Chief Operating Officer of Green Distillation Technologies (GTD), Trevor Bayley, says that end-of-life tyres are grossly undervalued. Continue →

Improved recycling might reduce plastic waste, but it won’t be the solution to carbon emissions that we need, say experts Recycling of commodity packaging plastics will have marginal impact on the carbon emissions from the plastics industry, according to BNEF analysis. Continue →

A report has been published this month by Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment Simon Upton, which criticises the way estuaries are managed and highlights inconsistencies in how regulations are enforced The report argues that estuaries should be protected to the same level as other freshwater bodies, and that they should be included in freshwater management systems. Continue →

$100m in government funding for climate change protections and infrastructure comes at a welcome time where shovel-ready projects are needed to help New Zealand bounce back against Covid-19 and create sustainable jobs for Kiwis, FIRST Union says “Our members in the quarrying sector are very pleased to hear that funding has been granted to 29 projects across six regions, with the aim of protecting important areas from climate change-related threats like erosion and flooding,” says FIRST Union Organiser Justin Wallace. Continue →

Fast-tracking resource consents for critical infrastructure and development projects is a pragmatic and welcome government response to assisting the Covid 19 recovery process says Resource Reform NZ, a coalition of business and environmental interests The Minister for the Environment David Parker has today announced fast-track amendments to the Resource Management Act to better enable economic recovery from Covid-19. Continue →

CO2 emissions could easily drop by 5% or more this year alone as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, but will emissions bounce back quickly, or will they remain depressed by a sluggish economy for a few years? Continue →

The engineering and metals industries’ top innovators recognised at the HERA Future Forum Nation event The Innovation Award was won by Dr Chris Bumby and his team at Victoria University of Wellington for their zero-carbon iron production discovery. Continue →

China has announced a wide range of measures to put an end to the environmental blight that has tainted much of its land and rivers, but just how effective will it be? Continue →

Increasing numbers of tourists are eroding the very attributes that make New Zealand such an attractive country to visit, warns Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment (PCE) Simon Upton The Commissioner has released a report on the environmental consequences of projected tourism growth in New Zealand. Continue →

New Zealand has one of the largest areas of ocean in the world, but the Ministry for the Environment’s report for 2019 has identified four priority issues for the marine environment Te moana, the coast and oceans of Aotearoa New Zealand, are central to our identity and intertwined with our history – we are a maritime nation. Continue →

New Zealand has seen a groundswell in action against climate change as more people come to the realisation the time for talking is over, and the time for doing is now It’s a theme running throughout society and business, with scientific consensus around the problem translating into action at the grassroots. Continue →

Advice to “read the regulations” is not a helpful response to questioners seeking specific compliance options Regulations are necessarily all-encompassing, whereas site conditions often require flexibility in identifying and implementing sensible and cost-effective solutions which achieve the primary regulatory goal of safer workplaces. Continue →

The Ocean Cleanup project has been redesigned and relaunched, as it makes its second attempt to clean up a giant pile of plastic three times the size of continental France concentrated in the Pacific Ocean Dinah Lewis Boucher – The Urban Developer Ocean plastic pollution: Overproduction of plastic, waste mismanagement, and single use plastics are underlying issues needed to be addressed before plastics reach the water, oceanographers have said. Continue →

New Zealand has the opportunity to be a climate change “innovation lab” for the rest of the world, according to international planning expert and former United States political candidate Sue Minter Minter is speaking ahead of the New Zealand Planning Institute’s (NZPI) annual conference in April, at which she is a keynote speaker. Continue →

Recently, Wintec’s Design Factory NZ took part in The Rat Relay with a team of students, staff and other motivated people who wanted the experience of solving a variety of global challenges The Design Factory NZ team that took part in the RAT Relay The Rat Relay is a Design Factory Global Network annual event, a global design-thinking ‘hackathon’. Continue →

The world will reach the crucial threshold of 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels as early as 2030 That’s the stark conclusion of the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, which warns serious changes are needed immediately to cut the risk of extreme heat, drought, floods and poverty. Continue →

The Productivity Commission says early action on key policy reforms is needed if New Zealand is to achieve its emissions‑reduction goals and transition to a low-emissions economy Chair of the Productivity Commission, Murray Sherwin, says that the period to 2050 will pass quickly and that delaying action is “likely to make the transition costlier and more abrupt and limit viable and cost-effective mitigation options in the future.” Amongst the numerous changes that will be required across the economy – some disruptive, some less obvious – three particular shifts must happen for New Zealand to achieve its low-emissions goals: stop burning fossil fuels and switch to using electricity and other low-emission energy sources – this means a rapid and comprehensive switch of the light vehicle fleet to electric vehicles (EVs) and other very low-emissions vehicles, and a switch away from fossil fuels in providing process heat for industry; undertake substantial levels of afforestation to offset New Zealand’s remaining emissions – this will require sustained rates of planting over the next 30 years (mostly on land currently used for sheep and beef farming), potentially approaching the highest annual rate ever recorded in New Zealand change the structure and methods of agricultural production – this will include diversification of land use towards more horticulture and cropping, and greater adoption of low-emissions practices on farms. Continue →