JUST GOOD BUSINESS BUZZ : Sustainability crossroads?

Just how green is New Zealand – really? Is there risk the country’s 100% Pure image – crucial to its green cred rating with our tourism and trading sectors – is being undercut by policies that put economic imperatives ahead of environmental and social ones?
Those are questions sustainability researchers at Waikato Management School will be seeking answers for – with the help of Marsden Grant worth $773,000 over three years. The research project, being led by Juliet Roper and Eva Collins, goes beyond looking at the business case of ‘doing well by doing good’ to how governments and business can negotiate within new paradigm.
The aim is to understand how policy makers, media and business leaders think about, frame and prioritise environment, social and economic sustainability issues – and with what consequences, says Roper.
The project is one of four University of Waikato research projects to earn Marsden funding worth total of $2.5 million.