Entries are now open for New Zealand’s longest-running and pre-eminent sustainability awards.

The Awards are now in their 15th year. They recognise businesses, local government, social enterprises and individuals for success in sustainability.

Entry to the awards is free. It is open to all organisations and individuals in New Zealand.

Rachel Brown is CEO of the Sustainable Business Network.

She says, “Given the rather grim global climate, sharing stories of positive action addressing social and environmental issues is more important than ever. Entering these Awards is a quick and easy way to celebrate your achievements.”

This year the Awards have all new categories. They provide the chance to compete in key areas of sustainable business in New Zealand.

The supreme award is the NZI Greatest Contribution to a Sustainable New Zealand. This will be awarded to a business for outstanding performance in all aspects of sustainability. Air New Zealand was last year’s Supreme Winner. The 2015 Supreme Winner was Taupō Beef.

Travis Atkinson is Executive General Manager of NZI, the Principal Sponsor of the Awards.

He says, “We’ve been proud supporters of the Sustainable Business Network and national awards for the last 10 years. As an organisation that provides business insurance for a growing New Zealand, being sustainable is really important to us - it’s fundamental to the way we do business. We’re strong believers in the SBN’s mission to inspire change. We look forward to meeting the new sustainability leaders of 2017.”

Entries close on 4th August 2017.

To find out more or to enter the NZI Sustainable Business Network Awards go to sustainable.org.nz/awards.

| A Sustainable Business Network Award release  |  June 01,  2017   |||

Kaynemaile wins at NYCxDesign Awards for best Architectural Product

New Zealand company Kaynemaile has won Best Architectural Product at the NYCxDesign Awards announced today. Link to NYCxDesign Award finalists

Kayne Horsham, inventor of Kaynemaile, a revolutionary polycarbonate architectural mesh for building exteriors and interiors, accepted the award at New York’s Museum of Modern Art.

In 2007 Horsham patented an award-winning technology that creates interlocked seamless mesh rings without any joins or gaps. Horsham began experimenting with the mesh while working as an Artistic Director of Creatures, Armor and Weapons at Weta Workshop. He worked closely with director Peter Jackson for four years, fabricating the costumes of the Academy Award-winning The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Kaynemaile is currently exhibiting in the centre of New York’s Times Square with a 4.25 metre high, 40 square metre walk-though “touch and see” installation called #WaveNewYork. The one million interlocking rings forming the installation were created using Kaynemaile’s liquid state manufacturing process at its Petone, Wellington design studio and factory.

“We’re honoured to be in the heart of New York bringing the freedom and joy embodied in our design to over a million New Yorkers and visitors from throughout America and the world in Times Square,” says Kayne. “New York and New Zealand are global centres of innovation and leaders in design. The NYCxDesign Award for Best Architectural Product perfectly supports our U.S. market entry.”

Kaynemaile reimagines 2000-year-old chainmail and has applied to a variety of architectural structures including large scale building and carpark wraps, shading for rain, wind and sun, airport security screens, hotel ceiling systems, university walkways, office partitions, lighting fixtures, and kinetic art installations. Kaynemaile has been installed worldwide by building owners, developers, transit authorities, corporate headquarters, and shopping centers.

Kaynemaile is made from the same material to manufacture F16 fighter jet cockpits, astronaut helmets, and aircraft windows. Stronger and lighter than glass, Kaynemaile reacts extremely well with lighting, making Times Square an ideal location.

#WaveNewYork has been designed by Kayne Horsham and American artist and MacArthur fellow Ned Kahn, who are also currently working on a dramatic art installation in a high profile location, to be unveiled this summer in New York.

“#WaveNewYork by Kaynemaile is a highly visible and vibrant focus of the Times Square Design Pavilion,” says Ilene Shaw, director and curator of NYCxDesign. “The material is beautiful, the installation design is playful and interactive, and the concept has pure innovation at its core. It’s an honor to have Kaynemaile at Design Pavilion 2017.”

