The primary purposes of Sustainability Matters are to improve the performance of New Zealand organisations from a sustainability, or "triple bottom" line perspective, and to advocate sustainability thinking and action.
Frequently this requires a change from "business as usual" to a different approach which not only reduces costs and improves financial performance but also results in much needed improved outcomes for people and our planet. We owe this to our children and to at least the next six generations i.e. seven generations.
The traditional measure of organisation success - financial outcomes - is an incomplete method of measurement and excludes key elements. These exclusions result in an "unbalanced scorecard".
Is this thinking new? No, far from it. Rachel Carson via her 1962 book "Silent Spring" was perhaps the person who more than any other alerted us to the need for changed thinking.
The thinking can be applied to entities of any size, in any sector, located anywhere.
Newsletters
As part of what we do a newsletter is published (usually) once very two weeks. It is four pages and is intended especially for chartered accountants** and those who use their services. It is distributed to subscribers by opt-in eMail. There is no ($) charge; donations are always welcome! By coincidence the newsletter is called Sustainability Matters.
** Because they have immense potential to influence others and to make huge positive differences to our world.
Sustainability Matters 20th February 2020
In this edition of Sustainability Matters you can read about;
• Climate Risk and Response: Physical Hazards and Socioeconomic Impacts
• The Art of Storytelling (for finance people)
• Auckland Council to Add HomeFit Check on LIM Reports
• Salvation or Pipe Dream? A Movement Grows to Protect Up to Half the Planet
• Wild and Winged in a City of Eight Million
• ‘Uninsurable and Unhedgeable’: Central Banks Warn of Financial Crisis from Climate Change
• Taumata Arowai – Water Services Regulator Bill
• Sustainable Business 2020
• Call for Improved UN Sustainable Development Goals Disclosures
• Ernst & Young Becomes First Big Four to Set Global Carbon Neutrality Target
• A-CSEAR 2020 – Call for Papers: ‘Democratising Accounting’
• SumOfUs – How Many?
• Church of England Devises an Index for Climate-Conscious Investing
• Consultation on the Draft British Standard for Social Value
• Wise Response Society Submission – Crown Minerals Act 1991 Review
• The Story of Plastic Documentary to Premiere in Honour of Earth Day
• Clean Energy Software – Training Workshop
• Insights on NZ’s Sustainability Professionals
• Countdown Trials Produce with Paper Instead of Plastic
• Jonathon Porritt’s Inspiring Lifetime Achievement Award Acceptance Speech
• Green Homes: A Crash Course on Sustainable Design
• This Land is Our Land: The Struggle for a New Commonwealth
Sustainability Matters 8th August 2019
In this edition of Sustainability Matters you can read about;
• Zero Carbon Bill Hearings
• A Week of Major UK Green Policy Announcements
• Airport Expansion Stalled on Climate Grounds
• More than 350 million Trees Planted in a Day in Ethiopia
• Give us Hope. Show us More Solutions – Less Doom and Gloom
• Biking with Butterflies
• Research to Action: The Science of Drawdown
• Refusing to Give Up on Protecting the Environment: Sam Judd
• Eco-packaging Trials Reduce Event Waste
• Humans Will Never Colonise Mars
• The Bizarre, Peaty Science of Arctic Wildfires
• Following Up on Forget Shorter Showers
• Mint Innovation is Making e-Waste Less Wasteful
• Shaping Our [NZ] Low Emissions Future
• UK Lawmakers to Count Environmental Cost of Mass Tourism
• Defusing Southeast Asia’s e-waste Timebomb
• This Zero-waste Restaurant Generates Literally No Trash
• First Step is All about Mindset Shift
• Meridian Energy Releases Climate Change Risk Report
• TCFD- 2019 Status Report
• Tough Line on Plastics Taken at Airport
Sustainability Matters 6th February
In this Waitangi Day edition of Sustainability Matters you can read about;
• Your Company’s Next Leader on Climate Is…the CFO
• People and Performance Lead
• There is An Antidote to Demagoguery – It’s Called Political Rewilding
• New Zealand Joins International Treaty to Slash Ship Emissions
• International Student Summit on Climate
• Webinar: Supercharge Your Sustainability Strategy with the Global Goals
• Air Bubble Barrier Traps Plastic Waste in Amsterdam’s Canals
• New NZ Houses Emitting 5 Times Too Much Carbon – Study
• New Meat-packing Foam Dissolves in Sink
• Bead and Proceed
• Should I Ditch My Fossil-fueled Car?
• Winner of Australia’s Leading Sustainability Award Spotlights SDGs
• Chernobyl is the Highest-rated TV Series Ever
• Nepal’s Road-Building Spree Pushes into the Heart of the Himalayas
• Could Buycotting be the New Boycotting?
