The primary purposes of Sustainability Matters are to improve the performance of New Zealand organisations from a sustainability, or "triple bottom" line perspective, and to advocate sustainability thinking and action.
Frequently this requires a change from "business as usual" to a different approach which not only reduces costs and improves financial performance but also results in much needed improved outcomes for people and our planet. We owe this to our children and to at least the next six generations i.e. seven generations.
The traditional measure of organisation success - financial outcomes - is an incomplete method of measurement and excludes key elements. These exclusions result in an "unbalanced scorecard".
Is this thinking new? No, far from it. Rachel Carson via her 1962 book "Silent Spring" was perhaps the person who more than any other alerted us to the need for changed thinking.
The thinking can be applied to entities of any size, in any sector, located anywhere.
Newsletters
As part of what we do a newsletter is published (usually) once very two weeks. It is four pages and is intended especially for chartered accountants** and those who use their services. It is distributed to subscribers by opt-in eMail. There is no ($) charge; donations are always welcome! By coincidence the newsletter is called Sustainability Matters.
** Because they have immense potential to influence others and to make huge positive differences to our world.
Sustainability Matters 6th July 2017
This edition is a ‘massive’ six pages rather than four. The reason will become apparent in mid-August! Meanwhile read about;
• Sustainability Group Events
• Sarah Thomson’s High Court Case
• Investing in People and the Planet
• Cities, The Social Economy and Inclusive Growth
• Do You Derive Benefits from Sustainability Matters?
• Bridges Both Ways –Transforming the Openness of the New Zealand Government
• Extended External Reporting User Survey
• A Call to Action: Walk the Talk on Integrated Reporting
• Climate Change Presents Business Risks and Opportunities
• Does This Look Natural to You?
• GRI Standards Seem to Be Rising to the Top
• The Global Management Accounting Principles©
• The Best Break-up Story EVER
• Green Infrastructure
• “We Are Still In”
• Air Pollution from Cars is Causing Nature to Change in Dramatic Ways
• Dairy Industry Lays Out Plan to Reduce Greenhouse Gases
• New Zealand a Leading Nation in IDC Smart City Asia Pacific Awards (SCAPA) 2017
• NZ Young Nats – “Its’ Time!”
• India to Make Every [new] Car Electric by 2030 in Bid to Tackle Pollution that Kills Millions
• Retrofitting Old Buildings Reduces Costs (Like 80% in a Month), Attracts Tenants, Achieves Longer Leases
• China’s New Environment Minister Urges ‘Protracted War’ on Pollution
• Sustainable Development Goals – Progress and Implications for Business – Webinar
• Climate-related Financial Disclosures – Task Force Recommendations
• Adani Pushes Ahead with Controversial Queensland Coal Mine
• UNESCO Puts Australia on Notice Over Great Barrier Reef
• Did You Know?
• The People’s Review of Renting
• Landmark Supreme Court Decision on Environmental Rights – Pennsylvania
• Nepal Earthquake: 2 Years On
Sustainability Matters 22nd June 2017
In this edition;
• Sustainability Group Events
• Our Climate Declaration
• Sustainable Development for All – Delivering the Sustainable Development Goals
• Agribusiness Agenda 2017: The Recipe for Action
• Do You Derive Benefits from Sustainability Matters?
• GRI and Australian Government to Accelerate Investment in the Indo-Pacific
• 16th Australasian CSEAR Conference – CALL FOR PAPERS
• Yoga Pants, Fleece Jackets and the Microplastics Dilemma
• Cambodia. November. Build With Me
• How to Craft a Winning Sustainability Report
• TRANSPORT – Grand Coalition to Electrify New Zealand’s Company Car Fleets
• Can Corporate Reporting Help End Poverty?
• OECD (Again) Tells Us to Clean Up Our Climate Act
• Why Companies in the Chemicals Industry Are Mixing
• No More Business-as-Usual: Where to Now for International Trade?
• Stop Insuring Climate Disaster
• Enviro-Mark Solutions Awards Celebrate Massive Carbon Reductions
• e-Calc™ – ‘Know the Payback’
• World’s Largest Tidal Power Project Approved for Construction in Indonesia
Sustainability Matters 8th June 2017
In this edition;
• Sustainability Group Events
• A Stunning Victory at Exxon Mobil
• End of Childhood?
• What Next?
• Climate Case: The Student vs the Minister
• PCE Report on Birds – 5 Things You Need to Know
• Why Don’t Green Buildings Live Up to Hype on Energy Efficiency?
• Entries Open for NZI Sustainable Business Network Awards 2017
• Interview with Winnie Byanyima, Oxfam International Executive Director
• Why Business & Finance Must Understand their Impacts & Dependencies on Nature
• Decision of USA’s Leadership to ‘Go It Alone’
• Tiny Electric Motorbike with 40 Mile Range
• An Effective NZ ETS: Clear Price Signals to Guide Low-Emission Investment
• The Finance Sector Supplement to the Natural Capital Protocol Framework
• Extended External Reporting in New Zealand
• New Zealand’s Greenhouse Gas Inventory 1990–2015 – NZ 7th-worst on Emissions of 41 Nations
• Using Natural Capital Accounting to Understand the Trade-Off Between Greenhouse Gas Emissions & Local Air Pollution
• Are New Zealand’s Greenhouse Gas Emissions Falling?
