Element 27th July 2015

Monday, July 27, 2015

BUSINESS

PLANET

WELLBEING

Moment of truth EXCLUSIVE: Helen Clark on earth’s great global challenges

Powering up The Deloitte Energy Excellence Awards

Future proof Building a home for life

PLUS: Te Radar on cat videos / Homestar ratings / Storytelling for business

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contents

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James Russell Element editor

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fter some to-ing and fro-ing, the Government eventually decided on 17,000. That was the official number of people who made submissions regarding the emissions targets we present to this year’s crucial UN Climate Change Conference in Paris.

They needn’t have wasted their time. By its own admission, the government ignored 99% of those people and their recommendations, instead opting for yet more platitudes, smoke-and-mirrors carbon accounting and cushy targets.

At the risk of getting all Russell Crowe on it, a storm is coming.

It will take the form of climate marches and events up and down the country prior to the conference and, if enough people get involved, it may just be the moment which the government finally realises lots of people are really worried about this stuff.

Element will cover the build-up and organisation of these events, and we’ll keep you informed.

If you’re worried about climate change at all, come along. If you’re worried about your kids, and their kids, get out and march. If you like clean seas, fresh air, and thriving biodiversity, lace up your walking shoes.

Even if you’re uncertain, you may as well get amongst it. No harm can come from aggressively pursuing a low-carbon future for the planet, and why not pursue it in earnest, just to be sure?

Stay tuned for updates, and sign up for the Element weekly newsletter at bit.ly/1CCPC8e

Planet

Earth’s 5 great challenges

And how to tackle them .....................Page 10 Biodiversity ...........................................................12 The food debate .....................................................14

Sustainable Biz conference The art of storytelling ..........................Page 6 Deloitte Energy Awards ..........................................8

Future-proof your home

Planning for the future .......................Page 24 Homestar ...............................................................23 Te Radar .................................................................26

6 Business

Editor: James Russell editor@elementmagazine.co.nz Co-founder and brand publisher: Gavin Healy, Viridian Media Product manager: Alex Greig Design:Gina Lenssen| Online: Gary Farrow Contributors:Ted Baghurst (photography), Rosie Bosworth, Adam Gifford, Nigel Grant, Jamie Joseph, Te Radar, Rebecca Reider, Mary de Ruyter.

Advertising enquiries: gavin.healy@nzme.co.nz | 09 373 6096

Cover photo: Helen Clark. Photo: Georgia Schofield

The next issue of Element is out on August 31, 2015.

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The content of Element magazine is organised around the triple bottom line philosophy – that of people, planet and prosperity.

Element is a monthly supplement published by The New Zealand Herald in association with Viridian Media.

Passion Productions and Auckland Live present

BETWEEN TWO WAVES Emmett Skilton

Shara CoNnolly

By Ian Meadows Directed by Peter Feeney

Love in a warming climate TUE 4 — SAT 15 AUG Herald Theatre, Aotea Centre Tickets* $35 | Conc $30 | Groups $30 | Matinee $25 Book at ticketmaster.co.nz or 09 970 9700

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upfront WIN an OoCo belt These colourful cow-free belts from Austrian company OoCo have just arrived in New Zealand and Element has ten to give away to readers.

Stylish, colourful and functional, OoCo belts are made from recycled silicon and rubber, with a recyclable plastic buckle.

They feature a quick buckle change system so buckles and belts can be mixed and matched, and one size fits all – just cut the belt to the desired length. For more information visit ooco.co.nz

Visit elementmagazine.co.nz to enter the draw.

The numbers

LOOKING AFTER THE ‘WILD THINGS’

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The ‘Wild Things’ conference, run by New Zealand’s Environmental Defence Society, is to be held at the Viaduct Events Centre on August 12-13.

Biodiversity loss is the greatest environmental challenge that currently faces New Zealand. Despite our best endeavours, the country’s wealth of endemic species is dwindling away. Under the current trajectory, kiwi will be functionally extinct on the mainland within two generations. In addition to losses on land, we are also facing threats in both the freshwater and marine realms.

Every 30 seconds, a child is trafficked around the world

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The average age of the victims

20km Each member of a team of six rides 20km to raise funds for the TEAR Fund Poverty Cycle Challenge

$85,000 The amount raised last year

Open Your Eyes by a team from Timaru has been nominated at the Seoul International Youth Film Festival.

Film challenge making young stars famous Entries are open at theoutlookforsomeday.net for the film challenge that takes young New Zealand film-makers to international audiences.

So far five winning films from last year’s Someday Challenge have received nominations in international film festivals.

Last year’s $85,000 allowed TEAR Fund’s partners to: rescue 65 victims from trafficking, charge 15 offenders, expand into 36 new communities, and educate 768 school children about the dangers of human trafficking.

Wild Things will be a national conversation, amongst all sectors, about the way forward on biodiversity.

Find out more at Edsconference.com

SMART RT PO TRANSU FOR M

The Sustainable Business Network (SBN) is hosting the Smart Transport Forum at Spark City, 167 Victoria St West, Auckland on August 6 from 8.30am-6pm.

The entry deadline for the film challenge is September 11.

Surprise your little one with their own Munch Eco Hero feeding set from shopgreen.co.nz Made from rice husks – a byproduct of rice production – the Eco Hero includes a cup with handles, a baby plate and spoon, fork, bowl and a non-slip mat to stop it sliding off the table. It all stacks together to make a cute Munch Eco Hero and is dishwasher safe.

Visit shopgreen.co.nz to purchase

Hear from US smart transport guru Gabe Klein, who pioneered both car and bike sharing schemes in the US, Louise Baker, principal transportation consultant for Opus Internation and John Mauro, chief sustainability officer for Auckland Council.

CLIMATE CHANGE PLAY MAKES NZ DEBUT

The event will be held at 7am on August 29 at the Ti Papa Events Centre in Clevedon, Auckland.

Between Two Waves, a romantic comedy about juggling love with impending climate change disaster starring Almighty Johnsons actor Emmett Skilton, makes its New Zealand debut at the Herald Theatre, Auckland from August 4 – 15.

Tickets through ticketmaster.co.nz

Register at povertycycle.org.nz

The Someday Challenge asks young New Zealanders aged up to 24 to make short sustainability-related films.

Among the prizes for the film chosen as The Body Shop Standout Winner is a mentorship with Te Radar and filmmaker Peter Bell.

Eco Hero for dinner

WIN

For info: aucklandlive.co.nz Element magazine has five double passes to give away to Between Two Waves. Visit elementmagazine.co.nz to enter the draw.

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SBN CONFERENCE

SPEAKERS

MATTHEW YEOMANS CEO, SUSTAINLY

WHAT’S THE STORY? Content is king in the world of business right now. That’s why the Sustainable Business Network Conference is entitled: Project NZ: Telling Good Stories.

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usinesses will have the opportunity to learn how to effectively communicate their sustainability progress, both to their markets and internal teams, at the Project NZ: Telling Good Stories conference at AUT University, Auckland on September 3.

Rachel Brown, CEO of the Sustainable Business Network (SBN), which is organising the conference, says brands that are telling their sustainability story in a compelling way are becoming more powerful.

“There are a growing number of New Zealand organisations that have made good progress in a host of clever, purpose-led initiatives in recent years.

Yet market research shows there is a gap in public awareness and, when asked, Kiwis find it very hard to name one company doing good work in this area.

“We are not great storytellers, particularly when the stories are complex. Most businesses prefer to keep their good works under the radar because they don’t know how to talk about them,” she says.

Colmar Brunton’s ‘Better Business, Better Future’ research shows that while 90 per cent of consumers say their purchasing behaviour is influenced by social or environmental or health-related issues, two in three people can’t name a leader in sustainability.

Brown says she wants the Project NZ: Telling Good Stories conference to turn that figure around.

Find out more: sustainable.org.nz

Yeomans is the founder of UK-based Sustainly, a media platform providing companies the information they need to deliver authentic and creative sustainability content. He has contributed to; Time, The New York Times and National Geographic.

ANGELA BUGLASS CHIEF EXECUTIVE, TRILOGY INTERNATIONAL LTD

Buglass’ experience includes roles with Procter & Gamble, L’Oreal and Estée Lauder and she’s an expert in sales, brand marketing, new product development, merchandising and display and new market expansion.

JAMES RUSSELL EDITOR, ELEMENT MAGAZINE

Russell is the founding and current editor of Element, the magazine you hold in your hands.

Element is New Zealand’s largest sustainable business and lifestyle magazine.

BARBARA NEBEL MANAGING DIRECTOR, THINKSTEP

Thinkstep enables companies worldwide to recalibrate their strategies and operations for long-term sustainability success with data, technology and services. Nebel has 15 years’ experience improving business sustainability.

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NICKY BELL CEO, SAATCHI & SAATCHI

Bell has led the transformation to become a thriving, innovative business oriented around the creation of ‘ideas worth sharing’.

Nicky is a member of the Global Women Organisation and is an alumni of the Stanford University Graduate Business School.

DAVID TRUBRIDGE

David is New Zealand’s best known furniture/lighting designer.

His work, manufactured by his company in Whakatu NZ, is sold around the world.

ALICIA DARVALL EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, B CORPS AUSTRALIA

In her role with B Lab Australia, Darvall is building a community of values-driven businesses and working to benchmark their great work. B Lab makes it easier to tell the difference between good companies and good marketing.

MIKE POLLOK MANAGING DIECTOR, RICOH

GUY RYAN CEO AND FOUNDER, INSPIRING STORIES

ROD ORAM BUSINESS JOURNALIST

GERRI WARD SUSTAINABILITY MANAGER, Z ENERGY

SOPHIE HEIGHWAY CORPORATE SUSTAINABILITY SPECIALIST

NEVIL GIBSON EDITOR AT LARGE, NATIONAL BUSINESS REVIEW

LEANNE FRISBIE DIRECTOR, PASSION PR

FIONA STEPHENSON NATIONAL COMMUNICATIONS MANAGER, SBN

Pollok has been the managing director of Ricoh New Zealand for 30 years and has successfully navigated the shift from paper to digital by its customers.

