Read the full Sustainable Business Policy
Smart sustainable business delivers real prosperity for everyone.
By supporting New Zealand's small business and manufacturing industries we can create jobs that are good for the environment and good for people.
Through educating businesses to adopt sustainability as a core value we can create a more prosperous and equal society.
Business is not just about profit but about people too.
Key Principles
- Support and educate businesses to adopt sustainability as a core value
- Create a stable macroeconomic environment and ensure that fiscal policy does not undermine good business practice
- Protect business from outright competition with products and services from countries with poor human and worker rights records and with poor environmental practices
- Encourage public and private investment in sustainable businesses
- Promote public recognition and pride in New Zealand companies
- Support New Zealand's manufacturing base
- Make it easier for businesses to invest in appropriate technology and research
- Make compliance easier, especially for small and medium enterprises
Policy Points
Supporting sustainability
- Make sustainability a key goal of all business support programmes provided through government funded organisations
- Support businesses to adopt sustainable certification programmes
- Require all government owned enterprises to adopt sustainable practices
- Fund NGOs working to assist operational and behavioural change in businesses, starting with $1 m a year in 2009 and rising to $5m in 2012
- Investigate preferential tax treatment for green technologies, low emission vehicles and other sustainable practices
Education on sustainability
- Ensure the Tertiary Education Commission includes sustainable practices in all relevant courses
- Continue and increase funding for professional and business advisory bodies for sustainability education
Addressing externalisation of costs
- Support trialling industry accords for specific issues, monitoring for effectiveness, refining as necessary and backing up with legislation if required
Investigating clustering
- Fund urgent research into the environmental/social impacts of clustering
- Improve funding and support delivered through the Ministry of Economic Development by focusing on clustering that increases energy efficiency
- Support locating clusters near transport hubs (rail lines, ports etc).
Protecting businesses from unfair competition
- Strongly support mandatory country of origin labeling for all imported products
- Promote the value and importance of buying New Zealand made products
- Support mandatory product insurance for all imported manufactured goods
- Support mandatory certification of imported goods to show that they comply with minimum New Zealand environmental, safety and health standards
Supporting research and development
- Investigate tax breaks for spending on research and development that meet sustainability criteria in key target sectors including organics, information technology and sustainable energy
- Increase funding to government research organisations.
- Promote strategies for efficient resource use and replacement of non-renewable resources
- Support research and development of new energy systems, transport systems, housing materials, organic production, information systems and technology
Finding and keeping the right staff
- Promote life long training and apprenticeships
- Raise the current cap on age and numbers of apprentices
- Encourage businesses to employ skilled post graduates for research and development
- Support the Employer of Choice programme
- Work with and support local government economic development agencies to further improve coordination of local employment strategies
Support and nurture New Zealand's manufacturing base
- Support the initiatives of manufacturers to work collaboratively to improve and transform the manufacturing sector in New Zealand
- Ensure the interests of manufacturing are represented at Cabinet with a Minister whose portfolio includes responsibility for this sector
- Encourage business-to-business local procurement practices
Supporting small businesses
- Promote simplifying compliance requirements for small businesses
- Introduce an 0800 and online 'champion' service for small businesses who are having problems getting answers or dealing with the bureaucracy of government departments
- Explore ways of increasing access to capital for small businesses, including providing tax deductions for investors
- Improve small business awareness of currently available angel investor opportunities
- Increase funding for the Be Your Own Boss scheme so it is available to anyone starting a business for the first time and new migrants
Support for Maori and Pasifika businesses
- Provide ongoing support for Maori and Pasifika service providers
- Ensure that all government information on business compliance is available in Maori and key Pasifika languages
