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Ray Skinner  -  Principal

eMail:    ray@sustainabilitymatters.co.nz

Phone:  +64  (09) 443 0773

North Shore City

New Zealand

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Specialists in sustainability matters and business support

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Event Dates

10th Feb – Triple Bottom Line Reporting at Transit NZ, Pat Lakeman Transit New Zealand AND

Sustainability Group's Objectives

At the Group’s Annual General Meeting in November and the subsequent Committee the Charter was reviewed for the first time since it was adopted in April 2002.  The key changes were to the objectives and these are to;

All this provides a lot of ‘stretch’ opportunities for everyone associated with the Group and readers of recent editions of News and Views will recall a key focus for 2004 is in the education area.  This is where, in the long term, the greatest opportunities for making a real difference lay within the accounting profession and elsewhere.  Students of today will be the professionals of 2045.  v

Web Site Under Development

New web pages for the Sustainability Group and also for the work of the Sustainable Development Reporting Committee are gradually being developed and placed in three areas in the Institute’s web site at www.icanz.co.nz

Publicly available information about the Group and its activities can be found in the Special Interest Group area accessible via the home page ‘Quicklink’ facility. 

‘Subscriber Only’ information is being developed and this will be available via the ‘Login’ button at the top of the home page.  Full details of how to access this facility will be provided once more content has been placed in this area.  In addition this area has a discussion forum facility.

In the meantime the ‘old’ web pages hosted by Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu continue to be available.

The pages related to the SDR Committee’s work can be visited by selecting ‘Advocacy Guidance and Tax’ from the home page.  Then, on the following page under ‘Government Relations and Special Projects‘ select ‘Sustainable Development Reporting’.

In addition to all of this a discussion forum is to be developed for university and technical institute academic staff.

The intention is for these facilities to provide an extensive set of resources for Institute members, Group subscribers, researchers and the public at large.  v

Subscriptions for 2004

 If you have not received a Sustainability Group subscription notice from the Institute of Chartered Accountants for 2004 do not despair!  Downloadable from the Group’s page at the Institute’s web site.  v

Collaborative Networks for SME's

Collaborative networks have become an important tool used to increase environmental performance within the SME sector.  One popular technique is the Hackefors model, a process designed to implement group ISO 14000 certification in Sweden.  Use of the this approach has spread rapidly throughout the country where there are now 24 networks, with over 450 member firms using the model to achieve group environmental certification. It became clear networks can be used by a variety of firms from different industry sectors and adopted the approach because they lacked resources necessary to successfully pursue accreditation alone.

Source:  Page 7, APCEA Journal, Sept, Patrick Hallinan.  v

Another Year in Retrospect

Periodically it is worth reflecting on activities and the people who have contributed to our inspiration – the challenges and ideas – regardless of whether we agree with them or not.  It is all part of the journey and adds colour and flavour to our thinking and quite possibly our actions.

The Sustainability Group wishes once again to thank all its presenters for 2003 and also those who for various reasons were not able to present.  And behind it all are the ‘unsung’ people in the Institute of Chartered Accountants who enable things to happen in the Christchurch, Wellington and Auckland Branches, National Office and Audit New Zealand In Dunedin.  Also the input from members of the Group, often doing what to them may seem to be a minor part but ultimately forming part of the whole.  Every event is the result of teamwork – none of us could do it by our own and that teamwork is often quite awesome especially as things do not always run like a well oiled machine.

Web Site and Tools

More opportunities to consider very interesting issues;

Sources:  Prof Don Huisingh (USA) and Sandy Beath-Croft, Greenpeace Business November 2003. v