Ward leads and implements Z’s sustainability commitments. She has a background in business opportunities out of sustainability and climate change, and has previously worked in government roles.

KATH DEWAR MANAGING DIRECTOR, GOODSENSE

Dewar has more than 25 years’ marketing experience. Her business GoodSense provides expertise to progressive organisations and her training business GoodSense Learning offers a unique online course in green marketing.

Young New Zealander of the Year 2015, Ryan is an entrepreneur and the CEO and founder of Inspiring Stories, a charity with a vision to see every young New Zealander unleash their potential to change the world.

Heighway has worked for Downer, NZ Post Group and Air New Zealand, managing programmes including social and community engagement, corporate responsibility and supply chain management.

Passion PR works with organisations and brands dedicated to making a positive difference in the world from an environmental, social, and cultural standpoint. Frisbie has over a decade’s experience in the area of marketing, communications and journalism.

Oram has 40 years’ experience as a journalist, columnist; broadcaster on radio and television; and a frequent public speaker on business, economics, innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship.

Gibson has been a professional journalist since 1968, working mainly in print and radio.

Fiona has been communicating sustainability for over 15 years.

Past roles include speech writing for the UK’s chief sustainability advisor and communications for the University of Oxford.

Genesis Energy

Shining A Light in YOUR community Genesis Energy, New Zealand’s largest electricity and gas retailer, is powering communities nationwide.

We have a long heritage in supporting community initiatives but we know that the real energy behind any community is the people that put in a superhero effort to make it great.

Now, through our Shine A Light Project,

Genesis Energy is celebrating these exceptional New Zealanders.

It doesn’t matter if you live in our largest cities or our smallest towns, we all know someone or a group of people who do amazing things. The Shine A Light Project needs your help to tell us who these people are and how they make a difference in your community.

Go to www.shinealight.kiwi to nominate someone doing amazing things right now.

Deloitte eNeRGY excelleNce AWARDS

Powering up The Deloitte Energy Excellence Awards 2015 finalists show a commitment to clean energy generation and efficiency.

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nergy industry execs will gather at the Langham Hotel in Auckland on August 12 to celebrate the year’s achievements in efficiency, generation, environmental initiatives and innovation.

It is a rapidly changing industry, as attested to by Deloitte partner Scott McClay. “At a time when increased competition, new technologies and the growing voice of

the consumer are challenging any semblance of business as usual, these finalists are driving success in this dynamic sector.”

Now in its sixth year, the Awards see a few changes including the addition of new categories and a fresh look for 2015.

This year, through the Consumer NZ annual energy providers’ survey, New Zealand electricity and gas consumers will be deciding the Consumer NZ Energy Retailer of the Year Award. In a highly competitive market those energy retailers that demonstrate excellence across a number of areas such as customer service and product innovation will be recognised.

2015 Deloitte

There have been two new categories announced this year - Community Initiative of the Year and Large Energy User Initiative of the Year. These new categories encompass an even wider reach of the energy sector, and proved very popular with entrants.

Chairman of the judging panel, Toby Stevenson, says that the standard of entries for the 2015 Awards maintains the high standards set in previous years and the judges had a difficult task selecting finalists.

“The record number of entries received this year is a true testament to the excellent stories to be told about companies and individuals working in energy related activity in New Zealand.”

eNeRGY excelleNce AWARDS FiNAliStS lARGe eNeRGY USeR iNitiAtiVe oF tHe YeAR – sponsored by element ANZ ANZ New Zealand has become the company’s global leader in energy efficiency. In the last 12 months it has substantially reduced energy consumption by 9%, resulting in great energy savings; and has had zero growth in energy consumption across ANZ data centres in the last 18 months.

Norske Skog Norske Skog has commissioned four key initiatives in its attempt to minimise the cost of power at its Tasman newsprint mill. These include the development of a standalone 21 MW geothermal power station and managing refining time to minimise the wholesale electricity cost.

ANZco Foods As a result of ANZCO Foods’ two-year energy management plan designed and managed by DETA, the company exceeded its target in annual savings across the group.

The programme involved energy management committees established at all the company’s sites and energy audits conducted across the group.

eNViRoNMeNtAl iNitiAtiVe oF tHe YeAR – sponsored by transfield Worley Power Services transpower Transpower’s long term environmental objective is to

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reduce harmful emissions. In the last year the company achieved the best-ever rating of its most harmful emission, which marks a 21.6% decline since 2005/06.

Powerco Powerco has implemented an international best practice Environmental Management System with the goal of progressing its Enviro-Mark Gold standard to the Diamond standard – the highest level – by June 2016. The System has successfully controlled significant environmental risk for three major network projects carried out in the last financial year.

Mighty River Power Mighty River Power (MRP) launched the ‘Take Charge’ initiative in November 2014. This saw MRP announce its commitment to shift 70% of its fleet to plug-in hybrid and pure electric vehicles by the end of 2018 and through this initiative the company plans to encourage other large fleet owners to take similar steps to leverage off New Zealand’s home-grown, renewable electricity supply.

coMMUNitY iNitiAtiVe oF tHe YeAR – sponsored by PePANZ Meridian energy Meridian’s partnership with KidsCan has helped raise awareness of the issue of child poverty to a wider audience. It has also brought the issue home to Meridian staff, taking them outside their comfort zone, but bringing them closer together as a result. Through working with KidsCan, Meridian builds awareness and actively supports the charity to help give every child in New Zealand the

Deloitte eNeRGY excelleNce AWARDS

Fraser Whineray, CEO of Mighty River Power, has committedto shifting 70% of the company fleet to plug-in hybrid and pure electric vehicles by the end of 2018. He is pictured here with his daughter. Photo: Ted Baghurst

chance to succeed by providing food, clothing and basic health care to those who need it.

eNeRGY PRoJect oF tHe YeAR – sponsored by itl

iNNoVAtioN iN eNeRGY AWARD – sponsored by Gentrack

New Zealand Aluminium Smelters Kakapo recovery programme – Over the past 25 years New Zealand Aluminium Smelter (NZAS) has helped its most vulnerable neighbour walk back from the brink of extinction and into the hearts and minds of New Zealanders. In 1990 NZAS entered into a partnership with the Department of Conservation (DOC) – the first commercial partnership in the Department’s history – and Forest & Bird, in a bid to ensure the ongoing survival of the kakapo – a critically endangered iconic New Zealand species and a taonga to Ngai Tahu.

contact energy In 2014 Contact Energy celebrated the completion of their Wairakei investment programme which included the building of the Te Mihi Uenukukopako geothermal power station (Te Mihi). This major four-year programme represented an unprecedented period of investment and development to ensure contribution to Contact’s – and the country’s – success and future.

Simply energy Simply Energy has launched two innovative products and significantly increased its revenue in the last 12 months; SPC, the company’s own cloud based retail platform and secondly New Zealand’s first White Label retail service providing third parties with a cost effective option of retailing electricity under its own brand.

Other finalists in this category: Mighty River Power Tauhara North No2 Trust – Mauri Waiariki; Chevron Community Learner Driver Programme.

eNeRGY RetAileR oF tHe YeAR – sponsored by consumer New Zealand For the first time, the Energy Retailer of the Year is to be partly decided through a customer survey conducted by Consumer New Zealand.

Results of the Consumer survey show that, in particular, new online products have performed well in terms of consumer satisfaction - products such as Energy Online, a brand of Genesis, Powershop and Flick Electric.

Both finalists and winner for this category will be announced on the night.

transpower The North Auckland and Northland (NAaN) project represented a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, delivering the first extra high voltage underground circuit in New Zealand’s largest city. It provides substantial benefits to the Auckland region, Northland and the NZ economy. The project overcame diverse challenges and was constructed relatively “under the radar”, typifying understated project delivery at its best.

King country energy At King Country Energy’s (KCE’s) Wairere power station near Piopio, three of the four turbines were approaching the end of their lives. In 2012 the KCE board of directors approved a project to replace the three old units with a single new turbine. The new turbine became operational in June 2014. Whilst a small project compared to some in the sector, it represents a very successful energy project delivered by a small team of very skilled and knowledgeable Kiwis.

Unison Unison began a Smart Grid initiative in 2009 to extract maximum value from its electrical assets. Part of this initiative involves Remote Engineering Access to smart devices via a mesh radio network to save time and reduce costs. The mesh radio network covers a large portion of the company’s overall network. transpower Developed by Transpower, emsTradepoint is New Zealand’s new and innovative gas market. This trading market is aiding the New Zealand gas industry by managing portfolio and price risk. A total of approximately 1.2 PJ has now been traded since the market commenced.

Awards will be announced on the Gala evening, with further categories including Health & Safety initiative of the Year, energy executives of the Year, and the editor’s Award for outstanding contribution to the Sector.

For further information visit energyawards.co.nz

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CV: HELEN CLARK

After serving three consecutive terms as Prime Minister of New Zealand, Helen Clark became administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in April 2009. Consistently rated by Forbes as one of the most powerful women in the world, she sits atop an annual budget of US$5.8 billion and a staff of 8000 in 177 countries.

As one of the largest multilateral development agencies on the planet, UNDP is on the frontlines of the developing world’s most pressing risks and opportunities. In 2014 highlights of the UNDP programmes included the creation of nearly one million jobs (41% women), two million health workers were trained to fight HIV, tuberculosis and malaria, and energy access was improved for 1.3 million people.

