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 23rd July 2020
In this edition of Sustainability Matters you can read about;
• Blueprint for Responsible Policy Engagement on Climate Change
• Is GRI and SASB Collaboration Good News for Companies?
• Issues Behind the News
• A4S Essential Guide to Management Information
• Citizens Assembly in France
• Citizens Assemblies Resources
• Building Back Better from Covid-19: How Sector Associations Can help it Happen
• Alternative Aotearoa
• Car Parking v People
• Climate Change + Business Conference 2020
• Delivering Net-Zero
• Think Resilience
• NZ Post Incentivises Contractors into EV’s
• Driving Sustainability: How to Influence for Impact
• All In: The Future of Business Leadership
• Fish ‘waste’ – Novel Distribution Chanel
• Dual-use Solar Farms Welcome Nature Back to the Land
• Sam Judd Steps Up to Focus on a Major New Project
• Seven of the Best New Documentaries About Global Warming
• Update on Container Recycling Scheme
• Governments’ Dietary Guidelines Harming the Planet
• The New Urgency of Climate Change.
To see the newsletter click here.
Sustainability Matters 9th July 2020
In this edition of Sustainability Matters you can read about;
• Rob Gray – Obituary
• UK Citizens’ Climate Assembly Backs Green Pandemic Recovery and Lifestyle Shift
• Sustainable Business Awards 2020
• A Near Horizon – Seizing the Opportunities and Managing the Risks in the Transition to Net Zero
• Local Authority Budgets and Strategic Direction – Climate Change
• Regenerative Future Series Extended
• Preparing Graduates for the Future
• All New Rooftops Must Be Covered in Plants or Solar Panels in France
• Towards a Robust, Resilient Wellbeing Economy for Scotland: Report of the Advisory Group on Economic Recovery
• CPA Australia Wins
• “We Need to Stop Sanitising Everything and Let Bacteria Back Into Our Lives”
• Iceland is Growing New Forests for the First Time in 1,000 Years
• CPA Australia – Integrated Reporting Awards for NZ Entities
• New Recycled Paper Wine Bottle Has Lower Carbon Footprint than Glass
• Using Sustainable Products in Green star and Homestar Projects
• Avaazers –This is Who We Are
• Be Responsible for What You Sell
• Solved! How Other Countries Have Cracked the World’s Biggest Problems and We Can Too
Sustainability Matters 25th June 2020
In this edition of Sustainability Matters you can read about;
• Disclosure of Climate-related Financial Risks Not Enough to Drive Action
• Climate Math: What a 1.5o Pathway Would Take
• Household GHG Emissions Grow 11.8%
• Sport’s Carbon Footprint is Global Bad News
• Accountancy Europe Leads the Non-financial Reporting Debate
• Hāpai Hapori Community Operations Update
• 145 Energy Efficiency Case Studies
• New Zealand Green Investment Finance – 1st Deal
• Adani Green to Build 8GW Solar Projects in India at Cost of $6 billion
• Sustainable Business Council’s Review of Reports of 45 of its Members
• Cooling Tech Firms are Not Innovating or Promoting Energy-efficient Products
• Unequal Impact: The Deep Links Between Racism and Climate Change
• ‘Black Summer’ Bushfires Played Out Exactly as Scientists Predicted
• Supporting Healthy Business for Healthy Materials to Build a Healthy Future
• It Seems Elephants Can Dance
• Focus on Sustainability
• Liquefied Air to Power Power Generation
Sustainability Matters 11th June 2020
In this edition of Sustainability Matters you can read about;
• Climate Change is the Most Important Mission for Universities of the 21st Century
• New Zealand Not Alone in Looking for Sustainable post COVID-19 Rebuild
• Local Government and Wellbeing
• Indigenous View on Doughnut Economics
• How USA is Handling Covid-19
• How Vietnam Managed to Kept its Coronavirus Death Toll at Zero
• Going ‘Beyond Services’ and the Promise of Whanau-Led Approaches
• Climate Change Brings Trillions of Dollars in Risk to Businesses
• Vision Week – It’s About Our [NZ] Future
• A Collection of Anti-racism Resources
• What Comes After What Comes Next
• The Future We Choose: Surviving the Climate Crisis
• Bell Canada’s Reporting
• Recovery of ‘Waste Heat’ from Sewage
• NABERS Essential
• Siberia Dries Out as Forests Burn and Climate Heats
• Black Environmentalists Talk about Climate and Anti-Racism
