Report on Climate Change Business Opportunities

Media Release

NZBCSD Releases Report on Climate Change Business Opportunities

Tuesday 4 June 2002

The New Zealand Business Council for Sustainable Development (NZBCSD) today released a report on the potential business opportunities arising from the increased need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The NZBCSD is a coalition of 35 leading businesses united by a shared commitment to sustainable development. The NZBCSD mission is to provide business leadership as a catalyst for change toward sustainable development, and to promote eco-efficiency, innovation and responsible entrepreneurship. NZBCSD members believe that Sustainable Development is about ensuring a better quality of life for everyone, now and for generations to come.

“The Climate Change Business Opportunities report has been released with the objective of leading business towards capturing the significant business opportunities that the climate change challenge presents. The intent is that all businesses will respond to this challenge and use the concepts within the report to assist them,” said Stephen Tindall, NZBCSD Chairman.

The report describes 32 potential business opportunities that the six participating companies have identified within their operations. These opportunities range from the provision of knowledge and services, to climate friendly branding, to investment in emissions reduction projects at home and in developing countries.

The report also provides high-level quantitative analysis on potential opportunities in five areas that public stakeholders and members were particularly interested in. These areas were commercial building energy efficiency, converting wood waste to energy, the Clean Development Mechanism (a mechanism where, under the Kyoto Protocol, countries can get credit for investing in emissions reduction projects in developing countries), methane reduction through improving ruminant efficiency and “climate friendly” branding.

Scenario analysis using high-level assumptions revealed that opportunities in these five areas could be worth in excess of NZ$350 million per annum and could deliver greenhouse gas savings of around 9 million tonnes of CO2 per annum. This is estimated to being the emissions reduction equivalent of taking over 2 million average family cars off the road.

“For most companies climate change is now a risk management issue with significant opportunities. It therefore makes good business sense for business to understand and work to minimize their greenhouse gas emissions and identify business opportunities that are likely to arise out of a carbon constrained economy, as early as possible,” Tindall said.

Over the past six months, the NZBCSD in conjunction with the Ministry for Economic Development (MED) has worked with six NZBCSD members to measure their greenhouse gas emissions and explore potential business opportunities arising from the increased need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The six participating members are BP Oil New Zealand Ltd, Hubbard Foods Limited, Landcare Research, Meridian Energy Limited, Milburn New Zealand Limited and Urgent Couriers. Experts from NIWA and Telecom are also providing project input. PricewaterhouseCoopers are the project consultants.

This report is only the first phase of the project, a concise industry guide and website on the “why” and “how” for greenhouse gas accounting and identifying business opportunities will be published in August.

The business opportunities report is available on the NZBCSD website at www.nzbcsd.org.nz.

ENDS

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