Helen Clark with Chilean president Michelle Bachelet and democratic party candidate Hillary Clinton.

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The planet is under pressure. With a ballooning population consuming ever-more of its resources, the profligate way in which humanity operates is starting to backfire. Fresh water is becoming scarce, food systems are relying on depleted soils, biodiversity loss is escalating and the atmosphere thickens with our own emissions.

Yet humanity has already developed the solutions to not only halt these things, but turn them around. It’s a matter of political and personal will, financial divestment from the wrong path, and education.

Here Element writers Nigel Parry, Jamie Joseph, Rebecca Reider, Adam Gifford and Dr Rosie Bosworth profile five of earth’s major challenges and some of the solutions.

But first Jamie Joseph talks to Helen Clark, United Nations Development Programme administrator and former Prime Minister of New Zealand, about the global path we are all on, and where opportunity lies.

By Jamie Joseph ’ve spent the last days of July stalking Helen Clark’s Press Secretary in the race to make deadline and lock in a time slot with the hyper-busy administrator as she flew from Addis Ababa to Lusaka, and then finally catching up with her in London en-route to New York.

When I tell her I’ll be heading to Africa this month on a 14-week mission, ‘Solving Poverty Saves Wildlife’, she rattles off a bunch of places I might want to check out with a pronunciation so crisp it would rival someone raised in a Maasai village. I ask if she has the names written down on a piece of paper in front of her, and she laughs. “No, I don’t,” she replies.

Clark has an incredible memory, and appears at ease trekking through the world’s wild and dangerous places, whether she’s offering the ‘elbow bump handshake’ in an Ebola-affected country, or riding a camel in Mongolia.

But when it comes to the top global issues facing humanity, Clark has taken on one billion problems, with at least a seventh of the world’s population living in extreme poverty.

The world is drying up, and with growing demands from agriculture and energy production squeezing out every last drop, countries aren’t going to war over water, yet, but water in shared basins is already being used as leverage, and in extreme circumstances, as a tactical weapon.

Isis rebels now control most of the upper reaches of the Tigris and Euphrates, the two great rivers that flow from Turkey in the north to the Gulf in the south, hindering the flow to Iraq and much of Syria.

“Isis is not in itself one of the greatest threats facing humanity,” says Clark. “But I do think they’re a symptom, a breakdown of civility; the tip of the iceberg.”

When we discuss global food challenges Clark tells me that she has just completed a trip to Zambia where 42% of children have stunted growth due to malnutrition.

Currently the biggest challenge on food production is how to support the world’s farmers to adapt to an unstable climate. All across Africa farmers are now saying they do not know when the rain is coming – they do not know when to plant. And then there is the compounding issue of discrimination against women farmers, who make up about half of all farmers on the African continent.

“Women start off on the back foot,” says Clark.

“Customary laws often trump their legal right to inherit land, they lack access to credit financing, and they’re excluded from sourcing the best seeds and fertilisers.

There have been a range of calculations that suggest that if women farmers started on the same footing as men we would boost food production substantially, with a positive impact on family income and food supply. There are a

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number of barriers to overcome. “ Population growth is another complex problem, and Clark points out that in New Zealand, just two generations back, the families were a lot bigger. So what changed?

“Women got access to education and to sexual reproduction health services, and women’s status rose overall. Now that is the trajectory.” She argues that when countries can achieve those things we start to see population rates come down. “And, if you don’t have a functioning social security system for old age, for example, your children are your wealth. Social protection for older

This global challenges series has been made possible with support from Lincoln University. Lincoln University is among our more progressive on these issues, with three overarching organisational goals; to feed the world; protect the future; and live well. It’s with these three goals in mind that every Lincoln course is now designed, and first and second-year students are required to undertake courses in understanding global challenges and the opportunities that lie in solving them. lincoln.ac.nz

people and people with disabilities are all part of the solution.”

The millennium development goals (MDGs) have driven the most successful anti-poverty movement in history, but the results are still plagued by inequality. As we move on now to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) the strategy will need to change.

“The scale of the environmental challenges is far more obvious now than it was in the year 2000. This is hindering the movement of people out of poverty because of the impact it is having on people’s lives. So the SDGs are a much more consciously people and planet together kind of agenda.”

She explains that while poverty rates have come down, inequality hasn’t in many countries. UNDP estimates that

a whopping 70% of people in developing countries live in societies than are less equal than they were in 1990.

But perhaps the greatest failure of this generation is our apathy in reacting to climate change. There are growing fears that governments will fail to commit to meaningful emissions reduction targets at the upcoming Paris climate summit in December, and that there is no plan B. “I think that citizens who care about climate change should use all available means, including the law. So undoubtedly that historic case in the Netherlands [where a citizen lawsuit requires the Dutch government to bring down emissions] will encourage others to do the same,” says Clark. “This is a global issue that affects everyone, but I just don’t see the level of citizen mobilisation around this issue that I saw in my relative years around the war in Vietnam, or nuclear weapons, or apartheid. Things change when citizens make it a big enough priority.”

The earth now stands on the brink of its sixth mass extinction, and humans are to blame. A huge win for nature in developing countries would be if more businesses coming in from key investment countries did their development of natural resources in sustainable ways. But how do we hold them accountable to nature and biodiversity?

“I think there are some interesting coalitions that are being built around this,” says Clark. “If you take for example, palm oil, we estimate now that 90% of palm oil retail buying power globally has committed to a deforestation-free supply chain. UNDP helped to bring together this coalition of governments, both donor governments who put up the money for protecting forests, and developing governments who are prepared to act with effective regulation. And then combine this with the buying power of the big retailers and consumer pressure, and then suddenly there is not much point of clearing land for palm oil, because no one is going to buy it. We need to spread that movement to other areas of production.”

Just before Helen Clark is whisked away to her next meeting, she tells me that she truly believes New Zealand could play a leading role in tackling many of these global challenges.

“The idea of aid as charity has long since gone. How do you strengthen national capacity to make a huge difference across the board? How do you reduce poverty and inequality while conserving vital ecosystems? The Pacific, where New Zealand puts a lot of its efforts, is also extremely vulnerable to disaster risk, so there is plenty to be done with the New Zealand dollar in the Pacific.”

Jamie Joseph is the founder of savingthewild.com

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GLOBAL CHALLENGE: BIODIVERSITY LOSS

the human

ASTER ID

By Nigel Parry

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s a kid I loved dinosaurs. I still have the book my parents bought, featuring vivid pictures and exciting descriptions.The coolest part was a timeline, running across the bottom of each page. Over 100 million years, the creatures became more diverse, exciting and extraordinary.

And then, on the last page, it all stopped. The dinosaurs, along with many other creatures and plants on earth, were gone.

The finger of suspicion has been pointed at an asteroid impact, large enough to cause a sudden and cataclysmic change to earth’s climate and resulting in the fifth mass extinction. Many plants and animals perished and it took millions of years for life on earth to recover.

It is happening again. Species are dying out across the globe at a frightening pace, far in excess of the normal rate; some say 10,000 times faster.

The latest news comes from a study by the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment last month, but google ‘Mass Extinction’ and you’ll find a slew of references going back many years.

“A whole range of really broad global drivers are causing quite a lot of disruption,” says Andrea Byrom – director of the Biological Heritage National Science Challenge. “That includes land use intensification, climate change, invasive species, nitrous oxide pollution and degrading water quality.”

This time, we humans are to blame.

“Human-induced climate change is happening, no doubt about that, and all life on earth will be affected. The unsustainable and inequitable loss of biological diversity, over the last 45 years, is of much greater significance than climate change,” says Ian Spellerberg, Emeritus Professor of Nature Conservation at Lincoln University.

“So mass extinctions is just a very small part of the ongoing loss of diversity in nature.”

Why is biodiversity so important for New Zealand?

“Pollination, soil fertility, variety and quantity of food, water and air quality is in serious trouble,” Spellerberg comments. “The status of our fauna and flora is being eroded, especially plant species. Polluted streams can have a high organic load and only a few species can tolerate that.” Other organisms will be gone from the stream, taking their biodiversity with them.

He sees biodiversity as a measure of nature’s health, with

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forestry and agriculture dependent on genetic diversity.

Byrom agrees. Locally, species may provide medicines that we haven’t discovered, and ‘ecosystem services’ such as flowers for pollination. “They are keeping our critical life-supporting systems ticking over.”

Biodiversity provides climate stability, disease-control, cultural diversity, environmental

“Spellerberg also believes lack of awareness is an issue and more information is needed.

For example, he would like to see regular state of the environment measures, just like weather and stock market reports.”

knowledge, foodchain stability and oxygen too. This is the message from Stewart Brand, president of the Long Now Foundation, co-founder of the Revive and Restore project in San Francisco and admirer of New Zealand’s efforts in island conservation.

“Here in New Zealand DoC [the Department of Conservation] do an extraordinarily wonderful job. We are often leading the way in terms of dealing with invasive species, biosecurity, island refuges,” adds Spellerberg.

Pest eradication on Great Mercury Island off the Coromandel coast has supported long-term success for

native geckos, giant tusked weta, tuatara, kaka, kakariki, New Zealand dotterel, taiko (petrels) and other sea birds, as well as 50 native land snail species.

DoC’s Te Maruia Waka Huia programme is protecting native biodiversity in the Maruia Valley beech forest in South Island. As well as possum, rat and stoat control, feral goats and invasive weeds are tackled. Pest numbers have dropped dramatically and native species such as the whio (blue duck) are recovering.

“The state of nature has declined over the last 45 years, despite the growth in resources and organisations trying to conserve nature,” says Spellerberg. He, like Byrom, would like to see more support for DoC. Spellerberg also believes lack of awareness is an issue and more information is needed. For example, he would like to see regular state of the environment measures, just like weather and stock market reports.

