Simon Upton urges cross-party consensus on New Zealand environmental goals
Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment Simon Upton is calling for cross-party consensus on the country's overarching environmental goals.
It's not only the rural sector coming under pressure to clean up its environmental footprint.
Also busy at it is the tyre manufacturer Trelleborg, working on its factories to meet the challenges of climate change.
For example, it is completely re-engineering its Sri Lanka factory’s steam raising plant by installing an advanced biomass boiler. Steam is essential in tyre curing, but the traditional oil-fired boiler burns 3.5 million litres of oil annually and emits 11,000 tonnes of CO2 equivalents.
Trelleborg’s biomass-fired boiler will cut the plant’s CO2 emission to 1000t of CO2 . It will be commissioned next month.
The plant near Colombo employs 850 people and makes solid tyres for the materials handling and port industries, and pneumatic tyres for light farming applications.
Biomass for the boiler will be supplied by local producers, so shortening the supply line, further reducing the carbon footprint and supporting the local economy.
The work is an aspect of Trelleborg’s Blue Dimension approach to sustainability, combining environmental benefits with benefits for the customers such as higher efficiency and productivity.
BNZ says it is backing aspiring dairy farmers through an innovative new initiative that helps make the first step to farm ownership or sharemilking a little easier.
LIC chief executive David Chin says meeting the revised methane reduction targets will rely on practical science, smart technology, and genuine collaboration across the sector.
Lincoln University Dairy Farm will be tweaking some management practices after an animal welfare complaint laid in mid-August, despite the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) investigation into the complaint finding no cause for action.
A large slice of the $3.2 billion proposed capital return for Fonterra farmer shareholders could end up with the banks.
Opening a new $3 million methane research barn in Waikato this month, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay called on the dairy sector to “go as fast as you can and prove the concepts”.
New Zealand’s trade with the European Union has jumped $2 billion since a free trade deal entered into force in May last year.