Impact Snapshot
March 2023
In this March Impact Snapshot, read about EHF Fellows in action creating environmental, social and economic impact.
Fellows in action 🎬
Camden Howitt won the New Zealand Environmental Hero of the Year Te Toa Taiao o te Tau award at the Kiwibank New Zealander of the Year Awards.
Camden is the co-founder of national charity Sustainable Coastlines, is on PwC’s Sustainability and Climate Change team, and is a member of the Aotearoa Plastic Pollution Alliance. He has dedicated more than a decade to designing and delivering community environmental programmes to protect and regenerate te taiao (nature) around Aotearoa and the South Pacific. Since 2009, Sustainable Coastlines has picked up over 1.7m litres of rubbish from coastlines, planted over 330,000 trees alongside waterways, and has inspired nearly a quarter of a million school students through their educational work.
Joanne McEachen has been announced as one of the new members of the KEA World Class New Zealand Network recognising inspiring global Kiwis who lead and shape industries, raise New Zealand’s profile on the world stage and give back to the communities in which they live and work. Joanne is the CEO/Founder of The Learner First and has created opportunities for learners, educators, and communities to learn who they are, how they fit into the world, and how they can contribute their gifts to humanity.
Alex Lee and Dan Shanan have been awarded a $100,000 funding boost for Doc Edge Festival through the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment’s (MBIE) Major Events Incubator. Doc Edge Festival 2024 was only 1 of 4 events selected for incubation to become a major event based on the potential to become a major event in Aotearoa and globally, recognising the economic impact and benefits the festival brings to the country.
The Doc Edge Festival and Forum will run from 24 May to 9 July at locations around the country, with a diverse range of films that explore topics such as social justice, environmental challenges, human rights, arts, and much more.
Daniel Price and Philipp Sueltrop are working together on the Kea Aerospace project testing Aotearoa NZ’s first zero-emissions, solar-powered stratospheric aircraft, as reported by TV One News. The aircraft can capture data intelligence from high above extreme weather events, producing high resolution imagery to enable environmental monitoring, precision agriculture, and disaster management. Their cutting-edge work is contributing to a burgeoning, high-value aerospace industry in Canterbury and Aotearoa, creating jobs and opportunities for the region and the country.
Sasha Lockley officially launched Money Sweetspot in Kirikiriroa (Hamilton) on Friday 24 March.
Since opening the doors to the pilot on 14 December 2022, she has supported 176 families with $4.1m of debt, with additional support and connection. She has also provided 55 families with financial reset debt consolidation loans at a lower interest rate, saving an estimated $500k for those families.
Sasha was connected with BNZ a few years ago during an EHF & BNZ hui (meeting) about finding a digital pathway out of high cost debt. From that hui, Sasha worked with BNZ to gain $5m of funding for Money Sweetspot to lend to Kiwis.
Cameron Smith launched Take2 Elevate on Tuesday 28 March, with Fellow, Co-founder of the Institute for Climate and Peace and Consultant at the Obama Foundation, Maya Soetoro speaking as the keynote speaker at the event.
Take2 is an already successful charity training prisoners and recently released individuals how to code. The addition of social enterprise, Take2 Elevate is a paid apprenticeship whereby Take2 can level the playing field for formerly incarcerated individuals to kickstart their careers and increase diversity within the tech industry.
Maya Soretoro has also offered to run self-care workshops with participants, something that’s a new concept for most of Take2’s students.
Bruce Tizes and Jeremy Johnson from Andela, a global marketplace for technologists to find meaningful work and for clients to find expert talent, have acquired fellow Fellow Nathan Doctor’s two software systems, Qualified.io and Codewars. Qualified.io, as the top technical assessment platform, which raises the probability of success for a new hire by certifying their skills before the engagement begins. Codewars is a community of 3.6 million engineers who complete challenges, test their skills, and enhance their coding practice on a peer-to-peer platform.
Matthew Shribman (AimHi Earth) spoke at the systems change event How to join the climate and sustainability leaders in Ōtautahi/Christchurch, to share how AimHi Earth supports businesses to take action on climate and sustainability through their team training programme, which they have delivered across multiple sectors.
