This Climate Business23 Aug 2023

Brianne West: from shampoo to fizzy drinks with no water (not much anyways)

In Aotearoa New Zealand, we throw away a staggering 97 million single-use plastic drinks containers each year, with less than 7% of those ever getting recycled. Seems dumb especially when most of that drink is water. Brianne West is the founder of Ethique, the eco-beauty products business that took water out of cosmetics and saved millions of tons of plastic, water and emissions in the process. Ethique exports to more than 20 countries and was sold in 2020. Brianne is turning that success in beauty to fizzy drinks - called Incrediballs - and she joins Vincent.

We have a climate policy problem in NZ that might be useful to share. Our ETS offers carbon credits primarily based on permanent pine forests. To meet our net zero 2050 we'll need to double our pine forests to 2.8mha. Pine trees are cheap, grow fast, and absorb lots of carbon in their first 25 years.

Sounds good, right? Not necessarily.

After 25 years growth rates slow and the trees start to die at 80. The forests tend to be mono-crops, are hostile to native flora and fauna, and are susceptible to fire, pests and storms. They also are being planted on farmland. And because there's so much planting unit prices are low and businesses find it cheaper to pay to offset their emissions, rather than invest in technology to reduce their emissions.

In fact some modelling suggests the supply of units generated by the planting of forests may exceed the number needed by emitters!

Our government is under huge pressure to change the ETS settings to better incentivise:

- restoring native forests

- reducing gross emissions

- investing in biodiversity

Denne episoden er hentet fra en åpen RSS-feed og er ikke publisert av Podme. Den kan derfor inneholde annonser.

Episoder(200)

What does an economist actually do, and what can economics tell us about climate change?

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...

17 Sep 33min

The Sustainable Last Mile: Liam Harrison, Pedals Couriers

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 b...

7 Sep 21min

Kate Meyer: Making Environmental Impact Visible

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 bet...

27 Aug 36min

Going Solar: One Couple’s experience - Mark Graham

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.

23 Aug 22min

Sarah Bogle: From Climate Risk to Climate Resilience

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 Urutaung...

12 Aug 34min

Moods, swings and wins! Welcome new host, Vicktoria Blake

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...

5 Aug 26min

Land, data & decision-making - Rebecca Mills, Lever Room

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. Rebec...

9 Jul 36min

Australian biodiversity on the march - Ben Symons, Climate Friendly

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 speake...

2 Jul 29min