Nov 10, 2017  -  Reinforcing its leadership position in the shift to electric vehicles, Air New Zealand has been announced as the first airline to join The Climate Group’s EV100 initiative. The global not-for-profit works with businesses and governments around the world on initiatives that help to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. EV100 is its new global programme which aims to fast track business uptake of electric vehicles, encouraging organisations to use their buying power and influence to build demand and ultimately help reduce the cost barrier to mainstream use. Earlier this year Air New Zealand completed the transition of its light vehicle fleet to EVs and the airline’s Head of Sustainability Lisa Daniell says seeing its EVs on the road is a visible reminder of its commitment to more sustainable options. “Electric transport offers a major solution in cutting millions of tons of greenhouse emissions worldwide. Having led the way in New Zealand it’s exciting to be part of a global initiative committed to making EVs the new normal.” Sandra Roling, Head of EV100 says The Climate Group is delighted Air New Zealand is joining EV100 as the first airline in the campaign. “The company’s commitment to rolling out electric vehicles and charging infrastructure in its own operations, as well as its leadership in motivating other companies to do the same, sets a crucial example for making electro-mobility the new normal.” Air New Zealand also initiated a landmark corporate pledge with Mercury Energy and Westpac New Zealand in 2016, which will see 30 New Zealand companies transition at least 30 percent of their fleet to EVs by 2019. The Climate Group announced Air New Zealand’s membership of EV100 on Energy Day of the United Nation’s 2017 Climate Change Conference (COP23) in Bonn, Germany.

| An Air New Zealand release  ||  November 10 2017   |||

9 Nov 2017  -  The Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage has today confirmed that the new Government will strengthen the protection for public conservation land by making it off-limits for new mining.

The announcement was made as part of the Speech from the Throne given today at Parliament, which outlined the Government’s policy and legislative proposals.

“Public conservation lands are set aside for nature to thrive and for New Zealanders and visitors to enjoy. Mining, especially open-cast mining runs counter to that. It destroys indigenous vegetation and habitats, permanently changes natural landscapes and can create sizeable waste rock dumps with a risk of acid mine drainage polluting waterways.

“New Zealanders expect to see our conservation lands and their wild landscapes and indigenous plants and wildlife protected from being dug up by bulldozers and diggers.

“We have a biodiversity crisis with 4,000 of our native plants and wildlife threatened with, or at risk of extinction. The places they live need protection.

“We need to build a sustainable, modern, clean green economy for all New Zealanders. New mines on our protected lands are not going to take us there.

“Coal mining adds to the climate crisis and new mines generally have a 15-year lifespan. Once the coal is gone, the jobs are gone and so is the unique environment of places like the West Coast – which is the basis of a sustainable economy and long-term jobs.

“Places like the West Coast and Coromandel have diversified their economies on the back of their stunning natural beauty and landscapes, and the warmth of local communities. This Government is committed to helping workers in these regions make a just transition from mining.

“Tourism on the West Coast is now responsible for more jobs than the mining sector. It’s crucial that we protect the very thing that draws visitors – unequalled beech and rimu forests, river valleys and a network of huts and tracks.

“The Green Party’s confidence and supply agreement with Labour included a goal of significantly increasing the funding for the Department of Conservation (DOC). I welcome the commitment to that in the Speech from the Throne. The Department of Conservation has been under resourced for the last nine years. We need to scale up its capacity,” said Minister Sage.

| A beehive release  ||  November 9,  2017   |||

9 Nov 2017  -  The Bonn climate change meeting will put the global spotlight on the concerns of vulnerable Pacific nations, Ministers say.  Climate Change Minister James Shaw and Pacific Peoples Minister Aupito William Sio are attending the climate change meeting in Bonn, Germany, known as COP23[1]. “Under Fiji’s leadership the voice of low-lying small islands, such as those in the Pacific, will be heard clearly at this COP,” Mr Shaw says.

“Aupito and I will be listening closely to Pacific Island leaders’ concerns and priorities.

