Innovation as Action

Science clearly shows that the global economy must achieve dramatic reductions in greenhouse gas emissions to avoid the worst impacts of climate change.

“We have hugely important challenges before us. We need to do things differently, and we’re excited to see how society can innovate to meet these challenges – be it a process, a way of working or a product.

We use our data, evidence, insights and relationships to help guide innovation to achieve impact where it’s needed most, as we all work to reset a new, more sustainable normal,” says Anna Ririnui, Manager Strategic Partnerships.

Historically innovation has not always considered the environment. New products and systems have been developed without considering how they can reduce waste by designing it out of their products in the first place. We have the opportunity to help shape future innovations by designing out waste from the start and creating low emissions solutions.

The Ministry for the Environment supports innovation by providing access to subject matter expertise, and contestable funding including our Waste Minimisation and Community Environment Funds to help projects happen on the ground.

In 2021, MfE is supporting several climate innovation initiatives including:

• Climathon – a 24-hour hackathon hosted at Victoria University to develop climate focused solutions. The March 2021 event led to developing five new businesses with meaningful and scalable opportunities. “Everything no matter how small or how big needs to be progressing toward the good, because we are in a pretty dire spot right now and it’s going to take everyone to make every change they can to get there,” says Bobby Lloyd, Founder of Reusabowl and Climathon Organiser.
• CreativeHQ’s Climate Response Accelerator – a 12-week programme to help entrepreneurs solve some of our planet’s most urgent challenges. “The main problem is we’ve been doing things the same way for too long and it’s not working for our people and our planet. We need to think differently, bring new technology to play, change up the business models, change the way we interact with the planet and we aren’t going to get there without innovation,” says Luke Ball, GM Start Ups CreativeHQ.

Ministry for the Environment is also actively involved with partners to drive change in environmental innovation. To learn more and see how you can take climate action through innovation, visit the websites below.

• Callaghan Innovation – for Research and Development Grant Funding and information on innovation in New Zealand and overseas
• CreativeHQ – for events and opportunities to learn more about environmental innovation
• Edmund Hillary Fellowship – for live sessions to connect with EHF Fellows creating positive change from Aotearoa New Zealand, across a variety of impact areas.