Sustainable business & living
Cafe scene, Christchurch. Image – Cissy Pan.
Vision: By 2012 the New Zealand identity is associated with businesses and communities that create blended value (economic, environmental, and social), innovate to develop solutions to environmental and social issues, and reduce the aggregated environmental impacts associated with lifestyles.
Climate change and the wider sustainability agenda are creating new opportunities and risks for New Zealand businesses and communities. Rising energy costs, changing consumer demands, and growing availability of new technologies are challenging ‘business as usual’ projections in all sectors. Urban designers and householders are also looking at new alternatives in urban and building form, and lifestyles. A unifying theme is that of choice – for example, between sources of energy, forms of mobility, materials for building, processes of production, and now, job opportunities emerging in the ‘green economy’ (sustainable products and services). Knowledge of the issues and having a choice between alternative responses combine to facilitate a sustainable future for New Zealanders. Science and technology are needed to provide that knowledge and support technical and behavioural choices.
Evaluation frameworks provide a way of assessing future scenarios against community goals. This year the Four Future Scenarios for New Zealand, produced by Landcare Research and collaborators in 2005 (and updated in 2007), continued to be used in workshops with organisations and community groups. In each case, the approach contributed to deeper thinking about sustainability and its implications for New Zealand and their organisation. They were used by Te Puni Kokiri in preparing its report Ngā Kaihanga Hou, For Māori Future Makers. The work has also led to an invitation to run a future scenarios process at the IUCN World Congress in Barcelona in 2008, and to developing the FutureMakers Project. This is a collaboration between the Institute of Policy Studies (Victoria University of Wellington), Landcare Research and Secondary School Futures. The State Services Commission has supported the project in obtaining over 100 government and non–government futures work for a meta–analysis of trends and patterns, joining it up with other international futures studies.
Since 2002 Landcare Research has provided pragmatic business tools to enable businesses to understand their environmental impacts, and certification standards to demonstrate that credible responses are being made. The most significant of these are our Enviro–Mark®NZ programme, enabling businesses to manage their health & safety and environmental impacts, and our carboNZeroCertTM programme for greenhouse gas emissions inventory, reductions and offsets. During the year, both programmes participated in the Small Business Expos around New Zealand, with the carboNZero programme using these events to launch its small enterprise certification programme.
We commissioned a study on a New Zealand company, Grove Mill, that took the lead in using its carboNZero certification to brand its wine in export markets. The study found a dramatic increase in demand for Grove Mill wines and, taking into account the cost of emissions reduction, verification and marketing, carboNZero certification was a very cost–effective business and promotional strategy. Had the winery not acted, sales may have dropped because of overseas market concerns about ‘food miles’. To maintain its lead, Grove Mill is now seeking to influence its supply chain to adopt the carboNZero process.
This year, enquiries relating to our Low Impact Urban Design and Development (LIUDD) programme shifted significantly from wanting justification for the approach to wanting implementation pathways. In response, we increased emphasis on developing tools to assist developers and council planners in selecting materials and appropriate infrastructure solutions. More information was disseminated via the LIUDD National Task Force, which includes 27 external stakeholders from 15 councils, government agencies and consultancy companies. The networking approach is supported by a case study portal that showcases current implementation practices and experiences from the Ministry for the Environment (MfE), Infrastructure Auckland, Auckland Regional Council (ARC) and the LIUDD programme. In June 2008, a one–day Suburban Safari, attended by more than 60 urban development practitioners, looked at how Christchurch City Council has used LIUDD thinking to change its policies and practices.
Building on successful collaboration during Talbot Park redevelopment, we commenced a new project with Housing New Zealand to develop a process for refurbishing its housing with low impact technologies appropriate for its clientele. The project will contribute to the Tamaki Transformation Project, the largest urban redevelopment in New Zealand.
At national and international conferences during the year, we presented the first detailed water balance and occupant–perception analysis for a New Zealand ‘green’ building. The study showed that our Auckland facilities are one of the best—performing green buildings internationally in terms of mains water use per square metre of floor area and per FTE occupancy despite the large water demand in the building for laboratories and glasshouses.
We provided technical advice and supporting documents for a raingarden at the Ellerslie Flower Show sponsored by Auckland Regional Council and designed and built by Unitech students. The beautifully landscaped and highly functional domestic raingarden won a prestigious gold medal. We were similarly part of another team that designed the 500–m2 green roof for the new Waitakere Civic Centre building, which received an Award of Excellence for Sustainability (plus a Gold Award in the Planning, Communication and Promotion category) from the New Zealand Institute of Landscape Architects. We developed a new biofiltration substrate that can be produced inexpensively from local materials, but which has improved water–retention and nutrient–holding performance for New Zealand conditions.
During the year also, we contributed to a range of initiatives designed to raise awareness of the importance of biodiversity in cities. For example, we worked with Christchurch City Council and the Botanic Gardens to establish demonstration gardens incorporating alternative landscape and garden designs employing indigenous species for a range of biotopes. The gardens incorporate designs and species suitable for wastelands, rock gardens, lawns, herbaceous borders and hedges.
We also published an urban greening manual for incorporating indigenous biodiversity in urban development. The manual incorporates results from site characterisation, landscape design, restoration trials, and biofiltration studies.
Landcare Research also supports a number of urban community–awareness–raising initiatives such as BioBlitz (at Smith’s Bush in North Shore City this year), Glen Innes Family Fun Day, and the Lincoln Envirotown.