoenvironmentalback-ground are tasked with sustainability on top of their already extensive workload; •peopleareappointedtoformalsus-tainability roles but then not supported – and even undermined or obstructed by

senior managers – in this work; •lonechampionsaregiventherolebecause they showed some enthusiasm but eventually buckle under the strain of working on their own with no organisa-tional support.

Sound familiar?Bottom-up change can be a long haul.

Staff at the coalface often embrace sus-tainability initiatives because they see the benefits first – but how fast can that support percolate up until it is embed-ded in “the way we do things around here”.

Perhaps peer pressure within each sector could make a difference, where CEOs talk about their sustainability initiatives to each other. But will the indifferent simply think the enthusias-tic are – like them – paying it only lip service?

Like any new initiative in an organi-sation, introducing sustainability is all about change. And people have differ-ent perspectives on how best to manage a change process. In my next column, I’ll look at different approaches to the change process as it affects sustainability.

Oh, and by the way, does Interface have a CSO? You could say the firm takes sustainability beyond the C-suite. On its Board of Directors sits a vice-president of sustainability, who has a whole Eco-Dream Team to report to the top two tables.

Clare Feeney is an environmental consultant,

accredited speaker and author of Seven Steps to

Successful Environmental Training Programs.

www.clarefeeney.com

What role does the top floor play in improving companies’ environmental performance? Clare Feeney carries on the debate.

Coalface or C-Suite?

Issue 2 2012 | justGoodBusiness 31

clean tech

Iceland is a tiny island not far from the Arctic Circle with a total population smaller than that of shaken Christ-

church, yet in the space of less than five years it has become the partner of choice for internet giants like Google.

Why? Because Iceland’s geothermal resource

can cheaply and reliably power the massive DataCentres that our globally networked world increasingly relies on. Iceland was close to financial ruin during the GFC, yet geothermal power mated with the inter-net’s needs is now giving them a route to financial recovery.

New Zealand could easily follow the same route.

Our beautiful country is forged by the massive forces deep below us; by hot mov-ing magma and scraping tectonic plates. All this geothermal activity has shaped our past, yet if we act with strategic smartness, it could also give us a prosperous economic future.

New Zealand has been tapping into this resource for many years; we were the world leader in developing technologies to har-ness and utilise this power way back in the 1950s. But we’ve barely tapped the surface of its potential.

Imagine where we might be in just five years’ time if we were to seriously start exploiting its possibilities.

It’s 2017. Our little country at the bot-tom of the world has already attracted three multi-billion-dollar international large- scale industries to expand their business here. They came to set up new plants for

manufacturing, processing or refining and by doing so they created 100s of new jobs – plus these companies require local industry support and expertise.

Let’s take this idea a little further. In 2019, one of these new companies decides to establish a new tertiary education facility here in New Zealand with a strong research focus so that they could develop their tech-nologies further and continue to grow. By 2022, this research centre is seen as the new hub for a growing industry and is attracting talent from around the world.

Stay with me a little longer now…….Imagine that this is totally possible and all we need to do right now is one thing: find a way that is significantly cheaper and cleaner for a few major industries to set up in New Zealand.

In an increasingly carbon constrained world, cheaper and cleaner will be the only way to do large-scale business – and New Zealand is ideally placed to host it. We are already rich in renewable energy but our vast geothermal resources offer a whole new level of possibility.

Most processes for industry require heat not electricity. With cheap heat, from say 150-300°C , companies can process foodstuffs, dry wood and other biomass, undertake chemical processing, or materials manufacturing. No matter how much our world becomes dependent on the web or “the Cloud”, stuff still needs to be made, processed or refined.

All it requires is some focus on an industry problem and how to solve it with geothermal power.

This idea is not only doable but we could start tomorrow. In fact we should.

New Zealand sits on the “ring of fire” – a geological zone defined by volcanic and earthquake activity. Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico, Chile, Canada, Japan, Russia, and the Philippines are also rich in geothermal resource and the race is on.

All these countries use clean reliable geothermal power plants – yet Indonesia, Mexico and Chile are investing tens of mil-lions of dollars not only in new power plants but in developing their own knowledge and technology. For these countries, geothermal is their path away from coal dependency.

Interestingly, New Zealanders with geothermal expertise are spread all over the globe and are working with most of these other countries. We have already positively impacted the industry – but now is the time to bring these benefits home.

We could define niche markets where our geothermal resource, developed and promoted internationally, could spawn new financial growth. We have a proven track record of invention, innovation and fearless-ness to start a company on a shoestring, but the world’s rate of change is accelerating.