Awareness of what is a native plant and what is a weed may be about to receive a helping hand. With funding from WWF NZ, a team at the University of Otago are working on a development of their Flora Finder smartphone app that will let you identify invasive weeds and even tell you how to deal with them.

New Zealand’s forest area has declined by 65% and However Byrom wetland areas by 85% since thinks more action human settlement about 700-800 is needed. “It requires years ago. On the lowlands of the policy interventions. As Canterbury Plains, for example, you can see with our less than 0.5% of the plains still ability to deal with climate support native vegetation change, we’re not doing very well. The Government doesn’t sign up to things that have teeth. We need to be more explicitly balancing economic drivers with environmental drivers, building the environmental side of the balance sheet a lot more.”

You don’t have to leave it to others. DoC has resources on their website that can help you build a weta hotel, attract birds and lizards to your garden, track pests and even make your cat conservation friendly.

The scientists agree, humans are the asteroid. How much of an impact we make, depends on us.

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DoC has had a number of successful conservation programmes; pest-free islands, the battle for our birds, conservation services programmes, robins return project and others. Some say DoC could do more with increased funding

KNOW YOUR ENEMY: A new app is coming that will help you identify invasive weeds and tell you what to do with them

BIODIVERSITY is waterways and the sea, as well as forests, wetlands and mountain areas. Many organisms depend on each other in a local ecosystem

Currently information and key statistics that indicate the natural health of the NZ environment is collected independently by individual organisations. The Environmental Reporting Bill is going through Parliament and will provide for the collation and publication of this in one forum, but there is concern about political interference

Healthy soils and waterway are needed for agriculture. We could lose the soils we need to grow crops, the natural predators that control pests, and the pollinators that are needed for the survival of flowering plants (including fruit trees) if our native biodiversity is harmed

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The Government has announced a funding programme to conserve the kiwi, aiming for a 2% increase in numbers instead of a 2% decline. This not only helps the kiwi, a much-loved national icon, the programme is likely to have benefits for the local habitats where kiwi live; a collateral benefit to the ecosystem

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SCIENTISTS AGREE that we are now entering a period of mass extinction - the sixth in the world’s history. The fifth wiped out the dinosaurs, along with more than half of the species on earth, 65 million years ago

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The Environmental Defence Society, an organisation focused on resource management professionals is running a Conference - Wild Things: addressing terrestrial, freshwater and marine biodiversity loss.

12-13 August, Auckland; Check out edsconference.com

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MASS EXTINCTION refers to an extinction affecting a great many different groups of organisms occupying diverse and wide-spread environments

NZ has a good international reputation for protection of our environment – for example island habitats and pest eradication

LOSS OF BIODIVERSITY is even more important than total extinction – biodiversity is a measure of nature’s health. The loss of an organism from a local ecosystem can have a significant damaging effect, even if that organism is still able to survive elsewhere on earth

You can help: Find out more through bodies such as DoC, the National Wetland Trust, WWF NZ, New Zealand Plant Conservation Network, Forest & Bird or your local conservation groups DoC has resources on what you can do as an individual; including activities that are literally in your own back yard. Check out bit.ly/1eUfIYV

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GLOBAL CHALLENGE: FOOD PRODUCTION

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By Rebecca Reider

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he very phrase “feeding the world” conjures up the idea of grand centralised plans. But research shows that, in spite of industrial agriculture’s most grandiose claims, ecological agriculture is the most viable way to feed us all.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation claims that to feed nine billion of us well in the year 2050, as people become more affluent, global agricultural production will need to increase by 70 per cent. Various critics dispute this claim.

“Do we have the protocols or recipes to do it? Definitely,” says Steve Wratten, Professor of Ecology at Lincoln University. “But getting governments to adopt it has a major barrier – international corporations.”

As a scientist, Wratten has spent a long and successful career developing ways to control pest insects with ecological tactics instead of synthetic pesticides. Yet, he insists, the biggest obstacles to food security worldwide are not scientific; they’re political: “Monsanto’s vision is to dominate the world food market.”

It’s not hyperbole; three companies control half of the world seed market, and Monsanto is the largest of them. Recently the company has been trying to buy up its nearest rival, pesticide behemoth Syngenta.

So dominating world food production seems achievable. But what about feeding the world?

“Agroecology can double yields in 10 years; conventional agriculture cannot,” Wratten says.

That bold assertion is backed by research. In 2010, Olivier De Schutter, Special Rapporteur to the UN, released a groundbreaking but little-heeded report on agroecological farming methods. His worldwide review of scientific literature found that introducing agroecological practices tends to dramatically increase crop yields, particularly for small-scale subsistence farmers.

Agroecology, broadly stated, is the practice of designing farm systems that mimic natural ecosystems – using nature, rather than industrial products, to ensure longterm stability. Agroecology pays attention to diversity, local weather, water retention, soil protection, healthy insect populations. Such farms may be agroforests, mixed animal farms or anything in between. What they are not, is monocultures.

Advocates of genetic engineering love to tell the media that we need GE crops in order to “feed the world,” especially as populations grow.

But experience has shown that not to be the case. A Canterbury University research team led by Professor Jack

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Heinemann recently compared five decades of crop yields from the US, where GE seeds now dominate the landscape, with yields from Western Europe, where farms remain GEfree. For various major crops, European productivity now outstrips American farms. As American farmers adopted GE crop systems in the first decade of the 21st century, their herbicide use skyrocketed, but yields stayed stagnant.

During the same time period, European yields rose as farmers got smarter about their technological choices.

Are there some wise uses of synthetic biotech in agriculture? It depends how closely you look. During the Green Revolution of the mid-20th century, synthetic

“It’s not hyperbole; three companies control half of the world seed market, and Monsanto is the largest of them.”

nitrogen fertiliser use expanded massively; this, combined with high-yielding seed varieties, increased crop yields, particularly in the developing world. From 1950 to 1984, with soils drunk on easy nitrogen, world grain production more than doubled.

However, it also turns out that the much-lauded nitrogen fertilisers are quasi-addictive, and end in an addict’s downward spiral. A high dose of nitrogen causes microbes to accelerate the breakdown of soil organic matter – essentially burning through soil resources, and leading to depleted soils over time.

There are no quick-fix answers to the question of fertility

for all – but getting organic matter back into soils would be a strong start. Soils in many farmed areas have lost their nutrition. Last year, researchers at the UK’s University of Sheffield announced that if business-as-usual continues, British farm soils have only 100 harvests left in them.

They don’t come in a sack or a spray can, but agroecological solutions do exist. Cover cropping to protect the soil, growing green manure crops that are turned back into the soil, growing pastures and using appropriate grazing strategies are all part of the picture.

Getting organic matter back into soils is also win-win for the climate. More carbon in soils means less carbon in the atmosphere. Organicmatter-rich soils also withstand climate change better; they hold more water to survive droughts, and absorb more water during intense rain events, decreasing the likelihood of flooding and erosion.

The elephant-in-the-room question, of course, is how to achieve all of the needed changes. “Pouring money into agriculture will not be sufficient,” De Schutter’s UN report argues. “This will not happen by chance. It can only happen by design, through strategies and programmes backed by strong political will.”

One of the difficulties with changing farm practices, whether in New Zealand or in Nigeria, is how money channels the flow of information. There’s money to be made in selling a farmer a sack of fertiliser or patented GMO seeds, but little money to be made in teaching that farmer how to save their own seeds, or how to grow leguminous crops that bring atmospheric nitrogen into the soil for free. As a result, in many countries, agrichemical company representatives pushing products have become de facto public agriculture instructors.

Rewards also help to shift behaviour. In the EU, farmers receive government subsidies for ecological practices that enhance soil quality, biodiversity and other environmental benefits.

After more than half a century of corporate-led agriculture, is it time for a new era of public investment in farmer education and farm ecologies? Worldwide, dinner plates – and lives – may depend on it.

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A vegetarian diet may take about half as much land to produce as an average meateater’s diet, depending on where you are in the world. But the devil is in the detail; a diet of heavily processed, imported vegetarian foods cancels out many of the environmental benefits of vegetarianism.

In one of the most far-reaching reviews of agroecological practice, British researchers found that across 286 sustainable agriculture projects in 57 poor countries, agroecological techniques improved crop yields by an average of 79 per cent.

Crop diversity is the key factor enabling organic farm productivity to match industrial farm yields, according to a recent review by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley. Crop rotations and intercropping (growing multiple crops together) are the key practices.

Farms using agroecological practices are often more resilient in times of climatic disaster. In Nicaragua, following Hurricane Mitch in 1998, farms that used agroecological practices such as terracing, green manures, crop rotations, on-farm trees, living fences, contouring and mulches retained 40 per cent more topsoil and experienced significantly less erosion and fewer landslides.

World hunger is not caused by lack of food; it’s caused by economic inequality. We grow enough food to feed us all, but we’re not distributing it well. At present, already a billion people are chronically hungry, and two billion are malnourished, according to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in the US.

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IN A BID TO COUNTERACT and reduce inequality, France just passed a trailblazing new law banning supermarkets from throwing away or destroying unsold food.

Instead, stores must donate the food to charity or for animal feed.

The French national assembly unanimously passed the law in May.

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GLOBALLY, CONFINED ANIMAL FEEDING OPERATIONS – better known as “factory farms” – consume half of all corn grown in the world. An estimated 70 per cent of all agricultural land is used to raise animals or grow animal feed.

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In the US agricultural system, it currently takes 10 calories of fossil fuel to produce one calorie of food.

Half of that energy is spent on processing, packaging and transport.

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In the US, an estimated 80 per cent of all processed foods contain GMO ingredients.

