Skip to main content.

The Ministry's environmentally responsible business initiatives

The Ministry for the Environment is taking a partnership role in promoting sustainable business practices.

Some of the key sustainable industry initiatives the Ministry is working with industry on are:

Fonterra Eco-Efficiency

We are partnering with New Zealand’s leading dairy exporter, Fonterra, on the implementation of an eco-efficiency project. The project covers all of Fonterra’s factories, warehouses and offices. It will involve working with Fonterra to identify eco-efficiency gains.

Current work focuses on solid waste to identify and promote:

  • good practice
  • economies of scale
  • key regional opportunities.

For more information please phone 0800 499 700 or email eco-efficiency@mfe.govt.nz.

Note:
The Ministry and Fonterra are also signatories of the Dairying and Clean Streams Accord. For more information, see Dairying.

Greening the Screen

Greening the Screen is a practical environmental toolkit which provides the tools for everyone working in the New Zealand screen industry to contribute to 'greener' film and TV productions.

Developed by the Ministry for the Environment, Landcare Research, South Pacific Pictures, Waitakere City Council and the Screen Development and Production Council, the toolkit gives the screen industry tips on how to reduce the environmental impacts of screen productions.

For more information, visit the Greening the Screen website or read the Greening the Screen brochure.

New Zealand Waste Strategy

The 2002 New Zealand Waste Strategy was revised in 2010 with the Ministry for the environment involving industy, community groups and individual as participants. Important developments in the revised strategy include:

  • adoption of strategy targets by a large number of local authorities, and/or expanding their own waste management and minimisation services such as providing more curbside recycling
  • a project to reduce the volume of construction and demolition waste

You can learn more about the waste strategy by reading the full strategy document.

For more information about waste in New Zealand, see the Waste issue page.

Product Stewardship

Product stewardship is a ‘cradle to grave’ tool that helps reduce the environmental impact of manufactured products.  The purpose of product stewardship as set out in the waste Minimisation Act 2008 is to encourage (and in certain situations require) people and organisations involved in the life of a product to share responsibility for :

    • ensuring effective reduction, resue, recycling or recovery of products
    • managing environmental harm arising from the product when it becomes waste

    When a product stewardship scheme is introduced anyone involved in the product life cycle such as producers, brand owners, importers, retailers and consumers accept the responsibility for its environmental effects.

    Product stewardship is a flexible approach that enables the best means of minimising the environmental risks of a product to be considered at the most appropriate stage of its lifecycle. Mitigating the environmental effects a product can have throughout its lifecycle can mean resources are used more efficiently and responsibly and the product’s end of life impacts are minimised.

    See the Product Stewardship page to learn more about how the Ministry is encouraging product stewardship, what types of product stewardship schemes there are in New Zealand, and to find out more about product stewardship.

    Special Wastes

    We are working with several sectors like the tyre and oil industries to investigate options for recovering, reusing or safe disposal of a number of products that are particularly difficult to manage at the disposal or recycling stage. Products we are focusing on include used oil, end-of-life tyres and agrichemicals.

    For more information, see the Special Wastes page.

    Sustainable tourism

    We are working with six regions in New Zealand on the Sustainable Tourism project, assisting them to incorporate sustainable business practices into their operations. To learn more, see Sustainable tourism.

    Last updated: 12 October 2010