“This is the first time a small island developing state has presided over the COP. This is important, because these countries are particularly vulnerable to climate impacts such as threats to food and water supplies, and energy security.”

Mr Shaw and Mr Sio will also be attending a meeting in Rome between Pacific Island Forum Leaders and His Holiness Pope Francis, en route to COP23.

Mr Sio says the Government and Pacific peoples need to speak together in responding to climate change.

“The Government recognises that Pacific Island nations are at particular risk of rising sea levels as a result of climate change and global warming. People from low-lying island nations face real threats of being displaced from their homes and may need to find new homes in future years.

“We will work with regional partners and organisations, and review migration policy with the Minister of Immigration to establish a better approach to deal with this very real issue for Pacific nations and peoples, and we will keep fighting climate change,” says Mr Sio.

“We want to see on-the-ground action to reduce emissions, and progress on the Paris Agreement work programme. The aim is to make good progress so the rules and procedures for the Paris Agreement can be completed by COP24,” Mr Shaw says.

“New Zealand’s goal is to work constructively with the rest of the world to accelerate the global transition to a low emissions future.”

[1] The 23rd Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), or COP23, takes place from 6-17 November in Bonn, Germany.

| A Beehive release  ||  November 9,  2017   |||

7 Nov  -  Sustainable finance and central banking expert Professor Dirk Schoenmaker from the Netherlands is giving a free public lecture at Victoria University of Wellington later this month, as the 2017 Reserve Bank of New Zealand Professorial Fellow in Monetary and Financial Economics.  His lecture, ‘Climate Change and Financial Sustainability’, will examine the global financial implications of transitioning to a low-carbon economy.Keeping global warming below 2°C will require substantial reductions in global greenhouse gas emissions. Professor Schoenmaker will consider a benign scenario where the transition to a low-carbon economy occurs gradually, adjustment costs are manageable and the repricing of carbon assets is not likely to entail systemic risk. In an adverse scenario the transition occurs late and abruptly, affecting systemic risk via various channels. Professor Schoenmaker will consider how policy could aim for enhanced disclosure of the carbon intensity of non-financial firms. The related exposures of financial firms could then be stress-tested under the conditions of an adverse scenario. What: ‘Climate Change and Financial Stability’ Reserve Bank of New Zealand public lectureWhen: Wednesday 15 November 2017, reception from 5.30pm, lecture 6-7pmWhere: Lecture Theatre 2, Rutherford House, 23 Lambton Quay, Victoria University, Pipitea CampusRSVP: email Jay Curtis on This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or phone 04-463 5188. Professor Dirk Schoenmaker bioProfessor Schoenmaker is a Professor of Banking and Finance at the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University, and a Senior Fellow at the Brussels-based think tank Bruegel. He is also a member of the Advisory Scientific Committee of the European Systemic Risk Board at the European Central Bank, and a Research Fellow at the Centre for European Policy Research. He has published in the areas of central banking, financial supervision and stability, European financial integration and sustainable finance. About the Professorial Fellow in Monetary and Financial EconomicsEach year, Victoria University and the Reserve Bank of New Zealand bring a Professorial Fellow in Monetary and Financial Economics to Wellington to enhance the development of monetary and financial policy in New Zealand by advancing thinking and public debate.

| A Victoria University release  ||  November 7,  2017   |||

Rod Oram notes a growing mood among New Zealand business leaders for any new Government to create a climate commission. Those calling for change include Air New Zealand's Christopher Luxon and Sir Rob Fenwick.

Last Wednesday week, Air New Zealand laid on a big breakfast for 400 business people – enough to fill more than one of its Dreamliners – at the cavernous Viaduct Events Centre in Auckland.

The event – longer than a flight to Wellington and back – was not to celebrate a new aircraft, bumper profits or other conventional business milestone. It was for the launch of the airline’s 2017 sustainability report.

Christopher Luxon, its chief executive, told the audience the company had its priorities right.

“Two years ago, I launched Air New Zealand’s sustainability framework to supercharge Air New Zealand’s success -- socially, economically and environmentally.”

