Issue #6: Corporate chats
On better business & coming together for impact
Evening friends, and happy Tuesday! We hope you had a relaxing and reflective Waitangi weekend.
The most-clicked link from last week’s issue was the call to reduce the legal nitrate level in our water, moving towards keeping CO2-equivalent emissions out of our air!
This week we are focusing on ways we can engage with groups and companies, to use the power of the collective for change. With greenwashing on the rise, it’s important that we, as consumers and employees, hold companies accountable. As well as divesting your investments from fossil fuel companies (covered in the last few newsletters), there are plenty of other ways you can have your say in a corporate way.
What can you do today?
🐝 If you have 5 minutes: Be a good sport
Oily sports: There’s no team more visible than the All Blacks, which is why we were disappointed when we found out New Zealand Rugby signed a 6 year deal with INEOS, the global petrochemical conglomerate. This means our All Blacks, Black Ferns, All Blacks Sevens, Black Ferns Sevens, Māori All Blacks, All Blacks XV and All Blacks Under-20s will be promoting fossil fuels every time they play for our nation. Tell the All Blacks there’s no “oil” in “team”, by asking them to remove the fossil fuel logo from their team shirts.
Sunshine is the best medicine: Our power companies are incentivised to keep burning fossil fuels, so to really address the climate emergency, we need the government to act as well. Call on Energy Minister Megan Woods to put solar panels and batteries on 500k homes by 2030 and end oil & gas subsidies!
Make public transport truly public: Help keep the wheels on the bus rolling in an affordable, climate-friendly way by signing the petition to call for removing barriers to community (as opposed to private) ownership of our buses.
💃🏽 If you have 30 minutes to 1 hour: Keep your company company
One of the most impactful things we can do, as people who don’t directly work in the climate action space, is make it clear to our employers that the impact of the business on the climate is an important factor of us working there. This also applies to community groups, student associations, and trade unions. Organisations are only as powerful as the people who work for them, and if their members call for change from within, they are compelled to take action. Here are some steps you can take:
1. Gather information: The Sustainable Business Network has a handy business tool to help you assess how your business might be impacting the climate. Take the assessment (the questions are pretty simple), and it will give you a list of impactful changes that your company can make.
2. Have a chat: Now you have some ideas for impactful changes that your business could make, have a chat with a decision maker about one or two specific changes that your workplace could start with. Remember that assessing the risks of climate change and mitigating its impacts is future-proofing your business - so it’s good for the bottom line too!
3. Join the club: If your company wants to go the extra mile, suggest they join the Sustainable Business Network!
ICYMI
In Case You Missed It is a section on high-impact actions that we’ve already talked about in previous newsletters which are still ongoing. It’s a chance to catch up on quick actions you may have missed out on.
Our inbox is always open! To help us keep these newsletters helpful, you can always reply to us with:
actions you’ve taken
feedback (or use this form)
fun facts, writing, infographics you’ve seen about climate action
That’s all for today, folks 👋🏽Thanks for taking action. We have a bit of a longer fun read for you this week - enjoy this hopeful & inspiring essay from Hothouse Solutions, imagining what the decades to come could look like!
See you next week,
Dhanya, Emily, and Jenny from the Climate Club