One third of all food produced (1.3 billion tonnes) is never consumed, according to the World Food Program

While traditional aid organisations still talk about “food security,” farmer-activists worldwide are now calling for food sovereignty: all people’s right to define their own food and farming systems. For food sovereignty, access to land and equitable trade rules are just as important as making sure food is grown, argues international peasant movement Via Campesina.

Peasant farmers grow 70 per cent of the world’s food.

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GLOBAL CHALLENGE: ENERGY RENEWAL

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By Jamie Joseph

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il has one foot in the grave. Collectively, governments currently spend around US$1t a year subsidising fossil fuels, but the irony is that if they do as they say, and limit climate change to below two degrees Celsius by reducing CO2 emissions, around 80% of current reserves will need to stay in the ground. According to a report by the International Energy Agency, this US$1t a year in subsidies is equivalent to the investment needed in clean energy in order to mitigate climate change.

But what does the decarbonisation of our energy supply look like?

In his acclaimed TED talk, ‘A 40-year plan for energy’, pioneering scientist Amory Lovins shows how to get the United States off oil and coal by 2050, saving US$5tn, with no Act of Congress, led by business – for profit.

Widely considered among the world’s leading authorities on energy, and nominated in 2009 by Time Magazine as one of the World’s 100 most influential people, Lovins explains that the key to success is integrating all four energy-using sectors; transportation, buildings, industry and electricity, and four kinds of innovation; technology, policy, design and business strategy. So in reinventing fire, those combinations create deeply disruptive business opportunities.

As Lovins explains it, almost half of the United States electricity comes from coal. Three-quarters of the electricity powers buildings, and the rest runs factories. Three-quarters of oil fuel is transportation.

Thus electric vehicles and sustainably designed buildings and factories save oil and coal, and also natural gas that can displace both of them.

According to a paper released this month by the New Climate Economy (NCE), Seizing the Global Opportunity Partnerships for Better Growth and a Better Climate, evidence from countries around the world shows that growth and climate action are not mutually exclusive, but mutually dependent.

Actions such as accelerating low-carbon developments in global cities, restoring and protecting agricultural and forest landscapes, pricing carbon, supporting clean energy and energy efficiency will drive economic growth and development, all the while reducing as much as 96% of the greenhouse gas emissions targeted for 2030 to keep global warming under two degrees Celsius.

The C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group connects more than 75 cities, representing 550+ million people and one

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quarter of the global economy. City-level partnerships such as these can help drive low-carbon urban development.

Investment in public transport, building efficiency, and better waste management could save around US$17 trillion globally by 2050.

Companies representing 90% of the global trade in palm oil have committed to deforestation-free supply chains by 2020, with commitments now beginning to be extended to other commodities that include soy, beef, pulp and paper.

The push for a meaningful global deal on climate change at the critical Paris summit in December has been

“Achieving a decarbonised economy is not only possible, it’s vital to escape the worst effects of climate change.”

gaining rapid momentum in recent weeks with China, the US and Brazil leading the pack with ambitious plans.

Dr Shannon Page of Lincoln University argues that it’s not just about what we replace, but also what we take out, such as removing the need for the car in the first place, and that is where he sees huge potential for New Zealand.

“Transport is almost half of our CO2 emissions.

Considering that both the fuel and the cars are imported, the economic and health benefits from a shift to public and active transport are huge.”

Dr Page cites the increase in public transport, and yet

energy he says the New Zealand government is overwhelmingly trying to keep people in cars by putting the lion’s share of funding towards roads.

“There are a few positive signs in the right direction,” he continues, “such as funding for expanded cycle ways, but we could be doing so much more, and tinkering around the edges won’t cut it.”

Earlier this month the New Zealand government announced a post 2020 target of 11% emission reductions from 1990 levels by 2050. This is even less than what was pledged in Copenhagen in 2009.

“Their justification of the low target is that it is difficult for our economy to adjust. That may be true for half of the emissions – agriculture is challenging,” argues Dr Page.

“But the other half of our emissions can be tackled with substantial GDP and social wellbeing benefits. Sadly, we are becoming that dirty little country who does not pull its weight when it comes to tough global challenges.”

If a surge of lawyers around the world take on the greatest challenge facing humanity we may not have to wait for the politicians to do the right thing. In the first successful case of its kind, last month a Hague District Court found in favour of 886 Dutch individuals who had filed a law suit against their government, demanding that officials do more to prevent climate change. The court has ordered the Netherlands government to take action to cut greenhouse gas emissions by a 25% within five years.

Many are hopeful that this precedent will trigger similar cases around the world. Some 8000 citizens in Belgium are preparing to take their government to court, and it looks like Norway may follow suit, while in the Philippines citizens are demanding legal action on fossil fuel companies.

The groundbreaking court ruling is a boost for the environmental movement on the brink of suffering fatigue from 23 years of international climate change negotiations.

Finally, “the future we want” may actually become a reality.

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The G20 has the potential to ramp up energy efficiency standards in the world’s leading economies to global best practice for goods such as appliances, lighting, and vehicles. Investment in energy efficiency could boost cumulative economic output globally

by US$18 trillion by 2035, increasing growth by as much as 1.1% per year.

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Kenya has great untapped solar potential a nd their renewable energy sector is set for a boost in September when a solar micro grid company, Powerhive East Africa, begins to sell power to the public, ending a half-century monopoly by the state electricity firm.

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The 2010 retrofit of the Empire State Building is saving over two-fifths of the energy by remanufacturing the building’s six and a half thousand windows on site into super windows that pass light, but reflect heat. Installation and manufacturing savings: $14.95 million.

Estimated annual energy savings: $410 000. Estimated CO2 savings 15 years: 105,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide.

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The Caribbean nation of Belize is now aiming to go to 100% renewable, and they want its transportation sector to fully embrace electric vehicles. The announcement follows the country’s decision to join the Carbon War Room’s high profile Ten Island Challenge.

RENEWABLE ENERGY continues to get cheaper: solar and wind energy are now cost competitive with fossil fuels in many places. Annual investment in clean power now exceeds investment in fossil fuels. The global market for low-carbon goods and services is worth more than US$5.5 trillion and is growing at more than 3% per year.

Around 40 countries have adopted or are planning carbon pricing, and 28 countries are undertaking energy subsidy reforms, aided by lower oil prices. Over 1000 major companies and investors have signalled their support for carbon pricing.

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On an windy day this month, Denmark found itself producing 116% of its national electricity needs from wind turbines.

By 3am, when electricity demand dropped, that figure had risen to 140%. Interconnectors allowed 80% of the power surplus to be shared equally between Germany and Norway, which can store it in hydropower systems for use later.

Cities around the world arere-signing up to be 100% renewable, with many already having reached that target.

Vancouver has become one of the most recent cities to commit.

The city of 600,000 on Canada’s west coast aims to use only green energy sources for electricity, and also for heating, cooling and transportation.

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Action under the international aviation and maritime treaties and the Montreal Protocol on hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) could reduce emissions by as much as 2.6 Gt in 2030. In shipping alone, higher efficiency standards are expected to save an average of US$200bn in annual fuel costs by 2030.

More than half of the Fortune 100 companies are together saving around US$1.1 billion per year from energy efficiency, renewable energy, and other emission reduction initiatives.

Issuances of green bonds (Qualified Green Building and Sustainable Design Project Bonds) for sustainable infrastructure have tripled in the last year to US$37 billion.

The first big energy company has flipped its business model. E.On, Germany’s biggest utility, is redirecting all its growth effort on clean and green energy from now on. Its board has concluded that the old model no longer works.

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GLOBAL CHALLENGE: FRESH WATER

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By Dr Rosie Bosworth

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or Kiwis concerns about water scarcity often fall on deaf ears. For the most part, and in most areas, we have rain, and plenty of it. But for the rest of the world access to fresh water is a precious, rare and rapidly diminishing luxury. As the population continues to rise and severe drought grips nations around the world, the planet’s water quality and aquifers are being rapidly depleted.

The World Bank says two billion people are running out of water. Moreover, a recent UN report revealed that if we continue along this trajectory, by 2030 the world will only have 60% of the water it needs. The regions hardest hit? China, India, the Middle East and the United States.

An array of solutions promoting a water-secure future are emerging across governments, businesses and individuals worldwide.

In water-parched California, brown is being marketed as “the new green” in a bid to change residents’ behaviour to ease the burden of a four-year drought.

As strict water restrictions are enforced, residents and business are incentivised to forget about looking clean and green and replace water-hungry gardens with drought-friendly plants. Fake grass is cropping up everywhere.

In Hong Kong, residents are using seawater to flush their toilets as authorities try to preserve scarce fresh water supplies and, in drought stricken Australia, there is a rotating week policy for residential irrigation and car washing.

Legislation is just one means to combat water scarcity.

Business is also joining the race to simultaneously save a drop and make a buck as investors are showing increasing interest in ventures that preserve or enhance water.

Jordan’s Amman, California’s San Francisco and Cáceres, Spain are among the many cities worldwide now deploying municipal-level smart water systems. GreentechMedia suggests regions that adopt this technology have the potential to reduce water demands by 25%, necessary for achieving the proliferation of municipal water cuts mandated globally.

In horticulture, precision technologies, water-efficient crops and smart irrigation systems equipped with solar-powered stations and wireless soil sensors now enable farmers to grow more crop per drop and alter water inefficiencies as they happen. Israeli manufacturer Itron recently began deploying ultrasonic water metering technology designed for Middle Eastern conditions. The technology has applications for other arid regions including Australia and France’s African territories.

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World leaders in drip irrigation, Netafim, based in Tel Aviv, now exports its technology as the focus towards water-saving technologies becomes an agricultural phenomenon. US farmers have already reduced water use by 20% by adopting such technology.