Given aircraft burn prodigious quantities of climate-changing fossil fuels, that could seem an oxymoron. Yet, member nations of the International Civil Aviation Organization, a UN body, committed last year to phasing in carbon neutral growth of their activities from 2020.

That means their airlines will continue to grow, but net emissions from aircraft will be flat, thanks to fuel efficiencies, carbon offsets from the likes of forest plantings and, ultimately, technology breakthroughs such as synthetic fuels and hybrid and electric planes.

This is the sort of radical change that our Productivity Commission is investigating in its inquiry into New Zealand’s transformation to a low-emissions economy. In its issues paper released in August it says:

“…the shift from the old economy to a new, low-emissions economy will be profound and widespread, transforming land use, the energy system, production methods and technology, regulatory frameworks and institutions, and business and political culture.”

So far, the Commission has received more than 120 submissions from interested parties. Many from mainstream businesses call for bold and co-ordinated policies from government to help them play their part in a more sustainable economy over the next couple of decades.

| Continue to the full article published on Newsroom  || October 15,  2017   |||

New Zealand software innovator CS-VUE has enhanced an environmental compliance management system for one of the country’s largest infrastructure projects – the NZ Transport Agency’s $709.5m motorway from Pūhoi to Warkworth. It is the first stage of the Ara Tūhono – Pūhoi to Wellsford Road of National Significance.

It’s a long way from where it all began. In 2004 the software start-up business was created to help the former Auckland City Council better manage its stormwater consents.

CS-VUE has since grown in staff, clients and turnover. In recent years, work includes providing software to manage the New Zealand Transport Agency’s operational network and capital project consents. Roads of National Significance projects can involve hundreds of consents across multiple teams and construction areas, with work often staged.

The Transport Agency says prior to using CS-VUE’s software to help manage their consent conditions and compliance, they relied on a range of spreadsheet-type systems that differed from contract to contract.

When the Transport Agency’s second Public Private Partnership (PPP) Pūhoi to Warkworth was in the procurement phase, CS-VUE General Manager Wayne Fisher got a phone call.

“I recall they wanted us to design some enhancements to the software and quickly,” he laughs. “We were thrilled for the call up. It was scoped, designed and built in time for the award of the contract to Northern Express Group (NX2).”

Mr Fisher says with construction underway, their software module is now doing its job and will continue to well after the four-lane motorway opens because many of the consents are ongoing, as is monitoring and compliance.

Known as their ‘Two Step Sign Off’ module, CS-VUE has built in extra capability and better data exchange to effectively allow “two-way conversations” between the consent holder and its contractors and the regulator, Auckland Council.

“Normally a consent holder would rely solely on its contractors to ensure every consent was being monitored and complied with. Our module gives the Transport Agency direct oversight and Auckland Council instant access to the status of consents with the ability to directly sign them off.”

Graham Jones, Senior Monitoring Officer at Auckland Council’s Resource Consents department says: “To the best of my knowledge this is the first time the regulator has shared a common platform with both the consent holder, the NZ Transport Agency and the contractor, NX2. All parties having access to common software allows us all to be on the same page at any instant in time on the status of conditions. As a project team, it allows us to work in a more collaborative manner.”

Tom Newson, NZTA’s Principal Project Manager, says: “As a PPP, the Pūhoi to Warkworth conditions require input and oversight from the three key parties during construction and once in service to ensure compliance and management of the outcomes-based consents set by the Board of Inquiry in 2014. CS-VUE’s new system provides all parties with quick access and a single source of truth via a two-step validation process with Auckland Council. We’re using it as a pilot with a view to using the same CS-VUE application on other large roading infrastructure projects, such as East West Link and the Northern Corridor improvements.”

Mr Fisher says with the 18.5km motorway scheduled to open by 2022, having a cloud-based environmental compliance management system that each party can access 24/7 not only means greater transparency, which helps to avoid any breaches and saves time.”