About KaynemaileKaynemaile was founded in New Zealand by CEO and inventor of the mesh and liquid state manufacturing processes, Kayne Horsham. The Kaynemaile seamless mesh is based on a traditional European chainmail assembly but produced via the world’s first liquid state assembling process, able to form a 3D impact-absorbing structure made up of solid rings with no joins or seams, is 100% recyclable (cradle to cradle) and has an extraordinary strength-to-weight ratio. Its patented manufacturing process is an award winning technology used to create, divide and protect building interiors and exteriors around the world. www.kaynemaile.com Instagram @kaynemaile hashtag #wavenewyork

About NYCxDesign

NYCxDESIGN, New York City’s official citywide celebration of design will run from May 3-24, 2017. Spanning all disciplines of design, NYCxDesign creates a collaborative platform for cultural and commercial opportunities, elevates established and emerging design practices and increases awareness of and appreciation for design by all audiences. Hosted in New York City, NYCxDesign brings together all the disciplines of design, commerce, culture, education, and entertainment with a full, varied program, including exhibitions, installations, trade shows, talks, launches and open studios. 2016, the fourth year of the celebration, featured over 500 events across the five Boroughs of New York City and included topics from graphic design to architecture, technology and urban design to fashion and product design, interiors to landscape, furniture to design thinking, and more. The program is overseen by NYCEDC together with a Steering Committee comprised of leaders and leading institutions across most design disciplines. www.nycxdesign.com

|  A Kaynemaile release  ||  May 21, 2017   |||

New Zealand was on display to crowds of nearly 9,000 buyers at IMEX, Europe's leading business and incentives trade show this week.

'New Zealand is trending as a business events destination because of our integrated approach and how easy we make it for international events to be held here. Our unique manaakitanga - which translates in to our unique hospitality of delegates, alongside new convention centre facilities being built in Auckland and Christchurch is gaining increasing international attention,' says Lisa Gardiner, Manager Business Events and Premium, Tourism New Zealand.

New Zealand took the stage in front of global media to showcase the ease of holding an event in Aotearoa and to reveal the latest images of the convention centres taking shape in Christchurch and Auckland.

'International event organisers who have held major conferences in New Zealand are spreading the word that our industry is unique in our collaborative way to deliver memorable events. This is an extremely valuable point of difference and really sets us apart as an attractive destination.'

New Zealand's joined up approach was demonstrated first hand with Tourism New Zealand, Christchurch Convention Centre and the New Zealand International Convention Centre jointly presenting at the press conference. A number of New Zealand partners also exhibited on the New Zealand stand.

'In a time when many countries around the world are building new business events facilities you've got to get people's attention and highlight the differentiating ways that make hosting a conference in New Zealand original and the smart choice for associations and conference organisers. The design of the two new centres really impressed and will be strong additions to our convention centre family network.'

Christchurch Convention Centre General Manager Rob McIntyre says the Centre will be a dream space for international event organisers, designed with a distinctive South Island flavour.

'The Convention Centre is surrounded by green spaces, parks and gardens fronting onto the river. Stories of the local Māori people and their land, trade and craft are interwoven through every aspect of the design.'

Callum Mallett, General Manager NZICC, says 'The NZICC has been designed by industry experts, delegates and architects to ensure that every detail meets the needs of our clients. With the capacity to hold events for up to 4,000 people, the NZICC will have built in world class technology and AV supported by a dedicated team to ensure we exceed expectations. The NIZCC is already seeing international demand, with 5 bookings for conferences that have never before been hosted in New Zealand. We are excited to be bringing these opportunities and being New Zealand's meeting place for the world.'

The year’s winner of the international Swedish Steel Prize is Kiruna Wagon from Sweden on whom we ran an article on earlier in May.   The prize was awarded for the company’s innovative wagon solution, the Helix Dumper. Kiruna Wagon has used high-strength steel to develop a highly durable and far more efficient wagon solution than other ore wagons on the market.​

“Kiruna Wagon has successfully updated a good idea and used high-strength steels to turn it into a brand new, superior wagon solution,” says Eva Petursson, Chairman of the Swedish Steel Prize jury and head of SSAB’s Strategic R&D.