• Green Swans: The Coming Boom In Regenerative Capitalism
• Purpose from Passion in the UK
• Confronting Climate Risk
• No Need to Build New Frameworks for Post-covid-19 Recovery
Sustainability Matters 28th May 2020
In this edition of Sustainability Matters you can read about;
• The Economics of Ignoring Climate Change
• Insights on New Zealand Sustainability Professionals
• A Near Horizon: Seizing Opportunities and Managing Risks in the Transition to Net Zero
• Budget Too Weak on Climate – Commission
• Are Electric Cars Worse for the Environment? Myth Busted
• Car Powered by Salt Water: 760HP, Top Speed 186/Mph, 621 Miles/Tank
• Behavioural Change for Sustainability Success
• Future-Fit Business Benchmark
• Sustainability Professionals Must Shine Brighter than Their Peers – Here’s How
• Despite EU Guidelines 78% of Europe’s Largest Companies are Falling Short of Adequately Reporting Environmental and Climate-related Risks
• Two-pronged Approach Needed for Coronavirus Recovery
• The Big Dry: 18 Reasons Why an Auckland Drought Became a Water Crisis
• ‘We Need Radically Different Accountancy to Value Companies in a Post-Pandemic World’
• Investing in a Climate-Positive Future: Hanon Armstrong
• International
• The Price of Peace: Money, Democracy, and the Life of John Maynard Keynes
• Coronavirus Could Disrupt Weather Forecasting
• S&P Launches ESG Scores Based on 20 Years of Corporate Sustainability Data
• The Economist’s Coverage of Climate Change.
Sustainability Matters 14th May 2020
In this 6 page edition of Sustainability Matters which has some longer than usual articles you can read about;
• University of Auckland Tops Global Sustainability Impact Second Year in a Row
• Tessa Meyer Named NZGBC Future Thinker of the Year
• Our Regenerative Future Launch
• John Houghton, Who Sounded Alarm on Climate Change, Dies at 88
• Research Opportunity into Finance Function
• Inequality and the Ecological Transition
• Climate Action 20/25: Accelerating Climate Action by New Zealand SME’s
• Improving Nature’s Visibility in Financial Accounting
• Covid-19 Has Nothing on What’s Coming
• A Satellite Lets Scientists See Antarctica’s Melting like Never Before
• Amsterdam to Embrace ‘Doughnut’ Model to Mend Post-coronavirus Economy
• Reviving the Economy
• Webinar: Small is Mighty! – SMEs, Science Based Targets and Systemic Carbon Shifts
• Unilever’s Alan Jope on Repairing Capitalism, Covid-19 and Sustainable Living Plans
• Is Asparagopsis Seaweed the Answer to NZ’s Methane Emissions?
• A ‘Feminist Economic Recovery Plan’
• General Mills Advance Regenerative Agriculture Practices on One Million Acres of Farmland by 2030
• Vietnam and the Indian State of Kerala Curbed Covid-19 on the Cheap
• Packaging: Rewriting the Narrative
• NZ Should Lead Move to Fossil-fuel Reduction Treaty
• How Noise Pollution Threatens Ocean Life
• The Sustainability Reporting and Communications Handbook 2020
• The Regenerative Farming Revolution
• ‘We Need a Radically Different Form of Leadership to Come Out the Other Side of Covid-19’
• How to Link the GRI Standards with the SDGs.
Sustainability Matters 30th April 2020
In this edition of Sustainability Matters you can read about;
• Our Future on Earth 2020: Uncovering the Linkages Among Global Risks
• Climate Change Commission Recruiting for Three Senior Positions
• Citizens’ Assemblies on Climate Change Seek to Shape the Post-covid Recovery
• A Roadmap for Addressing the Climate and Post COVID-19 Economic Crises
• The Story of Plastic
• What’s the Point of Fashion Magazines Now?
• Before the Next Pandemic, an Ambitious Push to Catalogue Viruses in Wildlife
• Free New Guides to Being More Sustainable
• Ideas Worth Teaching Awards
• Sustainability Starts with Community Resilience
• Ticking Time Bomb of Rising Demand for Cooling
• Hyundai Country Calendar Season 2020, Episode 7
• The Need to GROW
• Select Committee Reports Back on Resource Management Amendment Bill 2019
• Principles for a Just Recovery from Covid-19
• Our Freshwater 2020 Notes the Poor State of NZ’s Lakes and Rivers
• We Still Don’t Know the Full Impacts of the BP Oil Spill, 10 years Later
• Debating Disclosure: The Pros and Cons of Corporate Transparency
• Green Swans: The Coming Boom in Regenerative Capitalism