While regulations and technology promoting smarter water use are critical, these alone may be futile in the absence of mechanisms that put a price of the real cost of water. According to Ian McDonald, senior lecturer of food and resource economics

“The reason why Californian farmers volunteered to give up 20% of their water rights is not because they are nice or environmentally sensitive, but because they are charged a high price for water” at Lincoln University’s Faculty of Agribusiness and Commerce, societies have long used prices and markets to ration scarce resources. Water should be no exception. “With water priced according to its value to society, people will make decisions that balance the financial benefits of water conservation – in terms of having to pay a smaller water bill – with the costs of conservation technologies.” With a more accurate price on water investing in research and development of better technologies also becomes economical as water becomes a valuable commodity.

Voluntary measures are helping. In May this year

California State officials accepted an offer from farmers in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta to relinquish a quarter of their water rights this season, leave part of their land unplanted and adopt alternative measures to curb water use. In return, the state will hold fire on additional restrictions later into the growing season.

“The reason why Californian farmers volunteered to give up 20% of their water rights is not because they are nice or environmentally sensitive, but because they are charged a high price for water,” says McDonald. “Essentially with the poor land productivity sections of their operations, farmers are earning insufficient profit from their crops to pay for the water hence deciding to not farm it. In New Zealand – where we don’t pay for water – more and more land is being converted to dairy even though it is not very productive. This is despite being warned about droughts increasingly occurring.”

Domestically, the shower, washing machine and humble lavatory are further examples of daily water users being reinvented. RTI Research (US) has developed a waterless lavatory that generates electricity and is now testing prototypes in Gujarat, India with investment from the Gates Foundation.

British company, Xeros, designs washing machines which use 70 per cent less water and 50 per cent less energy and detergent than conventional versions, using polymer beads to remove stains. A hit across US laundromats and hotel groups, orders are coming in worldwide. And small-scale energy efficient desalination systems mimicking the biological processes of mangrove plants and hybrid fish to extract salt content as well as nano water purification technology are being explored across the UK, Singapore and India as water pollution reaches an all-time high.

Big business is also shaking up established ways by spending more to cut water use. Nestlé recently unveiled a milk plant upgrade in Mexico that requires no external water sources and recycles waste fluid extracted from milk when powdered.

What is clear in the race to save water is that business, governments and individuals all have a role to play to combat water scarcity. But according to MacDonald, a price on water will be most effective. “In order to make decisions about how much water gets used, for what (agriculture, recreation, urban, etc), when and by whom – markets will always work the best”.

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GLOBAL SUPPLY OF FRESH WATER IS LIMITED: Just 2.5% of the world’s total water supply is comprised of freshwater .

1% of fresh water globally is easily accessible for human use 29% of fresh water is located underground.

90% of the world’s readily available freshwater is sourced via ground water

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Water use is four times greater than population growth rates: while the world’s population growth in the last century has doubled the rate of global water consumption per capita in the last 40 years has quadrupled.

THE WORLD’S TOP IRRIGATORS: pumping groundwater faster than it is being replenished in crucial cropproducing areas; China, India, Pakistan, US

The world’s top irrigators: pumping groundwater faster than it is being replenished in crucial crop-producing areas; China, India, Pakistan, US

AQUIFERS: (ground water basins) 1.5 billion are people dependent on ground water for drinking supply 1/3 of the world’s 37 largest aquifers are now classified as ‘stressed’ – more water is removed than can be replenished (Journal of water resources)

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DISEASE: according to water.org more than 750 million people lack access to clean water.

That’s 1 in 9 people or two and a half times the population of the United States of America.

More than 840,000 people die each year from water-related disease.

Every minute a child dies from a water-related disease.

Water investment: according to the OECD, for every $1 invested in water and sanitation there is a $4 economic return. Gaining universal access to adequate water and sanitation would result in an estimated $18.5 billion in economic benefits per year from deaths avoided. Only 6% of international aid went towards investments in water and sanitation in 2011.

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Eight of the world’s largest land aquifers have virtually no natural replenishment to offset human consumption

Top water users by regions (per capita) US, Australia, Canada, and Europe Fixed supply, increasing demand: the amount of freshwater available on the planet remains more or less constant. Water is continually recycled through the atmosphere.

However as global population grows, competition for a clean supply of water for drinking, cooking, bathing, and sustaining life has intensified and become more limited.

Agriculture is the biggest user of fresh water at 70%.

Agriculture is also a key contributor to water pollution from excess nutrients, pesticides and other pollutants.

80% of agricultural irrigation needs is provided by rain-fed sources There will be 1 billion extra mouths to feed by 2025, requiring an extra 1 trillion cubic meters of water for agriculture alone (Seametrics) Industry is responsible for 22% of fresh water use, with the largest share stored in reservoirs and dams for electricity energy production and irrigation.

Domestic use makes up 8% of fresh water use. the average amount of water consumed daily by people in developed countries is ten times higher than those in developing countries

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GLOBAL CHALLENGE: POPULATION

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By Adam Gifford

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obert Malthus may not have been the first to predict runaway population rise, but he was smart enough to grab the naming rights.

The English cleric argued that rather than humanity being on an ascending path to perfection, population increases would eventually become unsustainable unless checked by war, famine and disease, or more positively by birth control and celibacy.

When he first published An Essay on the Principle of Population in 1798 the world was six years shy of a billion human inhabitants.

By the end of the 19th century the population of the world was about 1.65 billion, and New Zealand was 33,000 people short of its first million.

By 1950 there were 2.5 billion souls and the 21st century started with 6.1 billion people consuming an ever-increasing share of the world’s resources.

The United Nations Population Fund estimated the 7 billion mark was passed on October 31, 2011. It is now more than 7.3 billion.

The 8 billion mark should be reached in early-to-mid 2024, as the annual growth rate is slowing – it peaked at 2.19 per cent in 1963 and now stands at about 1.14 per cent.

The UN projects global population will reach 9.6 billion in 2050 and then stabilise a decade later at 10 billion.

That’s without the sort of catastrophe Malthus predicted would trim the total.

So where are these people, or where will they be?

One answer is developing regions, especially in African countries which still have high fertility as well as countries with large populations such as India, Indonesia, Pakistan, the Philippines and the United States.

The UN expects India’s population to match China’s in 2028 at around 1.45 billion, and continue to grow as China declines.

Nigeria’s population is expected to surpass that of the United States before the middle of the century and then keep growing until it could rival China by the end of the century as the world’s second most-populous nation.

Tanzania, Pakistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Uganda and Niger could also top 200 million each by 2100.

Another answer to the question is more people will live in cities and towns, as more than half of the world’s population does already.

While the UN projects global population to increase by

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2.4 billion between 2010 and 2050, in the same timespan depopulation of rural areas means the urban population is expected to grow by 2.7 billion, with 94 per cent of that growth concentrated in less developed regions.

Some of that is driven by the pull of urban opportunity, but there is also push as corporations and hedge funds buy up large tracts of land, water rights and other strategic assets for industrialised farming.

Many studies have drawn a link between urbanisation and lower birth rates, but it’s not quite that simple.

A working paper for the Londonbased

“The 8 billion mark should be reached in early to mid 2024, as the annual growth rate is slowing – it peaked at 2.19 per cent in 1963 and now stands at about 1.14 per cent.”

International Institute for Environment and Development by Brazilian demographers George Martine, Jose Eustaquio Alves and Suzana Cavenaghi, says developed countries support massive family planning campaigns in high fertility countries as a way to tackle the alleged “population pressure”.

Such programmes are credited with any population decline, whereas it’s more likely that improvements in social and economic conditions create a climate where people want fewer children. It’s at that stage they turn to family planning.

Important factors that motivate people to regulate their natural fertility include urban residence, education, infant and child mortality reduction, women’s empowerment, wage

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labour, women’s participation in the labour force, increased consumption aspirations and social mobility.

Seen that way, moving to town isn’t a contraceptive. The Brazilians warn that while city life can provide people with real choices, “good” urbanisation is not occurring spontaneously and needs explicit, proactive attention from policymakers.

Unfortunately the opposite is happening. Policymakers see urban growth as problematic, and 82 per cent of developing countries have implemented policies to curb rural-urban migration.

Such policies intensify the difficulties that large contingents of poor people will encounter in looking for suitable housing and decent work opportunities, as well as accessing basic services of all kinds, including reproductive health.

Such negative policies actually promote unchecked expansion of slums, where a third of the world’s population (including 3/4 of Africa’s) now live.

Slum residence and higher fertility levels go together.

Lincoln University lecturer in urban studies Suzanne Vallance says major change at an economic and social level is needed to grapple with the challenges of the developing world’s fastest-growing cities.

Dr Vallance attended the recent UN Future of Places conference in Stockholm, where 400 urban thinkers discussed issues such as public space, place making, and place governance.

She came back somewhat despondent, feeling people were just tinkering with the system rather than thinking about the institutional and governance models needed to deal with ever-expanding cities.

“We have a message coming from the right that we need market solutions, but there is no coherent or credible counter argument or viable alternatives to the marketisation of every problem and solution,” she says.

One speaker who did impress her was sociologist Saski Sassen from Columbia University in New York, who looked at population, income distribution and wealth accumulation.

Sassen, who coined the term “global cities” back in 1991 to describe the impact of places like New York and Tokyo, argues the poor will increasingly be urban poor cut off from the most basic resource of subsistence land farming.

The responses could be, at one end of the scale, more equity, to ensure what is available is shared, and at the other end more militarisation and containment of increasingly unruly and starving populations.

“She is saying the rich are buying up the productive land, the poor are displaced to urban areas, so the wealthy who can afford it are buying the right to survival,” Vallance says.

Produced in association with

More than 1 billion people do not have access to clean drinking water. Another 2.7 billion find water scarce for at least one month of the year. Aquifers are being depleted faster than they can be replenished. At the current rate of consumption, 2/3 of the global population will face water shortages by 2025.

