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Environmental Reporting

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• Atmosphere
• Biodiversity
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Environmental report cards

What are environmental report cards?

In 2007, the Ministry for the Environment produced Environment New Zealand 2007, the country’s second ‘state of the environment’ report. These reports are due out every 5 years. To ensure high-quality environmental information is available in the interim, the Ministry is producing a series of update reports, known as national environmental report cards. These web-based reports are designed for a wide readership, and will be published on a regular basis (in some cases, annually) as new data becomes available.

There are two types of environmental report cards: ‘snapshot’ report cards and comprehensive report cards. Snapshot report cards provide brief, high level information to people who make decisions on natural resource use and management, while comprehensive report cards provide more detailed analysis and information. Further information on all indicators is available on the Ministry’s environmental reporting web pages.

The report cards are grouped according to ten ‘domains’, which correspond to chapters within Environment New Zealand 2007:

1. Air
2. Atmosphere
3. Biodiversity
4. Energy
5. Freshwater
6. Household consumption
7. Land
8. Oceans
9. Road transport
10. Waste

Environmental report cards

For more information on forthcoming report cards and other reporting products from the Ministry's national environmental reporting programme

Symbols used in the environmental report cards

The independent review of the Environment New Zealand 2007 report showed that readers expect a clear signal as to how the New Zealand environment measures up internationally, and how things are changing over time. It is common practice to use symbols to provide this sort of high-level information: other Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries and regional councils in New Zealand commonly use symbols in their environmental reporting. Other national indicator reporting programmes use symbols in a similar way (e.g. the Ministry of Social Development uses them in its annual Social Report).

It is important to note that, where New Zealand compares favourably to other countries, it does not necessarily mean that the environment is meeting the standard to which New Zealanders aspire. The report cards also use symbols solely from an environmental perspective. Impacts on social and economic well-being are not considered in assigning symbols.

The following symbols are used in the Ministry’s report cards to assess the comparative state of New Zealand’s environment:

	is used where New Zealand performs well against national or international benchmarks
	is used where New Zealand performs averagely against national or international benchmarks, or where New Zealand’s performance is mixed
	is used where New Zealand performs poorly against national or international benchmarks
	is used where no benchmark is available

The following terms are used to illustrate whether the environment - or the pressures on it - is getting better or worse:

• Getting better

• Mixed or Little or no change

• Getting worse

• — is used in cases where there is not enough data to determine a trend.

Last updated: 10 August 2011