Covering Climate Now: We need to broaden our measures of success if we want to have any chance of reaching blunt targets for reducing emissions, writes Catherine Leining. The Spinoff’s participation in Covering Climate Now is made possible thanks to Spinoff Members. Join us here! Since 1992, multiple rounds of greenhouse gas emission targets have … Read more
A Canterbury startup is exposing medical equipment manufacturers’ deliberate one-use design tricks and proving that hospitals can reuse and recycle. There has been a lot of hype about the phasing out of plastic bags at supermarkets. But what about far more expensive items which only ever get used once and are then thrown away? A … Read more
Covering Climate Now: ‘Click here to offset your emissions.’ It’s an appealing, guilt-assuaging idea. But what does it really amount to, asks Mirjam Guesgen. New Zealanders travel overseas a lot, with trips totalling close to 3 million a year. And every time a Kiwi takes flight, tonnes of earth-heating gases spew into the atmosphere. One … Read more
Antibiotics are becoming increasingly less effective, so what treatments can we look to when the drugs stop working? With help from plant extracts, award-winning company HerbScience is seeking to breathe new life into how we treat bacterial infections. When Cynthia Hunefeld was just 10 years old, her father was hospitalised with a severe bacterial infection. … Read more
Western companies trademarking culturally significant words and phrases? It’s not as uncommon as you think. Here are just four examples from the past year. Air New Zealand & Kia Ora No word in te reo has had more mainstream cut through than our national greeting. Now, Air New Zealand is attempting to go one step … Read more
Business is Boring is a weekly podcast series presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. Host Simon Pound speaks with innovators and commentators focused on the future of New Zealand. This week he talks to Tim Brown, co-founder of Allbirds. This week’s podcast has an extra special guest that’s recently been on the … Read more
A restaurant that began life as a pop-up bartering for crockery has become the latest Kiwi concept to shake up the Australian food scene. Chef Peter Gunn grew up in a typical New Zealand home eating no-frills sausages, steak and mash. His Melbourne restaurant, Ides, is far from typical, and Gunn joins a select and … Read more
For weeks, Carpet Mill has been running a very strange full page in a national newspaper. Duncan Greive investigates. At first glance, you barely notice it. A large, mostly empty page in a newspaper. A scattering of text, some logos, enough so you don’t immediately clock anything amiss. Only, there’s something off about it. There … Read more
Peering inside shoe design icon Christian Louboutin’s brain is all in a day’s work for an Eden Terrace post-production studio that has turned the creative arts into a viable business. Sam Tozer is a bit like Dr Frankenstein, but instead of fashioning humans out of body parts he’s pushing the boundaries of technology in a … Read more
Business is Boring is a weekly podcast series presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. Host Simon Pound speaks with innovators and commentators focused on the future of New Zealand. This week he talks to Erik Zydervelt, founder and CEO of Mevo. In a few years people will probably be looking back and … Read more
Earlier this week, a Twitter thread demonstrating the power of new face-swap app ZAO attracted tens of thousands of retweets. The user behind the thread, Auckland artist and game developer Allan Xia, explains what ZAO is, and what it means for your rights over your own likeness. Last Friday, a face-swap app called ZAO went … Read more
Right now, ministers are envisioning a future in which an over-supply of renewable energy is captured, stored in hydrogen cells and exported. Is that realistic? Jenée Tibshraeny from Interest takes a hard look at the potential and possibilities. The government wants to position New Zealand as a front-runner rather than a fast-follower on the development … Read more
Named Angel of the Year by Enterprise Angels, investor Alan Dick talks about the importance of making resources available to a wider group of people. Alan Dick knows a thing or two about investing. Experienced in everything from IT and tech, to manufacturing and kiwifruit, Dick became an angel investor six years ago. Since then … Read more
That poop-inspired kids’ clothing brand you keep seeing everywhere? Turns out it’s a viral marketing stunt. On Sunday, scrolling through Instagram as you do, I came across a sponsored post for a brand called Fe-Cál Kids. The post featured a photo of a little girl in a colourful short dress with the caption “the latest … Read more
