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About the Ministry for the Environment

The Ministry is the Government's principal adviser on environmental sustainability and international matters that affect the environment. The environment supports New Zealand’s economy based on natural resources, the health of our people, and our quality of life. At the same time, the health of the environment is affected by the way every New Zealander behaves.

Our vision is for a prosperous New Zealand where a healthy environment enhances social and economic well-being. The Ministry is committed to leading environmental sustainability, which supports social and economic well-being.

The main outcomes we are working towards are:

New Zealand’s air, water, land and built communities are healthy
New Zealand is able to capitalise on its natural environmental advantages
New Zealand’s natural resources are managed effectively and New Zealanders are encouraged to use resources sustainably
Risks to people, the economy and the environment from pollution, contamination and other environmental hazards are minimised.

The role of the Ministry for the Environment is to:

provide leadership on environmental sustainability across central and local government and the community
work in partnership with others in central and local government, business and the community to improve our environment and encourage sustainable practices
fix problems that require central government intervention
measure and report on the health of the environment.

The Ministry was established under the Environment Act (1986). We also have specific functions under the Resource Management Act (1991), Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act (1996), Ozone Layer Protection Act (1996) and Climate Change Response Act (2002).

In addition to our policy advice and implementation activities, we also:

administer government funding for grants under the Sustainable Management Fund
provide Environmental Legal Assistance
administer the Crown Contaminated Sites Remediation Fund
provide funding for the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (EECA) to provide operational and policy outputs in accordance with their functions under the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Act 2000
provide funding for the Environmental Risk Management Authority (ERMA) to make decisions on applications to introduce hazardous substances and new organisms to New Zealand and to monitor the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act 1996
support the operation of the Bioethics Council

Another key element of our activities is helping central government agencies become more sustainable, particularly by improving energy efficiency, reducing waste, and making greater use of environmentally friendly products and services.

In this section, you can find more information about our organisation and the work we do:

Further information about the Ministry and our work programmes is in our Statement of Intent, which sets out the outcomes that the Ministry is working towards, the actions that will be taken to achieve those outcomes, how we will measure progress, and the budgets for the year.