This year is the 17th time the Swedish Steel Prize has been awarded and the runners-up, were Fermel from South Africa, JMG Cranes from Italy and Wabash National from the USA.

Read more about the Swedish Steel Prize on www.steelprize.com and see the original article here.

For developing the Helix Dumper, an innovative wagon solution that is highly durable and far more efficient than other ore wagon offerings, Kiruna Wagon has been named a finalist for the Swedish Steel Prize 2017.

The Swedish Steel Prize is an international prize that honors the art of engineering and innovation in the steel industry. This year Kiruna Wagon from Sweden, is one of four finalists for this year’s prize, which will be awarded during a ceremony in Stockholm, Sweden on May 11 a path that New Zealand's A-Ward Attachments trod on their journet to taking out the 2012 award with their  flexible system for management and transportaion of metallic scrap using high-strength steel which compresses and packs the metallic scrap in containers.

“Our customer had found a small design that they wanted to make into a large dedicated wagon concept. There were many challenges to overcome, including how to achieve a carrying capacity of a 100-ton payload, while keeping the wagon light,” explains Fredrik Kangas, Managing Director at Kiruna Wagon.

The resulting Helix Dumper is a lightweight wagon structure with a high payload and an ingenious offloading solution that has an unloading speed of 25,000 tons per hour, which is twice that of other systems.

The design utilizes high-strength steel extensively in the structure of the wagon as well as for the stiffeners around the wagon body and for the top rail of the wagon. Wear-resistant steel is used in the two arches at the offloading site.

“The Helix Dumper is designed in a way that minimizes wear, which was one reason we believe that our choice of materials was optimized,” says Kangas.

When comparing with other systems, a complete unloading system for the Helix costs 1/7th of what a rotational wagon cost. Furthermore, the Helix uses parts of the potential energy of the ore to push the wagon forward as it unloads. This means no extra energy is required and there is much less dust with almost no noise.

The jury’s motivation for selecting Kiruna Wagon as a finalist for the Swedish Steel Prize 2017 is:

“Kiruna Wagon has developed an innovative dumper wagon system for long-haul rail transport and efficient unloading of minerals. Use of advanced high-strength structural and wear-resistant steels made it possible to design lightweight wagons combined with a stationary Helix terminal for on-the-fly rotary unloading. With its nearly doubled unloading rate, the Helix system is superior to all conventional solutions and solves many problems related to sticky aggregates. The terminal system is very cost effective, in terms of both investment and operation.”

For nearly 20 years, the Swedish Steel Prize has recognized and rewarded small and large companies as well as institutions and individuals who have developed a method or product that utilizes the full potential of high-strength steel. The winner will receive a statuette by the sculptor Jörg Jeschke and a cash prize of SEK 100,000 that SSAB encourages to be donated to a charity of the winner’s choice.

Read more about the Swedish Steel Prize on www.steelprize.com.

|  A Swedish Steel prize release  ||  May 02, 2017   |||

New Zealand's pavilion at the World Expo 2020 in Dubai will have strong potential to showcase this country’s primary industry products and innovation in sustainability.

So says Catherine Beard, chief executive of ExportNZ.

The Government has just announced New Zealand will participate in World Expo 2020, to be held in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. It is committing $53.3 million to construct a NZ pavilion.

Economic Development Minister Simon Bridges says “that will allow Kiwi businesses to highlight their innovative products and services and open doors to new export markets”.

The expo site will be about 2 sq.km and will contain three themed areas: opportunity, sustainability and mobility. NZ has been invited to participate in the sustainability precinct.

Beard told Rural News Dubai is the largest and most populous city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the UAE is NZ’s largest export market in the Middle East and the country’s 12th-largest trading partner.

“In addition NZ is close to securing a free trade deal with the wider area of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) which includes the UAE and Saudi Arabia,” she says.

