Sustainable Business Policy Summary

Read the full Sustainable Business Policy

Key Principles

• Support and educate businesses to adopt sustainability as a core value

• Create a stable macroeconomic environment and ensure that fiscal policy does not undermine good business practice
• Protect business from outright competition with products and services from countries with poor human and worker rights records and with poor environmental practices
• Encourage public and private investment in sustainable businesses
• Promote public recognition and pride in New Zealand companies
• Support New Zealand's manufacturing base
• Make it easier for businesses to invest in appropriate technology and research
• Make compliance easier, especially for small and medium enterprises

Policy Points

Supporting sustainability

• Make sustainability a key goal of all business support programmes provided through government funded organisations

• Support businesses to adopt sustainable certification programmes
• Require all government owned enterprises to adopt sustainable practices.
• Fund NGOs working to assist operational and behavioural change in businesses, starting with $1 m a year in 2009 and rising to $5m in 2012
• Investigate preferential tax treatment for green technologies, low emission vehicles and other sustainable practices.

Education on Sustainability

• Ensure the Tertiary Education Commission includes sustainable practices in all relevant courses

• Continue and increase funding for professional and business advisory bodies for sustainability education.

Addressing externalisation of costs

• Support trialling industry accords for specific issues, monitoring for effectiveness, refining as necessary and backing up with legislation if required

Investigating Clustering

• Fund urgent research into the environmental/social impacts of clustering

• Improve funding and support delivered through the Ministry of Economic Development by focusing on clustering that increases energy efficiency
• Support locating clusters near transport hubs (rail lines, ports etc).

Protecting businesses from unfair competition

• Strongly support mandatory country of origin labeling for all imported products.

• Promote the value and importance of buying New Zealand made products.
• Support mandatory product insurance for all imported manufactured goods.
• Support mandatory certification of imported goods to show that they comply with minimum New Zealand environmental, safety and health standards

Supporting research and development

• Investigate tax breaks for spending on research and development that meet sustainability criteria in key target sectors including Organics, Information Technology and sustainable energy

• Increase funding to Government research organisations.
• Promote strategies for efficient resource use and replacement of non-renewable resources
• Support research and development of new energy systems, transport systems, housing materials, organic production, information systems and technology.

Finding and keeping the right staff

• Promote life long training and apprenticeships

• Raise the current cap on age and numbers of apprentices,
• Encourage businesses to employ skilled post graduates for research and development
• Support the Employer of Choice programme
• Work with and support local government economic development agencies to further improve coordination of local employment strategies

Support and nurture New Zealand's manufacturing base

• Support the initiatives of manufacturers to work collaboratively to improve and transform the manufacturing sector in New Zealand.

• Ensure the interests of manufacturing are represented at Cabinet with a Minister whose portfolio includes responsibility for this sector.
• Encourage business-to-business local procurement practices.

Supporting small businesses

• Promote simplifying compliance requirements for small businesses

• Introduce an 0800 and online ‘champion’ service for small businesses who are having problems getting answers or dealing with the bureaucracy of government departments
• Explore ways of increasing access to capital for small businesses, including providing tax deductions for investors
• Improve small business awareness of currently available angel investor opportunities
• Increase funding for the Be Your Own Boss scheme so it is available to anyone starting a business for the first time and new migrants

Support for Maori and Pasifika businesses

• Provide ongoing support for Maori and Pasifika service providers

• Ensure that all government information on business compliance is available in Maori and key Pasifika languages.