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Increasing global populations put more pressure on climate change as forests shrink and emissions increase.

Likely outcomes include high commodity prices, the collapse of fisheries, loss of species’ habitats and natural disasters.

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Total world population 9.6 billion by 2050. Up from today’s 7.3 billion, as estimated by the United Nations Population Fund.

The country with the highest fertility rate is Niger, with 7.6 births per woman, followed by Mali, Burundi, Somalia and Chad, Uganda or Nigeria, depending on the source. Of the top 30 countries with the highest birthrates, only Timor Leste and Afghanistan are outside Africa.

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Over the past 16 years, India’s middle class increased from just one million to 108 million people. That figure could swell to 1 billion or 84 per cent in another 16 years.

Nigeria is heading towards 1 billion people, and Tanzania, Pakistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Uganda and Niger could also top 200 million each by 2100.

1.75% is the annual production increase needed to double food supplies by 2050.

The Global Harvest Initiative says the current rate is 1.69%.

Compounded over 40 years, that means missing the target by six per cent, which means the world can’t feed itself.

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Population growth will slow as New Zealand’s population ages and the gap between the number of births and deaths narrows. By 2041 a quarter of New Zealand’s population could be over 65, compared with 14% now, and there could be between 220,000 and 270,000 people over 85, compared with 78,000 now.

The most recent projections from Statistics New Zealand are that the population will grow from the current 4.5 million to 5 million, give or take 1000,000, by 2025, and has a high probability of being over 6 million by 2050. That contrasts with a 2002 projection of just 4.8 million New Zealanders by 2050.

Countries with fertility rates close to 1 or below include South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong, Macau, and Bosnia and Herzegovena.

Fertility levels vary widely around the world.

Among the 30 OECD countries, total fertility rates ranged from 1.1 in Korea to 2.2 in Mexico and Turkey. New Zealand’s rate in 2008 was 2.2 births per woman. The rates for Maori and Pacific women were 2.8 and 3.0 respectively, and other ethnicities had a total fertility rate of 1.8. Currently about two in five births in New Zealand have a Maori or Pacific parent.

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ADVERTISEMENT Greenstuf for Energywise Warm Up New Zealand Autex’s Cosy Communities project uses funding from the EnergyWise Warm Up New Zealand programme to provide free fully-installed GreenStuf ceiling and underfloor insulation for low income high health need families. Right now up to 1000 homes in Counties Manukau are eligible for free installed GreenStuf insulation if they were built prior to 2000, if they own the home or rent privately, and if the owner-occupier or tenant has a Community Services Card. Priority is given to houses with children aged under 17, or adults over 65, with ongoing health issues related to the cold.

For more information and application forms visit www.greenstuf.co.nz

Get the GreenStuf 100% polyester fibre insulation ticks all the boxes.

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ew Zealand’s cool and damp climate means the effective insulation of buildings is essential to people’s health. Eco-friendly methods and products are important too, as more New Zealanders become concerned about the environmental issues facing the planet.

Being both innovative and environmentally responsible, Autex Industries is a leader in sustainable polyester insulation. GreenStuf is made from 100% polyester fibre, extruded from PET plastic, without the use of any other materials or substances. The result is insulation that’s water resistant and doesn’t degrade over time.

“It’s the same as our clothing, such as polar fleece, that is made from polyester,” says Autex managing director Rob Croot. “We know that when you put it on, it’s super warm, it’s breathable, and it doesn’t absorb moisture. Even when you stick it in the washing machine and it comes out, it’s almost dry. As an insulation material for buildings, polyester has all those exceptional qualities.”

GreenStuf has been on the New Zealand market for 15 years. In its early days, the product was applied mostly in the commercial market, but more recently it has gained a presence in the consumer market.

Autex’s own Cosy Communities project funded under the Govt EnergyWise Warm Up New Zealand Programme has insulated more than 20,000 homes.

Traditional insulation materials are often made of glass wool - fibrous glass that is spun into tiny fibres and bonded together using chemical binders.

“The most common of these are urea phenol

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formaldehyde binders, which are known and classified human carcinogens. We would claim that is not a great thing to have in your house,” says Croot.

In keeping with Autex’s philosophy of providing longlasting and healthy insulation to homes and businesses, it composes GreenStuf polyester insulation without any use of chemicals. This is one of the many advantages of polyester insulation.

“Our polyester fibres are bonded by heat, so we don’t add any chemicals, and that creates the insulation material. Because there’s no chemical binders required to hold it together, GreenStuf will never break down and reduce in performance over time.”

Autex backs GreenStuf with a 50-year product durability warranty, stating its utmost confidence in the insulation’s reliability over time.

Insulation made from sheep’s wool is another product available on the market. However, Croot says although it may sound inherently warm and renewable, the

process of collecting, cleaning, scouring and binding the wool is both water and energy intensive. The end product is also prone to absorbing moisture and breaking down, whereas polyester is water repellent and lasts indefinitely, painting GreenStuf as the superior choice.

For a house-lot, GreenStuf may cost a few hundred dollars more than conventional forms of insulation, but this small additional investment in a home will pay off quickly in the product’s longevity, increased value of the house, and ongoing wellbeing for those who live in it.

“The payback on energy savings and environmental outcomes is a one third of a year with GreenStuf,” says Croot.

He adds GreenStuf can also be recycled indefinitely.

It never has to enter the waste stream because it contains no chemicals. This makes it a responsible choice for the environmentally conscious home owner - and moreover, for those with the occupants’ health in mind.

“Unfortunately, New Zealanders are used to living in pretty poorly insulated houses. The government just announced that rentals need to be insulated. They’ve stipulated the standard that was set back in 1978 when insulation was first required in the houses - was 70mm of insulation. Today’s standard - the minimum for Auckland - is 185mm of insulation.

“The biggest issue we’ve got as homeowners is actually understanding that better levels of insulation are much better for our homes, for our lives, for bringing up our kids, and everything that we do.”

HOMESTAR

The And measure of the winner a home

Levi Armstrong, Kia Diamond and Jackson Waerea of Patu Aotearoa.

Photo: Ted Baghurst The Zero Energy Home in Point Chevalier.

is...

Homestar, an independent rating tool specifically for New Zealand homes, can help you ensure your house is both efficient and sustainable.

By Mary de Ruyter

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ot all New Zealand houses are created equal when it comes to energy efficiency, health and comfort – just ask anyone who’s lived through a winter in an uninsulated villa. But unless you have prior knowledge of building or design, it can be difficult to know which homes tick the right boxes. That’s where Homestar comes in.

Homestar is a comprehensive, independent rating system that assesses and rates how well our homes are designed and constructed to perform to health, warmth and sustainability standards.

The tool rates new and existing homes on a scale from 1 (minimum) to 10 stars (world best-practice). Categories assessed include: energy, health and comfort; water;

Mammoth insulation, made in New Zealand by InsulPro Manufacturing Ltd, uses fibres from recycled plastic bottles.

SMALL WAYS TO SAVE MONEY •

An average-priced LED could save you $290 over the life of the bulb (source: EECA Energywise).

• Replacing a 12-litre-per-minute showerhead with one that flows at eight litres can cut your hot water bill by $153 a year, while still offering a comfortable, effective shower (source: Consumer NZ).

• A dripping tap can waste up to 33 litres each day (source: Watercare).

waste; home management; materials; site; and innovation.

NZGBC CEO Alex Cutler says a Homestar rating is valuable for people who want to improve their homes, and those looking to sell.

“It provides independent assurance to buyers about your home’s warmth and efficiency, and international studies suggest highly rated homes attract a resale premium,” explains Cutler. “Going through the Homestar process prompts you to assess your home and sustainability behaviours, and make positive changes.”

Homestar’s free, online self-assessment tool takes around 20 minutes, and you get a provisional rating and a checklist of practical, unbiased advice for renters and homeowners.

A Homestar professional can offer a full assessment for a renovation or new build.

Potential savings vary from region to region but, broadly speaking, in Auckland a 6 Homestar home will be 38% more energy efficient than a 3 Homestar home.

Much of New Zealand’s existing housing stock is substandard and poorly insulated. Most new New Zealand homes, built to Building Code standard, only reach a 3-4 Homestar rating. “The Building Code sets the bare minimum,” said Building and Housing Minister Nick Smith at the 2014 Sustainable Housing Summit.

Cutler says it’s worth aiming higher. “There’s a misconception that building this way adds significantly to a project’s cost. In fact, achieving a 6 Homestar rating adds just 1.5% to the purchase price – or nothing if the house is slightly smaller than today’s larger homes,” she says.

For more, visit homestar.org.nz

“

Here’s another thing people often ask about Showerdome

Q

It’s so warm in the shower now and I no longer have to turn it up so high.

No steam in the bathroom means you can see yourself in the mirror.

I don’t need the heat lamps on in the bathroom any more, and the best thing is the saving on the power bill.

“Where does all the steam go?”

”

an easy one.

A ““That’s There isn’t any!”

Steam is only created when you mix warm moist air, with cold air.

Showerdome is the barrier between those two air masses, which means no steam in your shower, or your bathroom.

0800 541 2233 or visit www.showerdome.co.nz A L S O AVA I L B L E F R O M

For a drier, warmer, healthier home, insist on Showerdome.

LIFEMARK

Future-proof your home The home accreditation system Lifemark is about forethought, planning and function – which means it ages with you.

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uilding a new home is exciting, terrifying and exhausting. There are a million decisions, details and minutiae, all of which clamour for your attention.

That volume of work and stress is also the reason why often we overlook one of the most important considerations – that of future-proofing your home.

In New Zealand just 10 per cent of people move into a retirement home – we like to stay put, in our own homes, until the end of our days. But rarely are we thinking of our last decade when caught up in the excitement of planning our house build.