• Churchill Fellowship Awarded to Council’s Waste Specialist
• Passive House: 154 Unit Apartment Block in New York
• New Technology Helping Shoppers Offset Carbon Emissions
• Academics to Showcase to Research to Scottish Parliament
• At Berkeley, A Student-led Class Takes a New Approach
Sustainability Matters 23rd January
In this the first 2020 edition of Sustainability Matters you can read about;
• 99 Good News Stories You Probably Didn’t Hear About in 2019
• Climate Change Litigation Enters a New Era: Court Rules Emissions Reductions a Human Right
• 2020 Sustainability Professionals Unconference
• Ecopsychology: How Immersion in Nature Benefits Your Health
• Plastics Data Challenge
• BlackRock Joins Climate Action 100+ to Ensure Largest Corporate Emitters Act on Climate Crisis
• Accelerating NZ’s Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency
• Decision Time for the Planet
• Omnicide: Who is Responsible for the Gravest of All Crimes?
• Obituary: David Bellamy OBE, Botanist and Broadcaster
• Self-driving Cars will Not Fix Our Transportation Woes
• Podcast or Perish Featuring Markus Milne
• Finance for the Future 2019 awards
• Tales of Sustainable Travel
• The Net-Zero Economy Report – 2020
• Losing Earth: The Decade We Could Have Stopped Climate Change
• Climate Change Pushes Investors to Take the Temperature
• National Freshwater Conference 2020
• TemperatureTM Score
• London’s New Artificial Trees Guzzle as Much Pollution as 275 Regular Trees
Sustainability Matters 19th December
In this final 2019 edition of Sustainability Matters you can read about;
• Greta Thunberg Is Time Person of the Year for 2019
• Madrid: More of a Failure than a Success
• The Art of Alignment: Sustainability & Financial Transparency
• Climate Commissioners Appointed
• A Chance for NZ to Lead the World in Cutting Back on Plastic
• Hit for Six Examines Threats to Cricketers
• Climate Lens to Examine Major Government Decisions
• CH4 Global Secures Provincial Growth Fund Grant for Seaweed Climate Change Solution
• Join Iwi, Hapu and Community Native Plant Nurseries Network
• IBM Hopes to Change Weather Forecasting Around the Globe Using Big Data and a New Supercomputer
• Could Abandoned Agricultural Lands Help Save the Planet?
• 2020 Future Thinker of the Year
• Resources from Tim for Summertime Reading and Listening
• Got eco Anxiety? Here are 10 Reasons for Climate Optimism
• A Film Festival by Activists for Activists
• Mental Health Benefits of Protected Areas
• Decades of Detailed Weather Reports Pulled from Old Sailor’s Logs
• Science Based Targets Initiative Releases First Ever Progress Assessment
• Insurance Made Riskier by Climate Change
Sustainability Matters 12th December
In this edition of Sustainability Matters you can read about;
• New Zealand’s 2019 Sustainability Heroes!
• Recent Climate Reports Underscore Genuine Emergency
• The Man Who Made Happiness Count
• Competition for Market Driven Sustainable Finance Business Models
• Leadership in Sustainable Business
• Tell Us What You’re Doing, Investors Tell Governments
• Freshwater – Controller and Auditor General’s Reports
• After a 40-year Struggle, Indigenous Guardians of Forest Gain Rights Over Land
• Climate Justice Report on Loss and Damage
• How to Change the World: A Practical Guide to Successful Environmental Training
• Should We Sacrifice Our Skies for 5G Service?
• Are Companies Facing Up To Climate Risk?
• What is Water Risk? And Why Should Investors Care?
• Group to Tackle the End-of-life Issue for NZ’s Lithium-ion Batteries
• Should I Ditch My Fossil-fueled Car?
• World Economic Forum Founder Suggests Natural Capital Could Replace GDP as Measure of a Countries Wealth
• Australia ‘Risks Being Dumping Ground’ for Cars with Greenhouse Gas 1,400 Times More Potent than CO2
Sustainability Matters 28th November
In this edition of Sustainability Matters you can read about;
• Running the Risk: How Corporate Boards Can Oversee Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Issues
• Climate-related Financial Disclosures
• TCFD: Strengthening the Foundations of Sustainable Finance – Speech by Mark Carney
• A Little Humour Might Help with Climate Change Gloom
• Is Capitalism Dysfunctional? This Former McKinsey Boss Says So
• Crown Minerals Act Review
• Business School Students Are Putting the Planet before Profits
• Impact Investor Insights 2019 Aotearoa New Zealand
• Aurora Organic Dairy Commits to 100% Carbon-Neutral Energy in Its Fourth Sustainability Report
• Supply Chains: Rights, Transparency and Collaboration
• Resource Management System – Comprehensive Review
• Asparagopsis – What’s that?
• The Massive Cost of Not Adapting to Climate Change
• Resource Management Act Amendments
• Hemp is the New Oak: America’s First Hemp ‘Wood’ Factory is Being Built
• Return to Now
• The New Climate Math: The Numbers Keep Getting More Frightening
• New Report Calls Out World’s Largest Banks on Climate Failures
• G20 Heads in the Wrong Direction on Climate Action