Why not plan ahead – making use of our unique geothermal resources to prosper?

Matthew Simmons heads Arvus International

– a globally successful manufacturing research

company that is currently developing its own

geothermal power system. He is also general manager

of the Taupo-based NZ Clean Energy Centre and a

recent TEDX speaker who has presented to geothermal

and nuclear power industries worldwide.

New Zealand is sitting on a goldmine that could both kick our economy into higher gear and enhance our reputation as a clean, green business destination. So why, asks Matthew Simmons, aren’t we using it?

NZ’s Geothermal Future Matthew Simmons

justGoodBusiness | Issue 2 201232

diary

Over the past eight weeks, I have been getting up and running with Mediaweb’s environmental man-

agement system (EMS) – and more specifi-cally the Enviro-Mark Bronze programme.

I attended the Enviro-Mark for Absolute Beginners introductory seminar which covered the whys, hows and benefits as well as outlining the five levels of the full Enviro-Mark programme and what each entailed. From this I gained a good understanding of the continual cycle of improvement integral to working through an EMS, that is: Plan Do Check Change. (Many EMS programmes call this Plan, Do, Check, Act/ Improve.)

I’ve found in my reading that Plan Do Check Change is fundamental to every EMS programme I have investigated, and is also embedded in ISO 14001. It makes good sense. As Chris Bailey of Landcare Research said at the seminar, the key is in the ‘Check’ part of the cycle – audit/measure/analyse and then change or adjust actions according-ly. In other words, planning and doing is not enough. You need to know that what you are doing is creating the improvements you are

Plan, Do, Check – and ChangeThe essence of an environmental management system is straightforward enough. But how to fit it all into three hours a week? Wendy Smith continues her own and Mediaweb’s journey towards accreditation.

aiming for. The cycle becomes the basis of EMS maintenance as well.

Bailey also noted that companies often transfer Plan Do Check Change to other aspects of their general business manage-ment where both staff and management had naturally started to adopt it as a way of thinking – to great benefit.

Since the seminar I have headed into the members’ area of the Enviro-Mark website and downloaded the Members Handbook and the Bronze level workbook to get a start on the process. After a good read through I have decided to work concurrently on two aspects of the first level: foundation EMS planning, and Health and Safety compliance.

Of course, all aspects of compliance are very detail intensive, (I admit to taking a deep breath when I first saw the checklist), which is why I choose Health and Safety – the classic low hanging fruit. It’s familiar, I know we already have things in place, and it has to be done regardless. Also, H&S involves different people in the company from those involved with strategic planning, so I can have two streams of action going without overloading anyone.

It was instantly satisfying to get on with this; we’ve had a health and safety team meet-ing, identified where the paperwork and the policy document need updating, and we are also looking at training a new first-aider.

The strategic plan, on the other hand, is an important foundation step with some thought required to scope what we think our company sustainability journey will look like. There is no ‘one size fits all’ to this.

Every company is different, so it will take some consideration.

Issues to address include: what do we think we can achieve; where will the value be economically and otherwise; what resources can we allocate to the process; and how does our EMS programme relate to our suppliers, customers and even what our competitors are doing. This will involve working through the draft plan with our senior management team to make sure that we have alignment and clarity about what we are trying to achieve.

As this is about change management, I will require more detailed discussions with each of the department heads. I need to under-stand how each department works – both from a materials and practice point of view. In the process I expect to get to know what their concerns are about doing an EMS pro-gramme and what the road blocks might be, but hopefully also where people in the com-pany see opportunities for improvement.

Now, after a few weeks of getting on the page, I can see that the recommended three hours a week will disappear in a flash. I already feel I could spend a lot more time on this programme. It will be an exercise in achieving incremental steps on a regular ba-sis to get to the point of ticking off the points on that checklist. And there’s nothing like a tick in the box to keep you going.

For more information about the various EMS

programmes that are available in New Zealand,

visit the ‘Resources’ section of our website – www.

justgoodbusiness.co.nz

For a free sample copy contact Sue McDiarmid P: 09 529 3000 E: subs@mediaweb.co.nz or subscribe go to www.justgoodbusiness.co.nz

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Your business has unique energy needs, which is why Meridian has a range of power plans tailored to fit a variety of industries.

Your business gets to benefit by becoming more efficient and effective in the way it uses power, which ultimately means you can be best dressed for success.

MADE TO FIT

Talk to Meridian today about changing into a plan that’s

the right fit for you.

Email: business@meridianenergy.co.nzFax: 0800 496 222 Call: 0800 496 777

meridian.co.nz/industry

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