CS-VUE is proud of its role with the Pūhoi to Warkworth PPP, which will ultimately help in the Northern Express Group’s construction, management and maintenance of the motorway for the five-year construction and its further 25-year operational period.

“The Transport Agency is a massive government agency with a huge work programme. They’re also champions of innovation. As a New Zealand-owned and operated software business, we’re delighted to be working alongside them on a daily basis. It just goes to show there is room for local products and suppliers if they can deliver and keep up.”

Mr Newson says the Pūhoi to Warkworth outcome-based RMA conditions provide greater flexibility to the contractor in both design and construction than most other Transport Agency projects. It also requires vigilance from a compliance standpoint.

CS-VUE is also working with about 20 percent of the country’s district and city councils ensuring they keep on top of their often complex and lengthy consents granted by regional councils. For Auckland Council, CS-VUE manages its stormwater and contaminated land sites.

“Our clients have achieved great results around improving information accuracy and auditability. We provide tools to achieve better business analytics and we can reduce an organisation’s annual operating costs.

Board directors prick up their ears when we talk about improvements to governance, risk and compliance. While helping to keep the rates down seems to resonate with council procurement managers. Our products actually offer many tangible advantages.”

He says public and private entities also respond positively to the concept of resilience and keeping critical information safe from the likes of earthquakes, floods or fires. CS-VUE achieves this as its software is entirely cloud-based, putting everything in one place for easy management, and no capital expenditure on hardware is required.

CS-VUE also manages and tracks resource consents for big infrastructure players and heavy industry. Most consents being managed are around air discharge, water, land use, and trade waste, or consents issued by NZ Petroleum & Minerals for extraction. Sectors include oil and gas, quarrying, mining, and some of the country’s key ports. While clients include GBC Winstone, Bathurst Resources, Fulton Hogan, Landcorp, NZ Defence Force, KiwiRail, BP and Shell. Large packaging company, PACT, is among its Australian clients.

And it’s not just about delivering up-to-the-minute environmental balance sheets. Since the Health and Safety At Work Act came into force in April last year, CS-VUE has designed and implemented software to help businesses and organisations better manage and mitigate risks in the workplace.

“Over the past 13 years in software we’ve learnt you can have all the marketing, management and techno speak you want, but what really defines whether you succeed or not is the quality of your software developers and CS-VUE has an exceptional team.

“We work really hard to keep ahead of change and continuously improve. That is how we’ve secured great clients and big projects,” says Wayne Fisher.

| A CS-VUE release  ||  October 10,  2017   |||

On Thursday 5 October at 12.30pm, ambassadors and high commissioners from nine of the countries involved in Antarctica will visit the Antarctic Ecobots programme at Ara. Their visit is being hosted by Antarctica NZ.

Antarctic Ecobots is a free interactive workshop for year 9 and 10 students on 4 and 5 October. The focus in this workshop is to build a robot that can tackle dangerous environmental tasks using maths, physics and computer skills, utilising VEX IQ Robots and MBots that then compete to win the ‘Antarctic Mission’.

After learning about Antarctic science, including microbiology, glaciation, the effects of global warming and the damage it does to the environment, participants learn what robots can contribute in this environment and then build an ecobot robot.

Earlier in the week was Mission to Antarctica, a free engineering programme on 2 and 3 October for Years 9-11, exploring solutions for living in an inhospitable place.

Participants use engineering and architectural design principles and 3D printing to build geodesic habitats and energy systems for survival, and learn how to live in harmony with this unique and fragile environment.

The habitat created would also harness solar and wind energy and protect humans from radiation, cold, wind and extreme isolation – no small challenge, says Ara STEM Coordinator Miranda Sattherthwaite.

“Providing a substantial challenge raises the engagement of the participants as they strive to use design thinking, learning and resources to create solutions. There are many inhospitable places on the planet, each with their own challenges. This programme, run in collaboration with Fablab, gets participants thinking about how humans can exist in such places. Using the tools of engineering and broadens their understanding of what can be accomplished,” she said.

Engineering comes into many aspects of life near the south pole such as navigation, wearable technology and the science of Antarctic glaciology.

