In an effort to encourage more small businesses to take action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from their activities, The Government of New Zealand, in collaboration with some major companies, has established the Climate Action Toolbox. It is a set of tools that are available for free online. This fund offers small businesses an easy-to-follow mechanism to draw up detailed plans and implement them step by step. It includes guidelines suitable for small businesses in multiple areas such as freight transport and employees, and operations, and product design.
The United Nations emphasizes that climate change is the critical issue of our time. Humanity is now facing a watershed moment. The global impacts of climate change are unprecedented. Starting with changing weather patterns that threaten food production, All the way to rising sea levels that increase the risk of catastrophic flooding. The UN believes that adapting to these impacts will be more difficult and costly in the future if urgent radical action is not taken. In the face of this situation, the participation of small businesses becomes urgent and important in environmental endeavors to mitigate climate change and reduce carbon dioxide emissions.
In this context, The New Zealand government has studied the small business sector and concluded that many small business owners in New Zealand want to act responsibly on environmental challenges and make decisions aimed at reducing the negative impacts of climate change. On this basis, Government agencies deliberated on the matter with a number of major companies, She identified the need to provide a toolkit to help small businesses take the right and green actions. As a result, the government provided small businesses with the Climate Action Toolkit and made it available free of charge online. The fund includes an easy-to-follow mechanism to draw detailed plans that help adopt environmentally friendly options that can be put into practice step by step.
Several public and private sector institutions have joined forces in preparing the Climate Action Toolbox. including the New Zealand Department of Business, Innovation and Employment, Transport Authority, Trade and Enterprise Authority, Energy Efficiency Authority, and a range of private sector partners such as SBN for sustainable business, and Bank of New Zealand (BNZ).
From the practical side, The Climate Action Toolbox advises and supports the adoption of green choices in five key areas: Transportation of employees and workers in the company; transportation of goods; office operations; operations and equipment at work sites; and product design and manufacturing. It includes more than 40 procedures, Including Measures to switch to electric vehicles and shared transportation; reduce non-essential travel and transportation, installation of low-energy lighting; and so on. The Climate Action Toolbox website also includes “case studies” for New Zealand companies. Provide real-life examples of what it is doing to reduce its impact on the climate.
An important example of Medsalv, a single-use medical equipment refurbishment company collected from hospitals, is an important example. Where this company takes equipment that usually ends up in landfill, It cleans, sterilizes and tests them, Then you sell them back to hospitals at a fraction of the original cost. In this way, the company contributes to reducing the amount of waste and reducing the carbon footprint of hospitals, In addition to achieving the cost savings that hospitals usually incur.
Because MedSalv’s mission is to make the health sector more sustainable, It has ensured that its operations are also sustainable, Where she studied her energy consumption patterns, It found that loading medical equipment processing devices entirely results in lower energy consumption. This conclusion prompted it to adjust its operations, Delay the processing of some equipment until the devices are fully loaded as much as possible.
In this way, The Climate Action Toolbox helps small business owners in New Zealand take serious steps towards tackling climate change. Small businesses often face challenges that stand between them and achieving this. For example, many of these companies lack knowledge about the procedures needed to transform their activities into environmentally friendly activities. and to understand the implications that these measures will have on the conduct of their work. That’s why many small business owners may tend to avoid risk or change. Even if some of them have a vision that pushes them towards change, They may not have a clear idea of the ways they have to achieve their vision. Moreover, many small businesses usually do not have the budget or time to act in the way that large companies do.
Initial impressions suggest that small businesses have found the Climate Action Toolkit very useful. She hired him to draw up an environmentally friendly business plan. The joint efforts of the SME sector on climate change are expected to reduce the country’s overall greenhouse gas emissions.
References:
https://www.tools.business.govt.nz/climate/impactarea/2/theme/6
