Sustainability

Another great reason to understand your supply chain!

From May issue, NZ Manufacturer magazine www.nzmanufacturer.co.nz Are you 100% sure you know what’s in your supply chain? Do you fully understand the work practices involved? Yes and yes? Then you’re in good shape to keep selling to the European Union when the new European Supply Chain Act takes effect. No and no? Then you’ve work to do! New EU legislation will require many suppliers to EU companies to better manage their social and environmental impacts. Here’s the acronym: Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD or CS3D). Even if you don’t trade with the EU, expect to see more focus on supply chains, right around the world. Why? Because supply chains are notorious sources of social and environmental ‘hotspots’. Wages below subsistence. Forced labour. Treacherous working conditions. Toxic chemicals. Polluted waterways. Deforestation. The list goes on. The draft European Supply Chain Act Read on for general information about the changes. What’s happening? The European Parliament has voted for the draft bill. Parties are now negotiating a common position to pass the bill into law. What’s the aim of the new law? It’s one we can all sign up to: a fairer, safer, more sustainable global economy. Who does the law cover? It covers many larger companies based in the EU. Some companies outside the EU are covered if their EU turnover is large. Small and medium-sized businesses are not directly affected. However, the law will affect them if they supply to larger companies. What does the law require? Affected companies must manage social and environmental impacts across their value chains. (This is currently voluntary.) These value chains include the companies’ direct suppliers (maybe your business?) and indirect suppliers too (your business’ suppliers?) The law is stricter than most existing national legislation. What does the law mean in practical […]

What matters more, excellence or impact?

Are we happy with a process that potentially knocks out the most impactful science before it can even be considered? By Dr Troy Coyle, HERA CEO The Aotearoa New Zealand research, science and innovation (RSI) system is one that purportedly values and rewards research excellence and research impact equally. Despite this, the current system favours an approach that focuses on excellent research that has impact vs impactful research that is excellent. It is a subtle difference but let me explain how that plays out in practice and why there is an inherent bias. For me, this is an important discussion to have as it has flow-on impacts for industry-led research – which is mostly impact-led. The road to funding According to MBIE “the Endeavour Fund plays a unique role in the science system through an open, contestable process with a focus on both research excellence and a broad range of impacts”. The indicative investment in the 2024 investment round is $57 million per year (projects range 2-5 years). This makes it a key, if not the key, research investment mechanism for research organisations in Aotearoa. It is highly competitive, with most Universities, Crown Research Institutes and Independent Research Associations competing for this pool of funding. As a result, the success rate is very low (usually below 20%). The application process is onerous and it is run in set rounds, with only one round per year. Missing out on funding can have crippling effects for many organisations. The two main criteria for assessment are excellence and impact. However, excellence is assessed first and then only the top ranking submissions are progressed to the next step where they are assessed for impact. Essentially, this means that research excellence is given priority in practice. There could be an amazingly impactful research proposal that […]

As New Zealand CBDs evolve post-pandemic, repurposing old or empty spaces should be on the drawing board

Jose Antonio Lara-Hernandez, Senior Researcher in Architecture, Auckland University of Technology The COVID-19 pandemic and the hybrid work patterns hybrid work patterns it fostered have changed the way we think about office space, and central business districts in general. While fears of urban centre “ghost towns” may have been premature, many cities around the world still face dilemmas over how best to adapt. New Zealand is feeling this pressure too. Office vacancy rates, while dropping slightly, have remained above 12%. At the same time, there is demand for high-quality, modern spaces that fit new work and collaboration models. This isn’t an entirely new phenomenon. Throughout history, cities and buildings have been designed with specific functions in mind. As environmental and social needs change, however, these designs struggle to meet contemporary demands. So, what can be done with the empty buildings and unleased floors scattered through cities everywhere? In our new book, Architectural Exaptation: When Function Follows Form, we examine the process by which existing structures or features are re-imagined and re-utilised. In architecture, the concept of “exaptation” refers to this adapting of buildings and structures for new uses. It is becoming increasingly relevant as a transformative response to sustainable and resilient urban development. Buildings on Venice’s Grand Canal: more than a static relic of the past. Getty Images The benefits of adapting Exaptation in architecture requires us to view built environments not just as physical spaces, but as complex living systems that can adapt and transform. Reusing and repurposing existing structures also helps reduce waste, CO₂ emissions and energy use, supporting more sustainable urban growth. At the same time, by reusing rather than rebuilding, the historical and cultural fabric of cities is preserved, as well as their inhabitants’ sense of identity. A famous example is Venice, which has continuously adapted its historic structures to meet modern needs, […]

What does ‘sustainable manufacturing’ actually involve?