Sustainability Matters 25th May 2017
In this edition;
• Sustainability Group Events
• Peter Goldsbury: 15th June 1945 – 13th May 2017
• Webinar: The Business Case for Reliable Data –What Do Investors Really Do with the Data You Report?
• Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist
• A Father Writes: It is Difficult to Answer My Daughter When She Asks What We’re Doing to Ensure She Has a Future
• STRATEGY – Improve Your Office With the Smart Office Guide
• Smart People Have Done Really Stupid Things
• Bad Oil and the Animals
• Company Reports: The Surprising Reason Why Firms Must Account for the Six Capitals: PART 2
• Cluster Development Handbook; 2nd Edition
• East Africa – 25 Million People Are in Crisis
• Hydrofluorocarbon Phase Down Should Happen Sooner, Campaigners Say
• Consultation on New Zealand’s Phase Down of Hydrofluorocarbons – Montreal Protocol
• Riyadh Makes Progress on Massive Public Transit System
• Football Club Goes Vegan
• First Global Standard for Sustainable Procurement Hits the Market
• Domino Effect: The Myriad Impacts of Warming on an East Coast USA Estuary
• Very Sad News
• Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming
• Toilet Receives First Ever 6-star WELS Rating
• In Napa Valley, Vineyards and Conservationists Battle for the Hills.
Sustainability Matters 11th May 2017
In this edition;
• Sustainability Group Events
• Annual Review of the State of CSR in Australia and New Zealand 2017
• Vivid Economics and GLOBE-NZ
• Four Future Scenarios for New Zealand: Work in Progress Edition 2
• Company Reports: The Surprising Reason Why Firms Must Account for the Six Capitals: PART 1
• The Devastation of Food Waste
• NZX Publishes Updated NZX Corporate Governance Code
• Introduction to Integrated Reporting
• NZX Joins UN Sustainable Stock Exchange initiative
• Consent for New Gas-fired Power Station
• See Inside Some of Christchurch’s Superhomes
• Big Polluters’ Lobbyists Inside the UNFCCC
• Keep it Topless, Clean and Loose
• Valuing Sustainability Webinar and Workshop
• London to Introduce Vehicle Pollution Tax
• GE-free Foods Sought by 70% of Chinese
• Consistently Warmer Weather Means the Harvest Season Comes Early
• Why Your Finance Director Should Care About Soil
• How Swedes and Norwegians Broke the Power of the ‘1 Percent’
• Squawk Squad – Saving NZ’s Native Birds.
Sustainability Matters 27th April 2017
In this edition;
• Sustainability Group Events
• Call to Arms: Put the Love Back Into Politics
• Zero Carbon Act Summary
• Are You EDS’s New Resource Management Policy Advisor?
• Free Workshop – Measuring the Financial ROI of Environment & Sustainability Training
• Delivering Procurement with Impact
• Stories Create Empathy and Empathy Helps Drive Change
• World Bank Ignores Land Grabbing – Dead Donkeys Fear No Hyenas
• Stories Create Empathy and Empathy Helps Drive Change
• Growing the Future: Urban Biodynamics Conference
• Coal Museum Switches to Solar to Save Money
• IIRC Welcomes Significant Endorsement of Integrated Reporting by IFAC
• Role of Professional Accountants in Enhancing Integrated Reporting
• Empowering NZ
• UK Move to Cut Plastic Waste with Innovative Water Balls
• The Hidden Life of Trees
• Scientists: Global Warming Causes Canadian River to Vanish in Four Days
• Finally, a Breakthrough Alternative to Growth Economics – The Doughnut
• Master of Social Innovation – AUT
• Here, Cutting Down Millions of Trees is Actually a Good Thing
• City of Sydney Adopts Net Zero Emissions Plan
• Hot Apartments: ‘If We Need Air Conditioning, We’ve Designed it Wrong’.
Sustainability Matters 13th April 2017
In this edition;
• Sustainability Group Events
• World’s Largest Fund Manager Demands Cuts to Executive Pay and Bonuses
• New Zealand’s Fresh Waters: Values, State, Trends and Human Impacts
• Public Finance (Sustainable Development Indicators) Amendment Bill
• THINK RESILIENCE Online Course
• The Vanishing Nile: A Great River Faces a Multitude of Threats
• Green Ribbon Awards 2017 Nominations Open
• Energy Management Journey
• Nordic Stock Exchanges Recommend GRI
• CSR Deconstructed: Biomimicry
• 2016 Nestlé in Society Creating Shared Value
• Access to Nature Reduces Depression and Obesity, Finds European Study
• Net Zero New Zealand
• How Change Happens
• STRATEGY – Do we Need Hacking Insurance?
• Healthy Soil – Real Key to Feeding the World
• Managing Risk by Taking a Lead and Managing the Future
• The Sustainable Food Film
• An Opportunity for PhD Funding
• Sustainable Business Outlook 2017: Get Ready For the New World, Right Here, Right Now
• Update: creating Living Buildings – Professional Short Course
• An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth To Power with Al Gore
• What Are We Without Our Special Things?
• Trust in Crisis
• The Case for Fossil Fuel Divestment
• Environmental Film Festival – Palmerston North.