This Climate Business is the Kiwi podcast about turning the climate crisis into an opportunity. Every week host Vincent Heeringa talks to entrepreneurs, investo...
Oh, behave! The real reason for overshoot - Joseph Merz
In September 2023, a group of scientists and writers had a paper published in a niche academic journal. The paper “World scientists’ warning: The behavioural crisis driving ecological overshoot” might have quietly retired in a graveyard along with a thousand other important but forgotten tomes - except it didn’t. At last count the paper has had 70,000 downloads and ranks in the top 1% of academic papers. In short, the paper describes how our modern human behaviour means we consume too much and waste too much. That’s called overshoot - as terrible as it is, it's now new news. What’s novel, is the paper’s proposition that it’s human behaviour - not technology, not law, not economic systems not even our values - that are the drivers: it’s human behaviour. And just as our maladaptive behaviours got us here, so too can better behaviours get us out. To expand on the paper and to explain its popularity, Vincent was joined by the lead author, Joseph Merz of the Merz Foundation.Merz Institute New Paper Identifies ‘Behavioural Crisis’ Driving Overshoot – Merz Institute
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35:18
Coffee prices and climate - Richard Goatley, Altezano Brothers
Just three years ago, the average price of a takeaway coffee was $4.33. Since then prices have marched north with Stats NZ officially recording the average to be $4.85 but good luck finding that in Auckland or Wellington. The reason: coffee beans. The price of the most popular bean, arabica, soared 70% in 2024 and nearly 20% so far this year to an all-time high.What’s going on - is someone skimming a profit here, is it climate change? To help us through this bitter news Vincent was joined by Richard Goatly, one of the brothers from Altezano Brothers coffee roasters. https://altezanobrothers.co.nz/
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29:23
Greenwash v Greenhush - Rebecca Styles and Fiona Stephenson
How do you promote sustainability effectively? Do you sugarcoat the bad news? Or scare them with the facts? When does green marketing become greenwashing or the reverse, greenhushing? The way we talk about sustainability can make a massive difference in its adoption. Especially in this febrile atmosphere of anti-woke, techbro, climate-denying toxicity. To get some insight on how to hold our tongues better, Vincent was joined by Rebecca Styles, who leads the investigations team at Consumer NZ and Fiona Stephenson, who leads comms at the Sustainable Business Network - both of whom are speaking at the Communicating Sustainability Masterclass in March 2025.
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27:45
A Climate Contribution that contributes very little - Marc Daalder, Newsroom
New Zealand’s newest target for reducing greenhouse gases is as little as one percent better than our previous one. Newsroom’s Marc Daalder tells Ross Inglis why the target matters, why it is so modest, and what it means for business.
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23:32
A better economic model - Ganesh Nana, former Productivity Commissioner
As New Zealanders struggle with the worst recession in 34 years, a group of economists have warned that the government’s austerity programme is making it worse. One of those critics is Dr Ganesh Nana, former Productivity Commissioner and Chief Economist and Research Director at BERL, Business and Economic Research Limited. Ganesh is a regular advisor to industry and government and was part of the government’s Welfare Expert Advisory Group. He’s a cricket fan, numbers guy and has a passion for seeing Aotearoa New Zealand reach its full potential in all aspects, social, environmental and economic. Ganesh’s concerns about our approach to managing the economy is incredibly timely. Vincent recorded this interview largely during an event at the Sustainable Business Network late last year.
This Climate Business is the Kiwi podcast about turning the climate crisis into an opportunity. Every week host Vincent Heeringa talks to entrepreneurs, investors and experts about what they're doing to solve the climate crisis and get NZ down to zero emissions by 2050 – or sooner.
New Zealand