“If the trade deal comes off then our exports will become even more competitive than they are now and there will be increased interest from NZ firms to tackle those markets.”

This expo in Dubai will be an important showcase for NZ’s country brand, showing the range of things we can do as a country with a sustainability theme, Beard says. “GCC countries are rich in oil and gas, but lack farmland for food production and have high demand for imported food and drinks,” she says.

“NZ’s trusted dairy and meat exports meet some of that demand and there is increasing interest in food service exports into hotels, restaurant chains, etc.

“GCC countries are also motivated to reduce their trade reliance on oil and diversify their economies into high-tech and service sectors.”

Beard says the focus of NZ’s stand will be showcasing our innovation in sustainability, showing we can do more than just sell commodity products.

“I imagine we will be showcasing sustainability in farming practices right through to manufacturing and services.”

Bridges says showcasing NZ to the world is a crucial aspect of boosting economic growth. Expo 2020 will provide a springboard to promote us as an innovative, solution-focused economy to the 25 million visitors expected to attend from Europe, the Middle East, North Africa and Asia.

“It will also allow us to build on our strong economic and transport links to the UAE, which acts as a global air and sea logistics hub, providing access for NZ exporters to a much wider region. We’re already well connected by five direct daily Emirates flights, contributing $700 million to the economy,” says Bridges.

The expo will run from October 2020 to April 2021.

The organisers expect about 180 nations to participate. NZ is among the first 20 to formally confirm attendance.

|  A Rural News release  ||  May 02, 2017   |||

Economic Development Minister Simon Bridges and Trade Minister Todd McClay have announced that New Zealand will participate in World Expo 2020, to be held in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

The announcement was made during Mr Bridges’ visit to Dubai.

“Through Budget 2017, the Government is committing $53.3 million to construct a New Zealand Pavilion that will allow Kiwi businesses to highlight their innovative products and services and open doors to new export markets,” says Mr Bridges.

“Showcasing New Zealand to the world is a crucial part of boosting economic growth. Expo 2020 will provide a springboard to promote us as an innovative, solution-focused economy to the 25 million visitors expected to attend from across Europe, the Middle East, North Africa and Asia.

“It will also allow us to build on our strong economic and transport links to the UAE which acts as a global air and sea logistics hub, providing access for New Zealand exporters to a much wider region. We’re already well connected with five direct daily Emirates flights, contributing $700 million to the economy,” says Mr Bridges.

“It makes clear economic sense for New Zealand to participate in this global event,” says Mr Bridges.

The Expo will take place from October 2020 to April 2021 with Mr McClay saying it will attract high-value visitors from all corners of the world.

“Expo 2020 is a vital opportunity to increase New Zealand’s profile amongst new trading partners as well as grow our trade with existing partners,” says Mr McClay.

We have a strong trade and economic relationship with the UAE and $3.8 billion of two-way trade with the wider Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC),” says Mr McClay.

“The Gulf States also importantly provide an entry point into the wider region for many New Zealand companies and a base from which to better access the wider Middle East and beyond,” says Mr McClay.

New Zealand is close to completing a free trade agreement with the GCC, which comprises of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

The UAE alone is New Zealand’s twelfth largest trading partner, with annual two-way trade exceeding $1.9 billion in 2016.

About Expo 2020

Expo 2020 has the theme of Connecting Minds, Creating the Future. The Expo site will be around 2sq/km in size and will contain three thematic areas: opportunity, sustainability and mobility.

These three pavilions will showcase ideas and innovations, and countries that attend will have their specific pavilions spread around the thematic areas. New Zealand has been invited to participate in the sustainability precinct.

The organisers expect around 180 nations to participate. New Zealand is among the first 20 to formally confirm attendance.

More information on the Expo see http://expo2020dubai.ae

New Zealand Pavilion

The Government is about to launch an RFP process within the creative sector of New Zealand to select the best team and ideas for the design and content.

|  The Beehive  ||  April 23, 2017   |||

This is a story we have been wanting to tell Matthew Weakes from CADPRO Systems told MSCNewsWire.  Our Gavin Bath (one of Technical Specialist based in CHCH) helped Phil (principal of Sprint Aero get some outstanding results.

