The recession doesn’t seem to have dampened the drive to run leaner, greener businesses in New Zealand though it is encouraging smarter approach to sustainability, according to recent report from the Sustainable Business Network (SBN).
In its review of 2008, SBN founder and CEO Rachel Brown says the year will be remembered as one in which “sustainability” hit the ground running. Membership of the organisation grew by 40 percent to more than 800 with most growth coming from the service sector. There was also real broadening out of sustainability thinking from focus on efficiencies to movement for “eco-effective” design, says Brown.
There’s no better time to fundamentally reinvent business practice, suggests business commentator Rod Oram. Rebuilding the world economy will require new disciplines and the “most powerful to emerge in recent decades is the measurement and management of environmental flows through business”.
His commentary is included in the “2008 Sustainable Business Review” along with that from, among others, NZI head Karl Armstrong and NZ Business Council for Sustainable Development CEO Peter Neilson. The increased diversity of business participation is reflected in range of case studies from SBN’s “Get Sustainable Challenge”.
Download from www.sustainable.org.nz