That’s where Lifemark hopes to get involved.

Lifemark is a rating that is awarded to a new home that meets the Lifemark Standards. The Standards cover the main areas in a home and ensure it is designed and built to be adaptable, accessible, usable, safe and offer lifetime value. A rating of either 3, 4 or 5 stars can be awarded depending on how many of the Standards are used in the home. Lifemark Standards work with any home design and any home size. It’s not about more space; it’s simply about choosing to have space in the right place.

For example, a Lifemark home might have extra nogs (timber beams) in the internal wall frame to which a grab rail in the bathroom can be attached, ready for the time you might need it in the future.

It will also feature doors which are wider than standard – making your home more accessible and easier to move around in.

Thought would have been put into the access to the home, with ramps rather than stairs, and flat entrance ways, rather than those with a lip which can be tripped on.

Lifemark was born as a lobby group started by CCS Disability Action, asking government to make these housing modifications mandatory. When it became obvious that wasn’t to happen, it morphed into a voluntary scheme and educational organisation.

It has been adopted by some large organisations, including those in the aged care sector, but also by some forward-thinking building companies.

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Lockwood Homes has 12 Lifemark designs.

Lifemark partner:

Lockwood

Lockwood Homes currently features among it plans 12 home designs which have been 5-star Lifemark approved.

More are to follow.

Vicki Jessop, marketing manager for Lockwood, says that when Lockwood joined forces with Lifemark it made sense as many of the features and benefits in a Lifemarkaccredited home were already present in the Lockwood designs. It took just a small amount of tweaking to bring the plans for the ten homes up to Lifemark 5-star standard.

“We’re already well known as being low-maintenance

“It’s about having that functionality without looking clinical. It needs to have the ‘wow’ factor, but be suitable for all ages and stages...” and highly durable home option. It was a matter of creating spatial design elements and matching them together with these properties to create great living spaces.

“It’s also about having that functionality without looking clinical. It needs to have the wow factor, but still be suitable for all ages and stages of life,” says Jessop.

Jessop says that Lockwood also sees intelligent design as a saving. “Retrofitting these features is expensive.”

For further information visit: experiencelockwood.co.nz lockwood.co.nz

Lifemark homes have level entrances, making for stylish indoor/outdoor interaction.

The Lifemark home guide can be downloaded (bit.ly/1xJvrPe), but to build a Lifemark accredited home you’ll need to talk to a Lifemark partner, which can be found at lifemark.co.nz

SPACE IN THE RIGHT PLACE • Space around where your car is parked • Slip-resistant pathways • Covered walkways • Exterior sensor lighting • Door handles (rather than knobs)

LIFEMARK

Lifemark partner:

Metrapanel Metrapanel, a producer of modular panel housing systems, has been a Lifemark Accredited Partner since 2012, and has a range of Lifemark approved designs between 93m2 to 186m2 available.

“We choose to align ourselves with organisations that hold similar values, such as Lifemark’s focus on producing healthy buildings that serve the lifetime of a person and their individual needs,” says Melissa Savage, Metrapanel business manager.

With 25 years of experience, and a proven history in the retirement sector, Metrapanel offers 30-60% faster construction, and up to six per cent more floor space.

“From individual units, duplexes, and multi-storey complexes, to communal facilities and hospitals, tenants reap the benefits of a naturally insulated product with superior insulation from heat, cold, and noise. As well, the property owner gets the advantage of smooth, durable walls, resulting in extensive maintenance savings,” says Savage.

Recently completed, Althorp Private Hospital and Lifecare Units are experiencing the benefits of Metrapanel.

Consisting of 138 units, this privately owned premiere residential village for seniors in Pyes Pa, Tauranga was built in four stages over five years, entirely in Metrapanel.

The 138 Althorp Village units in Tauranga were built entirely with Metrapanel.

“The walls have an excellent smooth internal finish and because the walls are 36mm thick it is very difficult to sustain damage and therefore the repair and maintenance of everyday use is minimal. Our residents often comment on how warm the houses are in the winter and cool in the summer,” says Claire Neshat, manager, Althorp Village.

Some other Retirement projects maximising Metrapanel include… Rangiura Retirement Village, Lochlea Lifestyle Resort, McKenzie Lifestyle Village, Corbans Village, Netherville Retirement Village, Tasman Retirement Village and Beetham Lifestyle Village.

Visit metrapanel.co.nz for more information or contact Melissa Savage Melissa@metrapanel.co.nz

Lifemark partner:

Goman

Another of Lifemark’s partners, Goman specialises in bathroom safety products and accessories, disability aids, products for community centres, and articles and bathroom fixtures for the elderly people.

The company has a like-minded ‘4H’ mantra – that of ‘home, hotel, hospital and help’ – all contributing to a ‘universal lifestyle’.

Rather than concentrating on pure function, the company produces hyper-stylish versions of these products, designed to look good in any environment,

and to suit all ages and physical abilities.

Sleek basin designs such as the Flight and Flat Series allow a wheelchair manoeuvrability under and around, and include a unique feature with the basin and mirror block being height adjustable via a controller. Walk-in bath tubs and handrails in a broad range of modern colours and design are also features of the Goman range.

For further information visit goman.nz or email sales@goman.nz

Walk-in baths, sinks and showers from Goman.

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If the sky’s the limit, what of the clouds?

TE RADAR RADAR’S RANT

Sit down, reader, and listen to my story.

Once upon a time a cat got into a box.

It was hilarious. So someone filmed it…

S

omewhere in the ether of the internet I have an abandoned my MySpace page, several redundant email accounts no doubt bulging with spam, some old blogs set up with the best of intentions, a video of my cat, and various other digital detritus. They are all taking up space somewhere.

This storage space is not an amorphous cloud that some would lead us to believe exists. It’s housed in a physical amalgam of metal and plastic and elements I’ve never heard of, all constructed in ways I can’t fathom. The resources used are phenomenal.

It’s not just the physical space on the servers that all of the neglected e-data takes up that’s the problem. The energy used to power those quietly whirring (I assume) servers, their air conditioners, the lighting, and the toasted sandwich makers of the security guards protecting them, must cost a fortune financially and ecologically. And we think the internet is free.

Am I an e-hoarder? If so I’m not alone. But what happens to all of our neglected data? Will we reach a point where the internet runs out of memory? Perhaps some day there will be a search algorithm that finds and deletes anything that hasn’t been accessed for years.

Who doesn’t love a good cat video?

When it comes to e-waste data storage is just the beginning.

I have several old computers and various zip drives and hard drives and memory cards that I’ve kept because I might want to access the information one day. They sit on top of a pile of old VHS tapes, full of knowledge, but as cold, silent and useful as stones.

They are stored next to numerous printers and fax machines and other tech-ware that I know I should recycle but haven’t. At least I have finally unplugged them all.

While I want to recycle them, I can’t help but imagine they’d all be shipped to some poverty-stricken province of a faraway land. Here toddlers’ tiny fingers are used to strip out the parts and elderly folk sit gently winding wires onto spools, while behind them the mountains of our discarded e-waste rise to submerge them in ever-darker shadows.

I know that there are better systems out there, but I’m still haunted by the beautifully composed photographs of the legacy of our e-love.

I’m not sure where this will all end. We’re caught in a cycle of creating more and more storage units to hold the terra-torrents of content generated every day, which we can then access on more and more devices, each hungry for

more content.

And what of our constant need to update devices that are rendered obsolete faster than they are being shipped to stores?

Take the computer I am typing this into. It’s a solid workhorse, and while it’s still serviceable, it’s getting old and worryingly unreliable. Various parts have been replaced, but its still suffering from a mildly debilitating form of electrical Alzheimer’s, as it slows down to think about simple requests on a regular basis.

Sometimes this can take tens of seconds. I don’t have tens of seconds to spare. I have things to do. Admittedly, this often includes loitering online watching videos of other people’s cats being hilarious. To be fair, a recent study concluded that this is actually beneficial to people’s mental health.

I can’t help but worry however, about the physical space and environmental cost in housing so many cats in cyberspace. It’s entirely possible that the children of the future will be told tales of previous generations squandering the world’s resources in order to ensure a constantly available supply of short films of cats sitting in boxes.

SAY IT LIKE YOU MEAN IT SHOW YOUR ORGANISATION IS TRULY COMMITTED TO ENVIRONMENTAL ACTION. Independent certification from Enviro-Mark Solutions proves that a company or product is taking the right action for the environment.

Ask to see these certifications to trust a business is taking responsible environmental action.

Learn more about what it takes to earn this mark of approval and who is already committed.

0800 ENMARK ENVIRO-MARK.COM

Managed and offset carbon footprint

Managed carbon footprint

Managed energy use

Managed environmental impacts

SPRING INTO ACTION With solarZero you can have solar fully installed by spring with no upfront cost. solarcity gives you the ability to get solar power from your rooftop without the cost of buying a system. Even better, solarcity will also provide online monitoring, maintenance and full insurance. You just pay a fixed monthly rate for your solar power guaranteed never to increase.

Plus, solarcity will work with you to maximise your solar use and reduce your power bills over the systems lifetime.

WHY SOLAR? Electricity prices have gone up 153% in the past 20-years. It’s time to think about tapping into the ultimate clean, green, renewable energy source: the sun.

WHY SOLARCITY? solarcity was the first solar company in the world to achieve carboNZero accreditation and is still the only energy business in NZ with this certification. Independently audited and respected worldwide carboNZero is a significant endorsement of our commitment to sustainability and the environment.

With over 35-years experience and 6,000 installations, solarcity is NZ’s leading solar provider. We are committed to reducing New Zealand’s carbon footprint and helping our nation to become powered 100% on renewable energy.

www.solarcity.co.nz or call 0800 11 66 55 Terms and conditions apply

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