• Home
• News & Info
• Features

Future Footprints: Sustainability in the Marketplace

The Sustainability Agenda is Focus of Upcoming Business Forum

There are challenges and opportunities in the marketplace with the increasing focus on ‘green metrics’. It can be difficult to understand what matters and what doesn’t. We all hear rhetoric around carbon accounting, green growth, and sustainability…but what does it really mean?

BusinessNZ and the New Zealand Life Cycle Management Centre are joining forces to generate discussion and debate on how New Zealand companies can best respond to sustainability drivers in the marketplace. The business forum will bring together 130 researchers, policy officials and business people to discuss what is driving the sustainability agenda and how sustainability can be a driver of innovation and competitive advantage.

“Sustainable development and the role of business within it, has become a growing priority around the world. New Zealand businesses need to be able to respond to this in a practical and credible way if we are to remain competitive,” says Phil O’Reilly, CEO of BusinessNZ.

“Sustainability isn’t a nice ‘add-on’ for businesses. Sustainability should be how we do business in New Zealand - improving efficiency, looking at new ways to innovate across our supply chains to create additional value out of our resources and meeting the needs of our of customers.”

The Forum on Monday 4^th April, starting at 1pm at Te Papa, will also provide the opportunity for people to hear from three international speakers.

“Having Dr Alan Knight, Wal-Mart speaker Katherine Jennrich and Professor Roland Clift together at the same event is a fantastic opportunity to hear about what is happening at the leading edge of the international sustainability agenda. And Wal-Mart will need no introduction as the world’s biggest retailer, who are also at the forefront of demanding green credentials on the products they sell,” says Dr Sarah McLaren.

Sarah McLaren, Director of the New Zealand Life Cycle Management Centre, says a theme of the Forum is to understand what tools New Zealand businesses need to measure, manage and innovate across the supply chain.

“New Zealand businesses can gain competitive advantage in international marketplaces by distinguishing themselves on the basis of their environmental credentials. But it is not enough now to just say your product is from ‘clean, green New Zealand’.

“Businesses across the world have latched on to the power of being green. New Zealand companies need to demonstrate the environmental credentials of their products through credible programmes and certification schemes, and educate retailers and consumers about this added value that comes with products from New Zealand.”

Speakers

• Katherine Jennrich, Wal-Mart Stores Inc, USA
• Alan Knight, Independent Sustainability Consultant, UK (supported by AGMARDT)
• Roland Clift, University of Surrey, UK
• Anthony Hume, Landcare Research
• Alistair Mowart, Zespri International
• John Hutchings, Fonterra
• Hon. Tim Groser, Minister of Trade
• Sir Paul Callaghan, New Zealander of the Year 2011

Key sponsors of the event include: AGMARDT, Massey University, Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, New Zealand Trade and Enterprise, and PE International.

About the International Speakers

The “Corporate Adviser”: Alan Knight, Sustainability Consultant

Currently Alan is the independent advisor to the Virgin Group. He also runs the Virgin Earth Challenge (a US$25 million prize for carbon sequestration). He has worked with clients as diverse as AXA insurance, Body Shop, Coca-Cola, United Nations, Prudential and the Mayor of Calgary City. For nine years he was a UK Commissioner for the Sustainable Development Commission. He helped create the Forest Stewardship Council, introduced the concept of "choice editing" into the product policy debate and frequently lectures on sustainable lifestyles and product centric corporate sustainability.

The “Global Retailer”: Katherine Jennrich, Wal-mart Stores Inc

Wal-Mart’s announcement in August 2009 that they wish to introduce sustainability reporting across products signaled a deeper and broader focus at retailer level on sustainability performance of products. Wal-Mart’s proposed reporting index will include indicators not only for carbon but also energy and climate; natural resources; material efficiency; and people and community. Given the increasing influence of Wal-Mart and other global retailers looking at similar programmes, it is likely this emerging focus will have future significant impacts across product supply chains (even if it is not fully implemented in the short-term).  Katherine manages the carbon footprint programme and efficiency supply-chain programme.

The “Research Specialist”: Roland Clift, University of Surrey, UK

Professor Roland Clift was one of the early founders of Life Cycle Management. He is one of the leaders internationally in supply chain efficiency research and is Distinguished Professor of Environmental Technology and Founding Director of the Centre for Environmental Strategy (CES) at the University of Surrey, UK. He has a distinctive view on the emerging power of large retailers and the diminishing power of producer groups across supply chains. He also advises on emerging international standards for measuring environmental performance across products and services.

Note: Please contact Alison Watson for any requests for interviews with any of the speakers at the Business Forum on 027 292 1510.

About The New Zealand Life Cycle Management Centre

The New Zealand Life Cycle Management Centre was set up in 2010. Its aim is to build capability for Life Cycle Management (LCM), including Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), in New Zealand. The Centre partners include four Crown Research Institutes - AgResearch, Landcare Research, Plant and Food Research and SCION, along with Massey University. The Centre is committed to positioning New Zealand research and activities at the leading edge of LCM, and supporting business to measure, manage and innovate across product and service life cycles (cradle-to-cradle approaches).

About Sustainable BusinessNZ

Sustainable BusinessNZ is a recent initiative of BusinessNZ providing a business-centric platform for companies wanting to define and lead sustainable business matters. With the establishment of the BusinessNZ Sustainable Business Forum in 2009 and its subsequent set of activities – advocacy and policy, events, conferences, training, news and project work - the BusinessNZ family has begun to demonstrate Sustainable Business intelligence and market leadership to the business community and public sector.

Sustainable Business is a popular portfolio by which the most impactful business organisations such as CBI UK, BIAC (Business and Industry Advisory Council to the OECD) facilitate thought leadership and futures thinking. It is the portfolio looked to for enabling business to excel financially and ethically in the changing marketplace.