Bits & Pieces
from there and here
There
Ride Today. Change Tomorrow. Cycling 4 Climate is an international movement raising awareness about climate change and inspiring people to action. Its annual bike rides draw riders in their thousands. My younger son, Charlie, and his mates rode in the recent Amsterdam event. Due to extreme heat on the day, distances were limited and earlier start times set. “It was a living lesson in climate change,” said Charlie.
A life so well lived. Still in the Netherlands, we report with sadness the death of Marjan Minnesma on May 22. She was 59. Through the Urgenda (short for urgent agenda) Foundation, Marjan led a legal challenge against the Dutch government, resulting in a 2019 Supreme Court ruling forcing it to cut emissions. Building on this early work, litigation is now an integral part of climate action. Marjan was a Goldman Environmental Prize winner in 2022, recognising her towering efforts on climate and energy. A venue for 1,000 people was booked for Marjan’s celebration of life, with attendees encouraged to wear her favourite colour red.
Here
Ideas and inspiration. Jo Wills, who wrote a guest column for us a few months ago, features in The Sustainability Options Podcast in conversation with her colleague Nik Gregg. From challenging conventional thinking to discussing practical pathways for change, each episode offers thoughtful insights on what’s possible when people and planet are prioritised over profit.
Impact investing. It’s about driving positive social and environmental change as well as financial return. Purpose Capital Limited, a Mindful Money award winner, is helping to show the way. For me, their Bureta Park development in Tauranga stands out. Founding Director Bill Murphy says, “The 89 townhouse units offer inner-city housing without urban sprawl. There is a commitment to the New Zealand Green Building Council’s Homestar 6 rating in construction and to serving the needs of first home buyers and renters, with the opportunity for long-term leases.
Still knitting for cool kids. This great effort provides beanies, scarves, fingerless mittens and slippers for new entrants at low-decile schools in a chosen community. The group’s founder, Miriam Ruberl, reports they delivered 865 sets this year, with extras for new enrollments. Miriam encouraged me to search this online: ‘What are some of the New Zealand community-led eco-friendly initiatives?’ The result is heartening.
Transitioning to sustainability. In 2013, young dairy farmer Ben Troughton and I founded the community environment group Transition Matamata. Its name acknowledged the worldwide Transition Towns movement, of which it was a part. Thirteen years on, the renamed Sustainable Matamata is flourishing in the hands of co-coordinators Martin Louw and Lianne Edwards-Maas, communications maestro Virginia McMillian and a talented and keen core group.
Not all good news. Fonterra, ag giant and New Zealand’s largest company by revenue, has been caught up in backroom dealings pushing the Government to pass legislation that would prevent companies from being sued over damage caused by greenhouse gas emissions. This follows an earlier loss in a court case brought against it by Greenpeace where Fonterra broke the law with misleading information on its packaging. Just how low can they go?
Work still to be done. It’s sad times when food banks are a growth industry. Simon Gascoigne of Go Eco sees the effects of inequality, even poverty, in his work every day. Simon notes the important research work of Victoria University of Wellington’s Max Rashbrooke, nicely captured in his book Too Much Money: How Wealth Disparities are Unbalancing Aotearoa New Zealand
This is sure to be discussed leading up to the 14 October national election, what with Green Party co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick calling for a wealth tax and National Party MP Simeon Brown saying it’s “economic lunacy”. Brown’s response comes from a Government that panders to property investors and landlords, while, for example, a young couple with a special needs child live in an unheated converted garage in Auckland, paying nearly $500 a week in rent.
The Greens say the policy will benefit 96 percent of New Zealanders, by taxing the super-rich responsible for what they call a “cost of greed crisis”. Groups like this one support the Green’s thinking. So does the research of noted academics, like this from the World Inequality Lab.
There’s no easy road to this brighter and fairer future. But surely its one that needs exploring.
Gord Stewart is a sustainability consultant with a background in environmental management and economics.