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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:

Air
Atmosphere
Biodiversity
Energy
Freshwater
Household consumption
Land
Oceans
Road transport
Waste

Environmental report cards

Title	PDF	Date released	Domain
Marine areas with legal protection	PDF (2.73 MB)	December 2008	Oceans
Air quality (Particulate Matter – PM₁₀)	PDF (959 KB)	February 2009	Air
Vehicle kilometres travelled by road	PDF (1.2 MB)	March 2009	Road transport
Household consumption expenditure	PDF (745 KB)	April 2009	Household consumption
Greenhouse gases (emissions and removals)		May 2009	Atmosphere
Fresh water quality for swimming		July 2009	Freshwater
River water quality		July 2009	Freshwater
Energy supply and demand	PDF ( 1.5 MB)	July 2009	Energy
Solid waste composition	PDF ( 1.5 MB)	July 2009	Waste
Coastal water quality for swimming		August 2009	Oceans
Fishing activity (fish stocks): snapshot		September 2009	Oceans
Native land cover (protected areas): snapshot		By 30 November	Biodiversity
Soil health: snapshot		By 30 November	Land
Land use: snapshot		By 30 November	Land
Fishing activity (trawling): snapshot		By 31 December	Oceans
Air quality (four pollutants): snapshot		By 31 December	Air

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