Sustainable business
National Outcome 4: Increase the ability of New Zealand industries and organisations to develop within environmental limits and meet market and community requirements.
To achieve sustainable economic development, New Zealand must work within environmental limits and be responsive to the needs of local communities (licence to operate), and commercial markets (licence to sell and being competitive) and the cultural context of the Māori world view.
The challenges bring together the community, the public sector as regulators and policy-makers, the private sector as the economic engine, and the science sector as the provider of trusted evidence and innovation on which policies, strategies and solutions may be built. These challenges are increasingly complex with no ‘right answer’ for resolving high risk and polarised viewpoints.
Research is needed to better understand the factors required to resolve complex environmental issues, adapt to global change and reduce vulnerability to resource scarcity. Solutions need to integrate economic, social, cultural and environmental dimensions; and they may be applied within communities, marketplaces, governance structures or individual organisations.
Our capability and collaborations have developed over the last decade in response to the changing role of science in society, and the growing interests of society in the global issues of climate change, food security, competition for natural resources, and biodiversity loss.