Miranda is seeing more and more robotics in learning in New Zealand and this is coming through to competitions as well.

Later in the year, she will help to judge the biggest robotics competition ever held in the Southern Hemisphere in Rotorua in December - the Asia Pacific VEX Robotics Competition 2017 .

Ara uses innovative technology such as robotics, modelling and 3D printing to engage students in science, technology, engineering and science.

School holiday programmes in these areas help students to broaden their awareness, start thinking about possible careers and check out study options and pathways - plus they are a lot of fun and free.

| An ARA release  ||  October 4,  2017   |||

When it comes to solar panels, the future is flexible. Vanessa Young discovers how a MacDiarmid project is unlocking the possibilities of a new generation of solar cell technology.

When we imagine solar panels, we think of hard rectangle frames, sitting upright on roofs, or spread out across expanses of deserts.

But imagine flexible, bendy solar panels, supple enough to skin a curved roof, pliable enough to be rolled up and transported easily. Lightweight enough to be a thin film for the roof of a tent. And portable enough to be rolled out to generate power for emergency relief operations, or taken into remote areas.

Printable solar materials that will allow all of this is closer than we think. Victoria University associate professor Justin Hodgkiss, lead researcher in a MacDiarmid Institute project investigating the possibilities presented by ‘printable photovoltaics’, says they will be low cost and could replace silicon as the next generation of photovoltaic (solar energy) materials.

“Silicon cells are getting cheaper but still require a high-temperature, high vacuum manufacturing process. For solar energy to be really accessible it needs to be much cheaper and faster to manufacture.”

He says these printable semiconductors, including polymers and nanoparticles, can potentially be manufactured on a roll, cutting production costs.

“Their ease of transport and light weight also mean it is feasible for these to be manufactured in New Zealand and shipped anywhere in the world.”

New generation flexible solar cell material. Photo: Eight19 Ltd

Shiny is the enemy of good

When we see photos of those bright shiny swathes of solar farms, we don’t automatically think of their shininess as a problem. But Hodgkiss says an ideal solar panel would look black.

“Every bit of light that reflects off a solar panel is light not transformed into energy. When no light bounces off it means all visible light is getting in.”

This is where nanotechnology comes in. He compares the idea to radio antennae on the roof of a building.

“When you see large antennae on the top of buildings, their size is related to the radio frequencies they’re tracking. Radio waves are of the order of metres, so the antenna discs are this size. But optical wavelengths are in the order of hundreds of nanometres.”

He says the MacDiarmid teams working on this are effectively creating tiny antennae that capture light and can direct it inside the solar panels.

“We’re making nano-patterns that make sure that light gets in and is not bounced away, and that capture and focus the light waves directly where it is needed in the solar panels.”

Continue to read the full article here published by The Spinoff on a MacDiarmid Institute Project a MacDiarmid Institute Project  ||  October 3,  2017   |||

Dennis Barnes, Chief Executive of Contact Energy is urging New Zealand Inc to move past debates on technicalities and act on the climate change challenge.

“As a country I firmly believe there’s a real opportunity for us to innovate, to work together and do more to tackle climate change and Contact is keen to play a key role”, says Dennis Barnes.

Contact agrees with the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment’s recommendations that depoliticising New Zealand’s response to climate change is a key step to be taken. Decisions on how we move to a lower carbon economy need to be made, with emissions targets and budgets, policy developed to help us get there and a Climate Change Commission set up to provide expert, independent and objective analysis and advice.

“Hope won’t help us deliver a low carbon economy, but a plan that ensures government agencies and businesses can work together on how to achieve targets would be a great step.”

Contact believes having a truly market-priced Emissions Trading Scheme, covering all sectors, all gasses and with the removal of existing caps and transition periods, will help spur the transition to a lower carbon economy.

“New Zealand is blessed with abundant renewable energy and we can use this to decarbonise the transport and manufacturing sectors, by increasing the use of electric vehicles and converting fossil fuel fired processes to low carbon electricity.”