In April issue of NZ Manufacturer www.nzmanufacturer.co.nz we talk with Emily Townsend, Services Director, thinkstep-anz. Emily’s spent her career working in manufacturing, and with manufacturers, in New Zealand and the UK. Emily, what does ‘sustainable manufacturing’ mean to you? It’s become a buzzword but I think it’s about change – incremental and major. Incremental change involves things like producing more efficiently and ensuring products create less waste at their end-of-life. Major change is about powering factories with renewable energy and moving to responsible procurement to avoid modern slavery in supply chains. People need manufactured products and it’s unrealistic to think those needs will go away. So the challenge for manufacturers is to reduce the impacts of your products. When did you get into sustainable manufacturing? At the start of my career (though it wasn’t called sustainability then!) In my first role I supported a bid to supply to the London Olympics. I had to find out what our business was doing to meet their criteria, then coordinate and communicate our work. I also helped measure the carbon footprint of the M25 motorway that circles London. I looked at options like recycled asphalt to reduce the footprint and produced a tool for the industry to assess options. I then worked in roles in lean manufacturing, measured products’ carbon footprints and reported on sustainability performance. When I came to New Zealand in 2015 I took up a sustainability role with Downer. (Sustainability was a term by then!) I joined thinkstep-anz in 2018. What does your current role involve? I support our thinkstep-anz team to deliver sustainability projects to clients, including many manufacturers. Are we meeting technical best practice? Delivering what our clients need? Linking our services for greatest impact? How do manufacturers benefit from becoming more sustainable? You’ll understand your product, […]

Yes, greenwash matters to manufacturers too!

From March issue NZ Manufacturer www.nzmanufacturer.co.nz ‘Greenwashing is a marketing issue. What it’s got to do with manufacturers?’ A lot, actually. Many consumers (wholesale and retail) want to understand the environmental impacts of the products they buy – and every product is manufactured somewhere. So the claims you make about your products to your customers, or that your customers make about your products to their customers, need to stand up to scrutiny. Is my claim true? Is it accurate? Is it specific to my product? Can I prove it? Or is it ‘greenwash’ – a vague, meaningless statement that suggests you’re doing more to protect the environment than you are? Greenwash is everywhere In 2021 the International Consumer Protection and Enforcement Network carried out a global sweep of more than 500 websites that promote products and services. More than 40% appeared to be using greenwashing as a marketing tactic. Photo credit, Christopher Wilton-Steer. Scrutiny from consumer organisations and climate activists is growing globally and prosecutions continue to rise. Major retailers including H&M have been forced to backpedal on sustainability claims made about the products they sell. The business costs of greenwash are high Your manufacturing business has probably spent years and a lot of money building your reputation and brand. Look after them! Promising an ‘eco’ benefit that you can’t back up can damage both. (Social media is relentless.) Regulators have greenwash in their sights. The financial penalties are large. Companies convicted of greenwashing face fines of up to $600,000 in Aotearoa New Zealand and more in Australia. Eight tips to avoid greenwashing as a manufacturer Tip 1: know your numbers If you want to claim that your product is ‘low-carbon’ or ‘uses less water’, make sure you can back these statements up with data. Start by setting a baseline […]

Eight tips to get your sustainability strategy pumping in 2024

From February issue, NZ Manufacturer It’s February and you’ve eleven months to make your manufacturing business more sustainable in the year ahead. These eight tips will help you create (or review) your sustainability strategy – and take action. Becoming more sustainable adds value to your business Sustainable businesses are excellent businesses. They create value in the short and long terms. That’s because sustainability is about much more than the environment. It covers every aspect of your business. (See tip 2 below.) Becoming a more sustainable business will help you reduce costs and risk, strengthen relationships with your suppliers, enter markets and grow market share. You’ll attract talented employees and investment, keep onside with your regulator (if you have one) and build links with local communities. That’s a lot of good reasons to act! A strategy focuses your efforts A strategy helps you tackle the right things, in the right order, to make your business more sustainable. While it’s tempting to focus on activities that yield fast, visible results or to do ‘a bit of everything’, you need to prioritise. For example, if you manufacture a product, tackling your packaging may seem a great place to start. But if your packaging accounts for just 5% of your environmental footprint, there are better ways to use your limited resources. A strategy will help you identify them. Tips to create your strategy Make sustainability part of your business strategy – not an ‘add-on’ Weave sustainability into everything you do so that acting sustainably becomes ‘how you do business’. For example, work with your suppliers to source lower carbon materials and identify risks of modern slavery. Redesign your product to reduce the energy you use and the carbon you emit. Train your team to cut waste and look to your local community when you […]

Choose reuse as the new normal

From February issue of NZ Manufacturer magazine. Nada shares with us the vision of her company, Again Again, and even tells us what her favourite book is! Nada Piatek, Founder, CEO, Again Again. Again Again’s vision is to end single-use waste with a commercial, reusable container borrow system that makes it easy for everyone to choose reuse as their new normal. On a daily basis I am committed to that kaupapa and excited to be making inroads to achieving it. A societal shift like this is an enormous ask, and a slow burn. For many people in our community, even the understanding that each single-use packaging (SUP) unit is a part of a wider, enormous problem is missing. In fact the scale of this issue is massive: 400 million tonnes of single-use packaging waste is created each year around the world. Again Again’s key focus is to build the systems and infrastructure to facilitate brands designing out this waste and delivering food, beverages and grocery items in packaging that can be returned, washed, and used again for the same purpose. Changing people’s behaviour is also something Again Again can and does contribute to,but is the responsibility of our whole community. With regulations such as extended producer responsibility schemes (EPRs) and plastic taxes coming into force around the world, the economics of packaging is changing. In some regions, reuse is already close to cost parity with SUP over time – when one amortises the significant set-up costs – however, there are simply very few facilities that can deliver reusable packaging at all, let alone at scale. Legislation and consumer pressure demanding these systems is mounting and it is a solution that is increasingly coming into focus, for brands and retailers alike. A chicken and egg scenario exists. The wash infrastructure needs investment, but this investment is not […]

