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Unitec hosts Forum for the Future on the New Zealand Economy

Award winning business journalist and adjunct Professor at Unitec’s Department of Management and Marketing, Rod Oram will lead a series of panel discussions on the future of the New Zealand economy at Unitec during October.

The three-evening series is the inaugural programme in The Unitec Forum for the Future which has been established to help stimulate discussion about New Zealand’s opportunities and challenges in the global economy.

Rod Oram and his colleagues at Unitec’s Department of Management and Marketing have identified a range of major topics for the Forum. Each topic will be tackled in a series of three 90-minute panel-style discussions bringing together sector leaders, academics, students and the public.

The first series will run October 8, 15 and 22 from 6.30pm- 8.00pm at Unitec’s Mount Albert campus in Auckland. It will examine the National-led government’s goal of having the New Zealand economy catch up with Australia’s by 2025. It has formed a task force, led by Don Brash, the former Reserve Bank Governor and National party leader, to advise it. The Unitec Forum for the Future will stimulate thinking on how the goal can be reached.

The October 8 session will consider the 2025 challenge – how big is the task and how will we do it? The two guest speakers will be Dr Rick Boven, director of the New Zealand Institute, and David Caygill, a member of the 2025 taskforce, chairman of the Electricity Commission and a former Labour cabinet minister.

The October 15 session will consider the Dairy sector’s strategic response; and the October 22 session will explore the Tourism sector’s strategic response.

Associate Professor and Head of Unitec’s Department of Management and Marketing, Robert Davis says, “The Forum is a great opportunity for our students, guests and the live audience to engage in a broader discussion about the role of enterprise in wider New Zealand society.”

“Each programme will be filmed and edited for the web by students from Unitec’s Department of Screen and Performing Arts and made available on the Unitec website and a dedicated blog to allow for wider debate on the issues,” says Davis.

The Unitec Forum for the Future plans to run at least two such programmes a year.

For further information or interviews with Rod Oram or Robert Davis please contact: Andrea Rush on email: andrea@360 connect.co.nz, DDI 09 918-7712 or mobile 021 962 349

Dear Grey Lynn 2030

Nexus Students Sustainability Group invites you to a presentation by and discussion with Dr Robert Howell on Building a Sustainable Economy.

With the current global economic crisis, do we still have the means to be sustainable?

What is a sustainable economy and how do we build one?

Robert is one of five Quaker authors who wrote the book “Right Relationship: Building a Whole Earth Economy”. He will introduce the book and describe and discuss the themes, and the wider context of these with a particular reference to the ethical principles and their implications for economics and human life on earth.

The book deals with the inadequacies of the current economic system, and what is needed to bring it into a right relationship with humans and the earth. The book poses five key questions.

• What is an economy for?
• How does it work?
• How big is too big?
• What is fair?
• How should it be governed?

Robert suggests that the predominant international economic system has no means of describing what the economy is for and where it is today. It is unable to put any boundaries on consumption and waste. It has no means to even think about fairly distributing both benefits and burdens to present and future generations of people and other species. It lacks a system of governance that protects life’s commonwealth.

Creating the global governance will require significant institutional reform. The overall challenge is to establish a global economic system that is grounded in science, operates in accord with the way the earth works, and is grounded in an ethic that does not value the human-Earth relationship simply for human utility. Robert will also relate the book to New Zealand through the recent report by Sustainable Aotearoa New Zealand.

The forum will be 2 hours long where the second hour is provided for audience discussion with Robert on the topic.

When: Wednesday August 5th [6pm - 8pm]

Where: University of Auckland, Engineering Building, Room 3.402

Cost: The Nexus Forum is free for all to attend but we are asking for a gold-coin koha, this will help us continue to bring events like this to the student community and the general public.

If you wisth to attend please RSVP to nexus.sustainability@gmail.com

Kind Regards

Nexus Team

And if you can’t make it, listen to Dr Robert Howell on GreenplantFM

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NEXUS-Reflecting on the state of the world and empowering tomorrow’s leaders

Unprecedented times call for informed leadership. Nexus is a student sustainability group based at the University of Auckland, growing the next generation of change-makers. We provide a platform for the student community to discuss and take action on the issues that matter, and influence the world around them. Crossing a wide range of economic, environmental, social, and cultural issues; we organise public forums and give access to expert knowledge and experience. We support development of young people through partnership with professional networks and institutions.

Grey Lynn 2030 Monthly Meeting

Monday 13th July 7.30
David Clendon is speaking on “Triple Crunch” – the interlinked credit, climate and energy crises.
David is the Northern Regional Manager of the Sustainable Business Council and will speak about Triple Crunch from a New Zealand perspective

If you are new to this complex idea, it is explained well on the New Economics Foundation site.

Some people who now think the recession is not a recession but a permanent change due to oil supplies having peaked. As Yes magazine puts it “Whether it was divine providence or just good luck, we should give thanks that financial collapse hit us before the worst of global warming and peak oil. As challenging as the economic meltdown may be, it lays bare the failure of a financial system that has brought us to the brink of an even more devastating social and environmental collapse”.

Grey Lynn Community Centre

510 Richmond Rd

Please come along with an open mind to explore these ideas.
.

