This Climate Business

What would a greener, safer, more efficient transport system look like? What would it take to build one right across New Zealand? Transport advocacy group All Aboard has a plan; executive director Tim Adriaansen steps Ross Inglis through it.

Communicating sustainability has become a hard task thanks to the change in politics and effects of economic headwinds. But somebody's got to do it. Suzy Giles and Fiona Stephenson are sustainability comms experts both of whom have contributed to a new book about the job, simply called Sustainability Communications - a Practitioners Guide. Suzy has international experience and chairs the ICCO–UNDP Climate Communications Task Force, among other things. Fiona is head of communications and marketing for Sustainable Business Network. So if anyone knows how to pitch sustainability it would be them. Welcome to the show.

See Suzy’s book here: Sustainability Communications: A Practitioner’s Guide - 1st Edition

In this episode of This Climate Business, Vicktoria Blake talks with Shamubeel Eaqub, Chief Economist at Simplicity, about how economists make sense of the world and why climate change is increasingly an economic issue, not just an environmental one.

From inflation and investment to insurance, agriculture and infrastructure, Shamubeel explains how climate risks are likely to shape New Zealand's economy in the decades ahead. The conversation also explores how Simplicity approaches responsible investing, whether financial markets are properly pricing climate risk, and where the biggest opportunities may lie in the transition to a low-emissions future.

Dunedin's Pedals Couriers is the last-mile specialist that delivers anything up to a 65-kilogram beer keg entirely by bicycle. Founder Liam Harrison tells Ross Inglis what it's like to run a service business predicated on sustainability.

What if products carried environmental labels as familiar and useful as nutrition facts?

Dr. Kate Meyer, Founder and CEO of the Planetary Accounting Network, believes better information can lead to better decisions. Through Planetary Facts, she and her team are developing a framework that helps businesses and consumers understand the environmental impacts of products beyond greenhouse gas emissions, including effects on water, land and biodiversity, and place those impacts in the context of the planet's ecological limits.

In this episode, Kate explains the concept of Planetary Accounting, the thinking behind the new Planetary Facts Dashboard, and why measuring environmental performance in a broader way could change how products are designed, marketed and purchased. The conversation explores transparency, consumer choice, and what it will take to make planetary health visible in everyday decision-making.

What happens when you stop thinking about putting solar panels on your roof and actually do it? Auckland's Mark Graham has just done it and he tells Ross Inglis that it's surprisingly straightforward.

As climate impacts become more visible across Aotearoa, the question is no longer whether we adapt, but how.

Sarah Bogle, co-convenor of the Aotearoa Society of Adaptation Professionals | Rōpū Urutaunga Aotearoa (ASAP | RUA), joins This Climate Business to discuss the emerging profession of climate adaptation and why communities, businesses, councils and governments need new skills to navigate an uncertain future.

Sarah explains the gap ASAP | RUA was created to fill, why adaptation deserves greater attention alongside emissions reduction, and how the organisation's waka hourua approach brings together science, mātauranga Māori, professional expertise and lived experience to strengthen climate resilience.

It's a conversation about resilience, collaboration, difficult choices, and creating practical pathways through climate risk as Aotearoa prepares for a changing climate.

Climate wins and climate losses - how are we feeling about it all?

Vincent and Ross discuss the state of climate action with new host Vicktoria Blake, a climate professional specialising in the health sector and who has a long and impressive pedigree in climate strategy, advocacy and education. Vicktoria won awards for it all and somewhere along the way there's a diploma in radio broadcasting too.

Imagine being able to bring climate into long-term financial forecasts - not just this year but 100-years ahead. Canopi is the latest climate tool to come from the climate powerhouse Lever Room. Rebecca Mills is the founder of Lever Room, a strategy and technology company working across carbon, climate and nature. Rebecca helped build The B Team, the global initiative founded by Richard Branson and Jochen Zeitz, and now leads Women in Climate Tech Australasia and lectures at the University of Otago.

Vincent attended the Sustainability Business Live conference in Melbourne recently and met an impressive array of experts and entrepreneurs from Australia and New Zealand - all chasing what one speaker called the triumph of the transition. In the next few episodes we'll meet some of these transition trumpeters. First up, Ben Symons, a senior natural capital advisor with Climate Friendly, one of Australia's leading carbon and biodiversity consultancies.

https://www.climatefriendly.com/