Kiwibank has officially moved into its new Auckland home – a building with a Six Green Star Certification near Wynyard Quarter. Michael Andrew went to see how sustainable a building has to be to earn so many stars. In late 2019, when fans at Eden Park were sipping away at Sprite, Coke and L&P while … Read more
The country’s biggest bulk wine supplier has begun turning gigantic flexibags into plastic fenceposts. But the fencepost manufacturer protests that a lack of government funding is barring the way from doing so much more, reports Phil Pennington for RNZ. Multinational giant Hillebrand spent months trying to find a recycler to complete the lifecycle: to take … Read more
Among the endless pile of plastic and food scraps being produced every second, some small businesses are creating a shift in how we treat our waste. Callaghan Innovation’s C-Prize this year has a focus on these initiatives, aiming to reduce the waste we’re sending to landfill. Around a quarter of the waste New Zealanders send … Read more
New Zealanders throw away 295 million single-use cups per year. Alice Neville ponders our obsession with takeaway culture, and looks at what’s needed for consumers to change their behaviour. How many commuters did you see clutching single-use takeaway coffee cups on your way to work this morning? Or how many empty ones are strewn about … Read more
Three Countdown stores are currently trialling drastically reducing plastic from their fruit and veg… but it’s a solution that comes with problems of its own. Ah, plastic. The synthetic material we love to hate. In a world where many of the biggest contributors to the climate crisis are not exactly easy to give up – … Read more
The billions of tonnes of plastic in our oceans isn’t going away any time soon, but innovative companies here and abroad are working together to find silver linings to this daunting problem. Fishing boats head out to sea and set their nets. They go back to shore. They head back out, the nets are pulled … 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 Brianne West, founder of plastic-free cosmetics company Ethique. On the podcast this week we have an amazing guest, … Read more
Sustainability is no longer just a ‘nice to have’ for businesses – it’s as pivotal as profit to their long term survival. For as long as any of us can remember, sustainability and profit have been at odds with one another. Profit means efficiencies and efficiencies mean doing whatever it takes to do things faster, … 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
From last Monday, single-use plastic bags are banned in New Zealand. To keep the ball rolling, here are five more things we could look at banning. The hotly-debated plastic bag ban came into effect last Monday, aligning New Zealand with the likes of the EU, the UK, Peru, and other nations with bans on single-use … Read more
In our Q&A series, The Lightbulb, we ask innovators and entrepreneurs to tell us about how they turned their ideas into reality. This week we talk to Honeywrap co-founder Tara McQuinn, makers of organic fabric beeswax wraps. First of all, give us your elevator pitch for Honeywrap. Honeywrap is a beeswax wrap made with organic cotton. … Read more
An innovative new roading system is being trialled in New Plymouth that could reduce the amount of plastic sent to landfill. It’s a New Zealand-first, so Tara Ward got up close and personal with the road to see what all the fuss is about. The fair city of New Plymouth made the news this … Read more
In our Q&A series, The Lightbulb, we ask innovators and entrepreneurs to tell us about how they turned their ideas into reality. This week we talk to Ming Dapiere, founder of packaging company R3pack (pronounced R-Three-Pack) which provides compostable and recycled courier options. First of all, give us your elevator pitch for R3pack. R3pack is a … Read more
OK, so we’ve got rid of plastic bags. But what about all the other stuff? Phasing plastic packaging out is a mammoth task, but some of the industry’s main players are working hard to promote change. Next time you’re at your local supermarket, have a look around. Go up and down each aisle and have … Read more
Every week on The Primer we ask a local business or product to introduce themselves in eight simple takes. This week we talk to Offcut founder Adrien Taylor whose company takes fabric scraps destined for landfill and turns them into hats instead. ONE: How did Offcut start and what was the inspiration behind it? I started the … Read more
Every night big black rubbish sacks full of plastic are thrown in the bin out the back by bar staff. Alex Braae spoke to those looking to reduce, and reuse the waste from your nights out. In the middle of the Pacific Ocean there’s a dirty great collection of plastic that just sits there, floating. … Read more