Business is Boring is a weekly podcast series presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. Host Simon Pound speaks with innovators and commentators focused on the future of New Zealand. This week he talks to Hamish Pinkham, founder and creative director of Rhythm & Vines. This week’s podcast tells the story of how … Read more
It’s entirely possible to save a million dollars in your KiwiSaver account if you start early and follow a few basic rules, writes Martin Hawes. Over the coming years, we are going to have a new breed of millionaire: KiwiSaver millionaires. Who knows, you might be living next door to one. Currently, there are a … Read more
Spark ramps up its Internet of Things (IoT) network with a leading investment in Kiwi tech company Parkable. Auckland-based startup Parkable has raised more than $4.6 million in its first funding round led by telecommunications giant Spark. The funds will be used to increase Parkable’s international expansion and continue developing its technology and product. Currently, the … Read more
Record low borrowing costs are a precious opportunity for business owners who now need to make savvy decisions about what to do with the cash. The experts may have been caught off-guard when the Reserve Bank opened fire on interest rates earlier this month, but the fact of the matter is the Kiwi economy needs … Read more
In the final of our series on the loss of faith in free market economics we ask New Zealand business leaders how they’re grappling with the almighty power of a technology that barely existed 20 years ago. Hands up who’s read the Financial Markets Authority’s website. Come on, be honest. No, of course you haven’t. … Read more
Extinction Rebellion takes a tour of downtown Wellington to point out the coal industry stalwarts and ask why they’re still there in the face of a climate emergency. “There are coal companies in Wellington??” That’s the incredulous response every single time we mention taking the public on a tour of the biggest coal industry companies … Read more
Business is Boring is a weekly podcast series presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. Host Simon Pound speaks with innovators and commentators focused on the future of New Zealand. This week he talks to Paris Georgia co-founders Paris Mitchell Temple and Georgia Cherrie. This week’s podcast features a chat with the duo … Read more
New Zealand’s largest construction company and controversial owner of the disputed Ihumātao land near Auckland airport has made a $164m profit, a big turnaround from its losses last year. Business editor Maria Slade analyses what it all means. What has Fletcher Building announced? The construction and building products company with operations on both sides of … Read more
As Auckland attempts to encourage greener alternatives to car use, a huge new car park is rising beside Les Mills’ flagship inner-city gym. Josie Adams asks Les Mills CEO Phillip Mills how it tallies with the company’s clean, green brand. Les Mills Victoria Street has 12,000 members, and up to 700 visitors during peak hours. … Read more
Life in the wee hours could be made safer and better for business if New Zealand adopted the policies of cities such as Amsterdam, writes Natanael Rother. It would be insane to do the same thing over and over again and still expect different results. It’s a lesson those embroiled in the politics of the … Read more
Backed by businessman Eric Watson and launched in a blaze of publicity, online trader Fashbae disappeared almost as quickly as it arrived. Now its founder is traversing the globe in a jeep. Business editor Maria Slade tries to keep up with events. It had it all. A suave multi-millionaire investor and his lookalike son. An … Read more
The Lightbulb asks innovators and entrepreneurs how they turned their ideas into reality. This week we talk to Jamie Cashmore, co-founder of Auckland-based edible packaging company Twiice. First of all, give us your elevator pitch for Twiice. Twiice is a company making edible coffee cups with plans to progress into other areas of edible packaging. … Read more
Business is Boring is a weekly podcast series presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. Host Simon Pound speaks with innovators and commentators focused on the future of New Zealand. This week he talks to Michael Allpress, founder of Allpress Espresso. If you take a step back and look at it, it’s kind … Read more
MediaWorks’ CEO asks us to imagine a world with only government-owned TV news. Unless something is made to change at TVNZ, he tells Duncan Greive, that could be a reality. The New Zealand media executive in 2019 is an individual suffering from a very specific type of exhaustion. This is true of people from all … Read more
Several labels turned down a proposal that would have seen a multinational cigarette manufacturer pay their fees and venue costs. Business editor Maria Slade reports. Fashion designers were offered the opportunity to stage a show at this year’s New Zealand Fashion Week (NZFW) virtually for free – if they accepted help from tobacco company Philip … Read more