Taranaki-based scaffolding and rigging company Cunningham Construction has deep roots in the petrochemical sector. It’s also on a journey towards sustainability. Managing Director Paul Cunningham talked to Ross Inglis through the why and the how of doing business differently.

It’s hard running a small business. It’s harder running a small business that takes it’s environmental and social responsibility serisously. And it’s suepr hard then auditing that effort and publishing it for all to see. Kōkako Coffee recently published its fourth sustainbility report – presenting a warts ‘n all analysis of its performance. As a small privately owned business it doesn’t have to. But then that’s not how Kōkako rolls. To explain the joys of the coffee and the pains of reporting, I’m joined by Kōkako founder Mike Murphy and report author Nick Morrison of Go Well Consulting.

You will know about cling film. Perhaps you wrapped your lunch in it this morning. Or you’ve seen swaths of it used to wrap suitcases at the airport. It’s ubiquitous and it’s pernicious. Jon Reed certainly thinks so and has created Compostic, a plant-based alternative that as the label says decomposes faster than an orange peel. He was joined by Vincent Heeringa.

Comvita is a publicly listed mānuka honey specialist – the OG of mānuka money if you like. For a moment it was a sharemarket darling peaking in 2015 but since then languishing as it posted losses and a stockpile of product it couldn’t shift. Enter David Banfield in 2020. A spectacular financial result in February this year signal perhaps a reversal in fortunes. With success in China and the USA, the company has posted record sales and profitability. It’s also written a bold sustainability

plan called Harmony promising to be climate and sustainability leader. Vincent was joined by the CEO David Banfield.

Finn Ross is a young guy on a mission. He’s completing a PhD on seaweed carbon sequestration, he’s also co-founder of CarbonZ, a company offering voluntary carbon credits based on the restoration and planting of native trees on New Zealand farmland. He’s the son of entrepreneurs Geoff and Justine Ross, owners of Lake Hawea Station, New Zealand’s first carbon positive farm. As a worker on the farm Finn has seen first-hand how Kiwi landowners must foot the bill for native afforestation – a problem he’d like to overcome.

A framework for any corporate, anywhere, to divert anything from landfill. That’s the promise from Auckland-based social enterprise All Heart NZ. Ross Inglis asked the irrepressible Joe Youssef, the company’s founder and Chief Encourager, how it does it.

What happens to all those acres of white plastic wrap that protect building sites? Ross Inglis talks with two people who know: Too much of it goes to landfill, and they’re doing something about it.

In this episode: Tina Wieczorek (right) is the CEO of the industry organisation Scaffolding, Access and Rigging New Zealand, or SARNZ, and Penny Thomson, a research manager and designer with the Environmental Solutions Research Centre, part of Auckland’s Unitec Institute of Technology.

Conventional plastics recycling is fussy: it can handle only four of the 24 types of plastic, and even those have to be clean. Here’s the story of Auckland-based social enterprise Critical, which uses proprietary technology to turn a wide range of waste plastics, including more contaminated ones, into construction boards and countertops.

New Zealanders on average throw out textiles equivalent to 200 t-shirts every year. Finding a new home for all those garments is the mission of Australasian textiles recycler Upparel. Jeff Vollebregt, director of Upparel’s New Zealand operation talked Ross Inglis through the business of circular clothing.

The transport sector has experienced its share of drama this year, starting with Cyclone Gabrielle wiping out so many roads and bridges across the north island.

The cyclone was blamed for a sudden change in the direction in government policy. Back in February, Minister Michael Woods announced a climate-friendly plan, in its three-year transport plan, the Government Policy Statement. For the first time it prioritised the emissions impact of transport. But just days later, he reversed many of those priorities to focus on rebuilding damaged roads.

Last week the government also announced five options for a second harbour crossing and reiterated its commitment to the tunnelled version of a light rail network.