“We are actively working with our energy-intensive business customers to help them identify opportunities to transition to flexible, efficient, low carbon energy solutions and welcome conversations with other organisations who are keen to be involved.”

Contact produces roughly the same amount of electricity as six years ago, but has reduced its emissions by 53% and its gas purchases by nearly 80%, by closing gas-fired generation, investing in new renewable energy production and innovating to deliver lower cost and more efficient electricity generation.

Contact is a strong supporter of electric vehicles and initiatives designed to increase their use in New Zealand and 25% of Contact’s own vehicle fleet is electric. Through technology trials across the country Contact is working with customers to truly understand the opportunities for customers in pairing solar energy, battery storage, smart hot water control technology with app-based real-time control. Contact’s market-leading Green Borrowing Programme was introduced in August 2017 allowing investors, for the first time ever, to have the opportunity to invest in certified Green Debt Instruments issued by a New Zealand company.

Contact has outlined its thinking on climate change opportunities in its submission today to the New Zealand Productivity Commission’s Low Emissions Economy Inquiry and in a short video featuring Contact Chief Executive, Dennis Barnes. A copy of Contact’s full submission can viewed on Contact’s website (www.contact.co.nz/aboutus/media-centre) and the video viewed via Contact’s YouTube channel (https://youtu.be/F8Z0v-8Te4w)

| A Contact Enerrgy release  ||  October 2,  2017   |||

GreenSky London arrived on the scene a few years ago, an ambitious project led by British Airways to produce renewable aviation jet fuel from East London’s garbage.

Now, a group of four companies established a new partnership to prepare the business case for a commercial scale waste-to-renewable-jet-fuel plant in the UK. Subject to the successful completion of all development stages, the aim is to achieve a final investment decision in 2019.

British Airways spokesperson Cathy West said: “The government needs to support innovative aviation biofuels projects such as this if they are to progress. Aviation fuels are not eligible for incentives that road transport fuels receive, making it difficult to build a business case to invest in UK aviation fuels projects. This affects investor confidence.”

This week, the Department for Transport published changes to the Renewable Transport Fuels Obligation (RTFO), and for the first time, sustainable jet fuel is to be included in its incentive scheme. These changes to the RTFO are designed to promote sustainable aviation. Once implemented, they are expected to provide long-term policy support for this market.

Ultimately, BA speculated that the UK policy shift could stimulate as many as a dozen advanced biofuels plants in the UK by 2030.

The technology involved was a gasification system by Solena that would convert municipal solid waste to syngas, and it planned to convert that syngas to liquid transport fuels using Velocys’ micro-channel Fischer-Tropsh technology.

The plant would take hundreds of thousands of tonnes per year of post-recycled waste, destined for landfill or incineration, and convert it into clean-burning, sustainable fuels. The jet fuel produced is expected to deliver over 60% greenhouse gas reduction and 90% reduction in particulate matter emissions compared with conventional jet fuel, thereby contributing to both carbon emissions reductions and local air quality improvements around major airports.

The UK still sends more than 15 million tonnes of waste per year to landfill sites, which not only damages the natural environment but also releases further greenhouse gases affecting climate change.

The planned plant will produce enough fuel to power all British Airways’ 787 Dreamliner operated flights from London to San Jose, California and New Orleans, Louisiana for a whole year. It would be the first plant of this scale.

The jet fuel produced at the plant will deliver more than 60 per cent greenhouse gas reduction, compared with conventional fossil fuel, delivering 60,000 tonnes of CO2 savings every year. This will contribute to both global carbon emissions reductions and local air quality improvements around major airports.

Capacity is not entirely clear, since the business plan is under development, but there are three keys. First, a 60 per cent GHG savings, and 60,000 tonnes of CO2 savings budget. And, conventional jet fuel produces roughly 19 pounds of CO2 per gallon burned.

Back of the envelope math suggests a project of around 11.5 million gallons (42m litres) per year.

| A Biofuel digest release  ||  September 28,  2017   |||