In response, Phil has decided to kindly open his doors and fire up his BBQ on the 30th of March and invite people to come along and see what it’s all about.

It’s a great opportunity to network with your peers in the industry, as well as see HSMWorks for Solidworks cutting chips with their Haas UMC-750.

Space is limited and filling fast, so if you can make it, please register your interest on this page. We will get back to you and confirm your place by the end of this week, if not sooner.

Event details and registration

A CADPRO Systems event

This is a story we have been wanting to tell Matthew Weakes from CADPRO Systems told MSCNewsWire.  Our Gavin Bath (one of Technical Specialist based in CHCH) helped Phil (principal of Sprint Aero get some outstanding results.

In response, Phil has decided to kindly open his doors and fire up his BBQ on the 30th of March and invite people to come along and see what it’s all about.

It’s a great opportunity to network with your peers in the industry, as well as see HSMWorks for Solidworks cutting chips with their Haas UMC-750.

Space is limited and filling fast, so if you can make it, please register your interest on this page. We will get back to you and confirm your place by the end of this week, if not sooner.

Event details and registration

A CADPRO Systems event

Farmers, families and more than 550 agribusinesses and organisations are readying for ‘the best day off the farm’ as the opening of Central Districts Field Days, New Zealand’s largest regional agricultural field day event, approaches on Thursday 16 March.

Manfeild Park in Feilding will come to life as a temporary city during the three-day event. Set to host more than 30,000 visitors from across the country, it provides an opportunity to soak up a cross-section of heartland New Zealand farming all in one place.

Topically interesting attractions

For the first time, the event will feature the new ASB Innovation Zone offering a unique window into the future of New Zealand’s agri-industry. A collaboration with New Zealand AgriFood Investment Week and sponsor ASB, the new zone represents one of the ways focus in the industry is shifting.

Nathan Guy, Minister for Primary Industries, is set to open the ASB innovation zone on Thursday 16 March and it will come to life with exhibitors demonstrating their future-focused products and technology, while also playing host to thought-provoking discussions in the seminar room.

Argentine Secretary of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries, Ricardo Negri, will arrive later on Thursday morning ahead of signing an Agricultural Cooperation Agreement with Minister Nathan Guy. This will take place in the Manfeild media suite at Central Districts Field Days with an opportunity for questions and photos following the signing.

A seminar highlight will be the youth debate on genetic modification, scheduled for 10am, Friday 17 March. Led by four of the New Zealand’s brightest young minds and chaired by John Hart, an organic sheep and beef farmer, and the Green Party candidate for Wairarapa,they will explore the contentious topic and how there could be a future for genetically modified food in New Zealand.

Central Districts Field Days, in its 24th year, rounds out New Zealand AgriFood Investment Week. Held annually in the Manawatu, New Zealand AgriFood Investment Week

delivers a dedicated programme of events designed to connect, challenge and grow the agrifood industry.

Visually intriguing attractions

One of the exhibitors inside the innovation zone is Sheep Milk NZ, who will have a chef on Thursday cooking up three dishes using a range of different sheep milk products (yoghurt, cheese, ice cream and milk powder) sourced from specialised suppliers located in different regions across the country.

Visitors will also be attracted by the big farming machinery and tools that congregate competitively at the event. The CCNZ National excavator operator championship is guaranteed to wow spectators by performing tasks like pouring a cup of tea with the heavy machinery, and the tractor pull competitions draw crowds.

There will be more tricks performed at the ultimate canines dog show running daily, and the black falcons display from the NZ Air Force drawing attention to the sky around midday on Saturday 18 March.

Central Districts Field Days runs from Thursday 16 March - Saturday 18 March. For a full programme of events and guide to the seminar series, visit www.CDFieldDays.co.nz.

|  A Central districts Fieldays release  |  March 08, 2017  ||