Matthew has joined forces withJoanne McEachen and Sarah Grant (Kia Kotahi Ako), with support from NEXT Foundation and many others, to provide an interactive online Climate 101 Masterclass for Aotearoa on Wednesday 5 April. The session is especially for organisations in Aotearoa NZ looking to become climate and sustainability leaders.
Photo 📸 by Steven Moe
In the wake of the devastation to the Tolaga Bay area from Cyclone Gabrielle, Chris Jansen and the Leadership Lab are supporting Lily Stender and the Tolaga Bay Innovation by mobilising Leadership Lab’s network to help with the situation through immediate financial and other longer-term means.
Since arriving in Aotearoa mid-March, Thabiso Mashaba has been based in Tolaga Bay to lend a hand to the recovery efforts, grassroots community empowerment, and technological development initiatives by collaborating with Lily, her team and the Mana Taiao Tairāwhiti Group, through his These Hands Global, Social and Sustainable Enterprise.
Lily,her Tolaga Bay Innovation team and the Mana Taiao Tairāwhiti Group, have identified a number of challenges, outlined as short, medium and long term opportunities for intervention in Tolaga Bay and the entire Tairāwhiti region. These challenges and opportunities are a starting point for offers of support from anyone who might be interested in getting involved.
Rod Oram embarked on a 10-part series for Newsroom titled The Way Forward: Creating a climate compatible future, in which he looks at big new ideas that can lead Aotearoa NZ’s response to climate innovation.
To date, five parts have been released:
Part One: ‘Urban Form’ tells the story of intensification in Onehunga and the restoration of Te Auaunga (Oakley Creek).
Part Two: ‘Transport’, looks at how Aotearoa NZ can encourage shifts in transport modes, and the benefits we will gain.
Part Three: ‘Our electric future’, explores the transformation under way in our electricity sector. The story also showcases Homai primary students’ solar project work, undertaken through Kia Kotahi Ako, a Fellow-led initiative to incubate and activate education initiatives, in order to create systems-level change across climate, wellbeing and health, through learning and education.
Part Four: ‘Farming: the next steps’, explores examples of regenerative agriculture occurring in Aotearoa.
Part Five: ‘Trees: our ultimate renewal resource’, investigates how Scion, the Crown research institute for forestry, has repurposed its whole strategy around circular bioeconomy principles and opportunities.
Founder and Director of Narrative Campaigns, and Co-founder of Project Gender, Erin Jackson wrote about what can be done when gendered financial crises overlaps with disaster in an op-ed for the Sunday Star Times Through her Project Gender campaigns and thought-provoking pieces like this one, Erin is bringing attention to gender equity issues using research insights, to help businesses, policy-makers and organisations make better decisions about the communities they serve.
Steven Moe has published an article for The Spinoff about greenwashing and impact investing developments in Aotearoa. Steven shares how the regulator of Australian Companies, AISC, has made allegations of misleading sustainability statements by a superannuation company and considers whether the FMA in NZ might follow suit. Steven shares his thought leadership around emerging trends on corporate responsibility in the sustainability space and the consumer and regulatory expectations of companies to make credible statements about investments.
Emeline Paat-Dahlstrom and Eric Dahlstrom, founders of SpaceBase, and Team Project Chairs to the International Space University’s Southern Hemisphere Space Studies Program (SHSSP23), have released the online versions of two Team Project reports:
‘So, you want to build a space ecosystem?: a guide to growing a space innovative ecosystem’
‘Journey to the Moon: technological and legal perspectives for sustainable human presence’.
These white papers provide examples and recommendations to help guide and inform decision-making and discussion as our global space sector undergoes a major transformation.
Dr Bo Hendgen, Founder and CEO of Absolute Essentials (‘AE’), has released the organisation’s first sustainability report, outlining their journey from 1988 to becoming one of the most trusted and sustainable brands in Aotearoa. All aspects of sustainability have been at the heart of AE’s purpose, values, and operations. Creating this report has been a way for AE to see how far they have come and help set goals for the future.
*Images have been provided by Fellows or sourced from the Internet. EHF does not claim to own the images.