Kia ora koutou, 

We hope this finds you well.  

We know it’s a very challenging time for many businesses now, so we sincerely hope you are managing to look after yourself and those dearest to you. 

I often say to those in my friend group and family, “It takes a village”. This is usually in reference to raising a child, which I truly believe. Although most of the responsibility lies with the parents, it can’t be left to them alone. Friends, family, and the wider community all have a critical role to play. 

I believe the same goes for our businesses.  

Yes, the business owners and leaders are mostly responsible for a business’s success, evolving it for the sustainable future, and navigating it through challenging economic times, but all stakeholders have a part to play.  

The more collaboration and support we have within, and amongst businesses during challenging times, the faster we will get to a circular, regenerative and inclusive economy. 

Don’t ever forget our economic system has been created by people, so it needs to be redesigned by people too.  

Yes, we need governments to show leadership and develop legislation that facilitates the required changes, but businesses can still do a lot without that leadership.  

There is no doubt that the focus on sustainability/ESG has dropped off for many businesses. I don’t think that’s because it’s necessarily seen as any less important (although it undoubtedly still is by some) but more so because businesses are a) having to cut any costs they can, and b) they don’t have the headspace to work thought what doing business differently looks like or thinking long term. 

Sadly, the environment and our climate don’t care about the state of our economy, or the financial challenges businesses are facing. Our planet isn’t waiting for us to get through this downturn, it just keeps on doing what it does as physics, biology, and chemistry predicts.  

So, our big, complex, shared challenges around climate change, biodiversity loss, air pollution, plastics in our food, rising inequality, mental health, depleting resources, and the rest must still be solved.  

And the best way to solve these big, complex, shared challenges is to work on them together. To collaborate.  

As businesses budgets are stretched, they must re-evaluate how they keep evolving for the sustainable future. Working with other businesses is a great opportunity, to not only save on costs, but to bring more ideas and diversity of thinking and capability to the solutions table. By leveraging off each other’s knowledge, experience, and capabilities, businesses can work with customers, suppliers, or even industry peers to decrease their emissions, design out waste and pollution, take responsibility for the products they produce and ensure the health and wellbeing of their people and their community.  

The ‘cohort approach’ to developing a sustainability strategy, mapping and reducing emissions, or developing a repairs programme for example, is an approach that is becoming more attractive and sensible to many. In essence, a group of businesses with a shared challenge, or desired outcome share the costs of the facilitation and subject matter experts and go through the process together. Agreements of engagement can be signed to temper any concerns relating to intellectual property, or the sharing of confidential information.  

If this is an approach to improving your sustainability performance that you would be interested in, please get in touch.  

Speaking again of the need for government leadership, we will soon have one of the biggest opportunities to stride towards a circular economy that Aotearoa has seen since the container deposit scheme was cancelled. A decision by former Prime Minister Chirs Hipkins that still infuriates me to this day. 

 
I am of course referring to the Consumer Guarantees (Right to Repair) Amendment Bill.  
 
For decades businesses have designed products to break, or to not be repairable, forcing their customers to repurchase. A design concept known as “planned obsolescence”. I don’t need to explain to you the impact this has on resource use and extraction, or waste and pollution.  

It’s true “they don’t make things like they used to”. Why do so many people accept that?  

There have been many within New Zealand campaigning for a law change and culture change for decades. Consumer have been holding this baton for us with campaigns, petitions, surveys and providing repair information.  

Meanwhile not-for-profits Repair Cafe Aotearoa New Zealand, Repair Network Aotearoa New Zealand, Zero Waste Network, and Doughnut Economics Advocates New Zealand (DEANZ) have been doing the mahi to connect skilled repairers with people needing their services.  

Needless to say, we are huge supporters of the repair movement and the introduction of legislation that would make it easier (and normal) for products to be repaired. It would be a giant leap forward in the transition to a circular economy.  

We have explained our position on the Right To Repair Bill in more detail here, but in short, we call on all those businesses that have made a commitment to become sustainable, help achieve a circular economy, or to become net-zero, to support this Bill, as loudly and empathically as you possibly can.  

In summary, please keep supporting each other during these challenging economic times and please keep demanding and working towards a better future for all.  

It takes a village. 

Nick and the team at Go Well Consulting. 

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