Systems thinking and sustainable manufacturing

Remember the moment your flatpack furniture finally took shape (with no pieces missing and your relationships intact)? The last piece slotted in because you got the ‘system’ right. Assorted pieces came together, in the right way, to make a useful item of furniture that was ‘more than the sum of its parts’. Sustainability is about systems too. Understanding the relationships between a strong bottom line, a flourishing environment and thriving people and communities will help you make your manufacturing business more sustainable. In fact, you can’t have a healthy business if you don’t attend to all parts of the system. In this article, we look at systems in your manufacturing business. Drawing on examples from our 2023 articles, we show the opportunities these systems offer to become more sustainable. But first, some background. Systems in sustainability The United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals are a good place to start. They highlight the social, economic and environmental systems that make up our world, plus the links between them. These systems reinforce one another. Some systems are virtuous. Get one thing right and we fix others too. For example, if we consume and produce responsibly (SDG12), we reduce carbon emissions (SDG 13) and modern slavery (positive impacts on social SDGs 1, 5 and 8). Vicious cycles are possible too. If we plant soybeans to create renewable bio-diesel (SDG 7), we risk crowding out native plants (SDG15). Systems in manufacturing As a manufacturer you’re familiar with ‘systems thinking’, even if you don’t call it this. That’s because your business is a system. For example, when raw materials are unavailable, your production line slows down. You have to re-plan your team’s rosters, your production run, marketing schedule, deliveries and cashflow. Everything’s linked. Here are some other examples of systems in your business and what […]

A straddle carrier moving through the container stacks

NZ-EU trade agreement is great news for sustainability

It’s been a long time coming! In July, New Zealand signed a free trade agreement (FTA) with the European Union. Good news for manufacturers too. New Zealand’s exports of goods to its fourth largest trading partner were worth NZD4.68b in 2022. These goods included many manufactured products – machinery, medical appliances, food products, plastics, aluminium and others. More than 91% of New Zealand’s trade into the EU will enter duty-free when the FTA comes into force (expected to be in the first half of 2024). Many goods, including some manufactured products, will have no tariffs at all from this date. This means many millions of dollars of tariff savings each year on exports to the EU. After seven years, when the agreement is fully in place, 97% of current trade will enter the EU duty-free. How the new FTA promotes sustainability The FTA will make trade more sustainable and create opportunities for businesses that deliver more sustainable products. The agreement is the first FTA built around the EU’s ’Together for Green and Just Growth’ approach to trade and sustainable development. It contains ambitious sustainable trade outcomes in many areas. Environmental outcomes include addressing climate change and subsidies on fossil fuel. Social outcomes include promoting labour rights and women’s economic empowerment. The upside for manufacturers – and some warnings The FTA will have a big impact on trade between New Zealand and the EU. The potential upside for local manufacturers is significant: easier access to one of the world’s most lucrative trading blocs; lower costs for materials imported from the EU. However, the FTA comes with warnings too. Firstly, local manufacturers will be competing with EU manufacturers who may have been making their products more sustainable for some years. As customers here and in the EU prioritise ‘responsible purchasing’, make sure […]

New venture to tackle waste in trillion dollar drinks industry

From November issue NZ Manufacturer www.nzmanufacturer.co.nz “When water is literally on tap in your kitchen, it seems crazy to ship it around the world.” A new startup launched by the founder of NZ’s largest regenerative beauty product export business is set to cut the global use of single-use plastic drink bottles by tens of millions every year. Brianne West stepped down as Ethique CEO earlier this year, a decade after starting the $100 million business in her kitchen as a 24-year-old biochemistry student. West’s new social enterprise aims to take on the $1.44tn beverage market which produces over 583 billion single-use plastic bottles annually, with less than 10% of these recycled. The new venture will produce concentrated effervescent drink mixers in the shape of a circular tablet which on contact with liquids such as water dissolve to release flavouring. Each ‘Incrediball’ makes up the equivalent of a 350ml beverage and can be added to both alcoholic and non-alcoholic hot or cold beverages to enhance the taste. West says the product will be the world’s first effervescent drink tab in fully home compostable packaging and could prevent over 10 million single-use bottles from entering the waste stream every year from 2030 and expects this to grow significantly over time. She says while effervescent concentrates in this form usually require plastic wrapping, they will launch new technology within the tablet to protect the product from moisture before use. “When water is literally on tap in your kitchen, it seems crazy to ship it around the world. “Incrediballs is designed to address this – we are looking to transform the traditional model under which drinks are sold in their ready-made form by allowing consumers to purchase the flavouring component in a concentrated format that can be added to sparking, still, hot or cold […]

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