Dear Green Drinks Supporter,

On the 28th of May the Government announced in the 2009 Budget significant cuts to environmental education and sustainability initiatives funded by both the Ministry of Education and the Ministry for the Environment.  The NZAEE Auckland Branch who coordinate Green Drinks believe these funding cuts to be short-sighted in the context of a global shift towards environmental protection and sustainability, and also reckless in these times of recession when education, training and upskilling is vital and community demand for support initiatives is intensifying. As a supporter of Green Drinks, we know that you will care about these funding cuts as well.

The 2009 Budget includes cuts to the following programmes and initiatives:

• The Enviroschools Foundation (who coordinate the Enviroschools programme nationally involving 670 schools)
• Education for Sustainability Advisory Services (EfS Advisors who provide curriculum support for teachers)
• Matauranga Taiao (EfS support for Kura Kaupapa Maori)
• The Environmental Education Guidelines Review Project (technical EE/EfS support for teachers in schools)
• Adult Community Education (provision of community-based life-long learning classes – ie “night schools” – which fund sustainable living skills courses)
• Householder Sustainability Programme “What’s your next step?” (coordinated by the Ministry for the Environment)
• Public Place Recycling Programme (funded by the Ministry for the Environment)
• Govt3 Programme (coordinated by the Ministry for the Environment to deliver leadership in sustainability practices by government agencies)
• The Sustainable Business Network (part-funded by the Ministry for the Environment)

These are small funding cuts in a financial sense, but will impact hundreds of thousands of people across the country, as well as severely compromising New Zealand’s own “Clean and Green – 100% Pure” global brand.  NZAEE think it is simply crazy that a government who supposedly believe “New Zealand’s environment is at the core of our quality of life, our national identity, and our competitive advantage” [National Party 2008 Environment Policy] and who care about business achievement and a knowledge economy, would go ahead and cease funding to programmes and initiatives that would make New Zealand a global leader in sustainability and safeguard continued trade and tourism advantages derived from our natural environment.

We believe it is time to take action and let the government know how we feel

As supporters of Green Drinks we know you and your organisations care about the sustainable future of New Zealand – our people, our businesses, and our environment. It would be fantastic if you would take some action to show how much you really do care.

PLEASE:
1. Distribute this message as soon as possible to anyone you know who believes in a healthy, prosperous and sustainable future for our people and country – family, friends, business leaders, neighbours, community groups, schools – and encourage them to take action.

2. Write a letter or email ASAP urging the government to continue to support these programmes. Please use your own words and make your correspondence positive, focusing on the what our environment and a sustainable NZ means to you, your family, your business, your organisation.

Send copies to the following people:
A. The Prime Minister. RT. Hon John Key, (Freepost Parliament, Private Bag 18 888, Wellington 6160
john.key@parliament.govt.nz)
B. The Minister of Education, Hon. Anne Tolley (Freepost Parliament, Private Bag 18 888, Wellington
6160, anne.tolley@parliament.govt.nz)
C. The Minister for the Environment, Hon. Nick Smith (Freepost Parliament, Private Bag 18 888, Wellington 6160, nick.smith@parliament.govt.nz)

D. Your Local Member of Parliament (Freepost Parliament, Private Bag 18 888, Wellington 6160, firstname.surname@parliament.govt.nz)

E. The BlueGreens – the National Party’s environmental team of MPs (environment@national.org.nz)

3. Write to:
a. Your local paper
b. The New Zealand Herald (short and to the point)

4. Go and visit your local MP to discuss your letter/email. We all know that talking with people one-on-one can be very effective at communicating your message.

Thank you for taking action.
The Green Drinks Team & NZAEE Auckland Branch

Multiple crises — financial,economic and environmental – are
triggering big structural shifts in business, society and politics
around the world. Policymakers and corporates are scrambling
to understand the changes and respond to them in effective and
timely ways. Potentially, some of these shifts could be very beneficial
to New Zealand. If we figure out how to play to them, we could earn
a bigger, more sustainable livingin the world economy. Conversely,
if we chose to ignore them, we’ll be in deep trouble.

Rod Oram has more than 30 years’ experience as an international financial journalist. He has worked in Europe and North America for leading publications such as the Financial Times of London. His FT career spanned 18 years (1979-1997) as an editor and writer based in London and New York. Rod has also traveled extensively in North America, Europe
and Asia.Rod and his family emigrated from the UK to New Zealand in 1997. He is currently acolumnist for the Sunday Star-Times; a regular broadcaster on radio and television; and a frequent public speaker on business and economic issues. He was Editor of the Business Herald section of the New Zealand Herald, 1997-2000. Rod is an Adjunct Professor in Business School at Unitec, Auckland’s technology tertiary institution, and he has contributed to several regional economic development
projects.

At the 2006 Westpac Business & Financial Journalism Awards, Rod won the Reporting on Corporate Responsibility, Sustainability or Community Engagement category.

Penguin recently published Rod’s book about the New Zealand economy, Reinventing Paradise. It’s available in bookstores nationwide in New Zealand

Where Red Lecture Theatre Building 180 – B001 Unitec New Zealand
Entry 4, Carrington Road, Mt Albert, Auckland
When 28 April 2009
Time 6 – 7:30pm (refreshments will follow after the lecture)
Phone +09 815 4321 ext 7044
Email arodgers@unitec.ac.nz