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 17th September 2020
In this edition of Sustainability Matters you can read about;
• World-first: NZ Financial Institutions to Report or Explain Climate Change Risk
• TCFD Summit 2020
• B Corporation, Transparency and Validity
• How California’s Wildfires Could Spark a Financial Crisis
• Lawnmowers, Labour Rights & Buying Local
• Why Bioplastics Will Not Solve the World’s Plastics Problem
• Sustainable Forest Management: Draft Update of Aust/NZ Standard
• Managing Nature-related Financial Risks: A Precautionary Policy Approach [for central banks and financial supervisors]
• Hope in Hell: A Decade to Confront the Climate Emergency
• France to Ease Neonicotinoids Ban
• Paper Bottle with Removable Plastic Liner
• Institutional Investors Design Net Zero Investment Framework
• Antarctica Discovery – 200th Anniversary
• Ban Adverts for Cars that Damage Climate
• Job Available: Executive Officer for ECO
• The Sackings at Rio Tinto Look Like a Victory for Shareholders, but…
• 2020 Stormwater Professional of the Year
• ‘The Name’s Brick’ – COVID-19 and Climate Change
• New Dates for Climate Change + Business Conference Redefining Our Future
• Banned Pesticides Shipped to Poor Countries.
To see the newsletter click here.
Sustainability Matters 3rd September 2020
In this edition of Sustainability Matters which is late due to a PC hard disc failure (faulty sectors) you can read about;
• Why the [UK] Climate and Ecological Emergency Bill Could Lead to a Revolution of the Imagination
• Agriculture’s Future is Riskier with No Climate Change Goals: Australian Farmers
• What Kind of a World do We Want? (…really?)
• Open Letter and Demands to EU and Global Leaders
• Toitū Carbon Certification Programme
• Sustainable Business Awards Finalists, Plus New Pandemic Resilient Business Award
• Pāmu Announces New GM Sustainability and Farming Systems
• Breaking Boundaries: (Counter) Accounts during the Pandemic
• Comparing Conventional vs Organic Farming Techniques for 40 years
• The Role of Australian Activist Litigation Highlighting Climate Change Financial Disclosure in the Capital Markets
• Managing Climate Risk in New Zealand in 2020: A Tool Kit for Directors
• World’s Largest Battery Storage Approved
• Creating Living Buildings & Integrated Design
• The Human Planet: Earth at the Dawn of the Anthropocene
• World Green Building Week 2020
• Call for Papers: Auckland Region Accounting Conference 2020
• Impact: Reshaping Capitalism to Drive Real Change
• Net Zero: How we Stop Causing Climate Change
• Leadership in Sustainable Business Course 2020 (Sept/Oct/Nov)
• The Modern Slavery Act 2018: A Practical Handbook
• SASB Invites Public Comment on Key Governance Documents
• Getting to Carbon Positive: Podcast series.
To see the newsletter click here.
Sustainability Matters 20th August 2020
In this edition of Sustainability Matters you can read about;
• Climate Action Tracker: NZ’s Performance is Insufficient
• Accounting and Climate Finance: Engaging with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
• War on Waste and Fight for Planet A
• Life Cycles – Transitioning to a Circular Economy
• The Earth Has Lungs – Watch Them Breathe
• A Green Recovery – Smart Choices
• What Comes After What Comes Next
• Julia Gillard says her Government’s Carbon Price Proves Climate Policy Isn’t ‘Too hard’
• Rapid Mobilisation Playbook to Support Fast-tracking of Construction Projects
• John Elkington: Businesses Should ‘Think Like Insurgents’ to Spur Green Recovery Efforts
• Energy Storage in Red Bricks
• Floating Coast: An Environmental History of the Bering Strait
• Hope in Hell: A Decade to Confront the Climate Emergency
• Jeanette Fitzsimons Climate Action Grant
• Ice Rinks – a Surrogate for Measuring Changing Climate
• Dam Built by Women Saves Families
• Wonders of Nature’s Seagrass
• 9 Out of 10 Australians Don’t Think Mobile Data Contributes to Carbon Emissions
• ARA Reporting Awards 2020
• The Surprising Reasons Why Climate Change Facts are Ignored
• Climate Action in the Product Lifecycle
• NCSE Art Contest: Colors of Science
• Greenpeace Wins 12-year Campaign for Registration as a Charity.
To see the newsletter click here.
Sustainability Matters 6th August 2020
In this edition of Sustainability Matters you can read about;
• First Climate Change Risk Assessment Lays Out Long List of Threats
• The Future of Nature and Business
• Climate Change is the Most Important Mission for Universities of the 21st Century
• Report Recommends RMA Repeal and Overhaul of Resource Management System
• SBC’s Pre-election Brief 2020
• SBN Changes Focus
• Battery Power Comes to Construction Equipment
• Auckland Council’s Hard Calls on Climate and Cash
• Creating City Portraits: A Methodological Guide from the Thriving Cities Initiative
• 14 Billion Cooling Appliances Could be Needed by 2050: Why Cooling Must Be a Part of Post-pandemic Recovery
• Business Guide to Buying EVs in NZ
• Let’s Talk About a New Economy
• Why Gas Engines are Far from Dead – Biggest EV Problems
• Understanding and Navigating Climate Risk at the Asset Level
• How to Mix Old Tyres and Building Rubble to Make Sustainable Roads
• Ireland’s Supreme Court Damns Climate Policies
• Reminder: CPA Australia – Integrated Reporting Awards for NZ Entities
• 350 Aotearoa Banks Table 2020.
To see the newsletter click here.
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