Climate Action Week Marlborough - 2024

2024 - a year on since launch

Climate Action Week Marlborough has been designed to create awareness, develop our Marlborough business community's knowledge by embracing education, and take action towards creating a low carbon emissions, highly productive, and thriving community, no matter what stage of the journey you are at.

We know that it takes a village to create change, and we are committed to continuing to take action through Climate Action Week in February 2024.

This week long series of events brings together

• A collective of individuals who are passionate about living in a climate positive world
• Businesses who know that it will take a collaborative approach
• Farmers, growers and suppliers that are the heartbeat of our community
• Educators who are excited to share their knowledge  
• Community organisations that are passionate leaders
• And College students who are our next generation of change makers

The weeks activities will host a series of action oriented, hands on, creative learning experiences and immersive activities to engage our Marlborough, New Zealand, business community.

DAY 1

Monday 19th February 2024 -  Financing the Future for Post Growth and Impact

9.15am - 4.30pm

- Collaboration sessions: Working collectively with other people and organisations in the region on Emerging Industries that can create bio-diversity, deep impact and drawdown our communities carbon emissions. These collaboration sessions will not only be fun and interactive but outcome driven to craft meaningful projects and organisations that can thrive in our community.

- Presentation: Behavioural Change - the 5 key principles to taking action, Josh Dry - Cogo (Director of Enterprise Solutions and Partnerships)

- Round table discussions: Lead by various organisations that can support in funding the future, from banks, to philanthropists, to impact investors, government grants, certifications and more and explore various solutions that could support your organisation as we transition to a low carbon emissions economy. 

Some of our round table hosts:

Jennifer Wilkins - Heliocene (Consultant, researcher, advocate for shifting to post growth business)  "Investing in Degrowth"

Ben Taylor - Westpac New Zealand - ESG Advisory

KiwiBank - Sustainable Finance team

Steve Dixon - ANZ (ESG Specialist) alongside one of their local clients

Kylie Matthews - AWWA Period proof underwear brand - Creating financial sustainability with BCorp certification

- Immersion Experience: Pinoli Pinenuts, Wairau Valley

Cawthron Marlborough Environmental Awards - Business Innovation Award Winner 2021 "Creating a business adapted to climate change"

- Speed Dating: Partnering for impact (fuelled by Yealands Estate Wines)

If you take your mind back to the 90's when speed dating was a thing, in this session you will find yourself seated opposite another attendee at Climate Action Week Marlborough and have 5 minutes with each person, before the bell rings and you move on to the next person to connect, build relationships, learn more about each others worlds, passions and values with the ultimate goal of building meaningful partnerships across our business community.

And in the spirit of making environmental and climate discussions fun, it will be fuelled by a glass or two of Yealands Estate Wines.

The day includes a locally curated morning tea, lunch and beverages.

DAY 2

Tuesday 20th February 2024 - Transitioning to a low Carbon Emissions Economy

9.15am - 4.45pm

- A vision for the Future: Big audacious goals for Marlborough to create collective impact and the road map to how we can achieve these goals if we all work together, Catherine van der Meulen

- Collaboration Sessions: Working collectively with other people and organisations in the region on Emerging Industries that can create a regenerative and bio-diverse economy to create deep impact and drawdown our communities carbon emissions. These collaboration sessions will not only be fun and interactive but outcome driven to craft meaningful projects and organisations that can thrive in our community.

- Small business case studies: From carbon calculation to action. Partnering with Cogo (carbon management products that enable individuals and businesses to measure, understand and reduce their impact on the climate) and their integrated app with Xero has supported small businesses across the region to efficiently measure their carbon and begin to work on their reduction plans. We will hear from a number of businesses from across the region who are proactively working to reduce their emissions. 

- Presentation: Jennifer Wilkins, Helicone (Post Growth Consultancy) -  Degrowth by downsizing un environmental production and expanding into systemic change

- Immersion Experience: Yealands Estate Winery, Seddon and their journey to Climate Positive including a showcase of The Green Circle bio-char pilot.

The Green Circle is a waste up-cycling business which takes by-products from primary industry to create valuable products that are returned to the same ecosystem, creating a lower carbon economy.

They will be showcasing their pyrolysis technology to demonstrate how waste streams can be converted to biochar.

- Speed Dating: Partnering for impact (fuelled by Yealands Estate Wines)

If you take your mind back to the 90's when speed dating was a thing, in this session you will find yourself seated opposite another attendee at Climate Action Week Marlborough and have 5 minutes with each person, before the bell rings and you move on to the next person to connect, build relationships, learn more about each others worlds, passions and values with the ultimate goal of building meaningful partnerships across our business community.

And in the spirit of making environmental and climate discussions fun, it will be fuelled by a glass or two of Yealands Estate Wines.

The day includes a locally curated morning tea, lunch and beverages hosted by Herb & Olive (A family owned wholefood cafe in Blenheim)

DAY 3

Wednesday 21st February 2024 - Energising Marlborough's Future

9.15am - 4.45pm

- Presentation: Diverse energy sources impacting the region

- Collaboration Sessions: Working collectively with other people and organisations in the region on Emerging Industries that can create a regenerative and bio-diverse economy to create deep impact and drawdown our communities carbon emissions. These collaboration sessions will not only be fun and interactive but outcome driven to craft meaningful projects and organisations that can thrive in our community.

- Presentation: National Greenhouse Gas Emissions Report and a local lense on Marlborough - Edwin Massey, NZ Wine and SWINZ

- Celebrating local collaboration: Hortus taking action (Alistair Thomsen), and EnviroHub Marlborough (Ailie Suzuki, General Manager)

- Round table discussions: Lead by various organisations that can support the transition to renewable and restorative energy and the conversion of waste to energy.

- Immersion Experience: ThymeBank (Hammerich's Road, Blenheim) 

Thymebank is decarbonising its covered cropping operations as part of a wider commitment to reducing the organisation’s carbon footprint. Thymebank's operating costs fell after switching to from coal to biomass. They no longer had to pay for coal and eliminated their obligation to pay for carbon emissions, with ongoing production costs lower.

Thymebank received co-funding as part of EECA’s Technology Demonstration Fund to help with a low-cost conversion of their existing coal boiler. The investment enabled Thymebank to use an arborist biowaste product (Uncle Joes Walnut and Pinoli Pinenut Shells) to heat their glasshouses – providing a waste to energy solution and removing 102 tCO2e annually

- Speed Dating: Partnering for impact (fuelled by Yealands Estate Wines)

If you take your mind back to the 90's when speed dating was a thing, in this session you will find yourself seated opposite another attendee at Climate Action Week Marlborough and have 5 minutes with each person, before the bell rings and you move on to the next person to connect, build relationships, learn more about each others worlds, passions and values with the ultimate goal of building meaningful partnerships across our business community.

And in the spirit of making environmental and climate discussions fun, it will be fuelled by a glass or two of Yealands Estate Wines.

The day includes a locally curated morning tea, lunch and beverages hosted by Hortus

DAY 4

Thursday 22nd February 2024 - A bio-diverse Marlborough

9.15am - 4.45pm

- Experiential immersion: To visualise a bio-diverse, thriving and productive Marlborough (one where all stakeholders win)

- Collaboration Sessions: Working collectively with other people and organisations in the region on Emerging Industries that can create a regenerative and bio-diverse economy to create deep impact and drawdown our communities carbon emissions. These collaboration sessions will not only be fun and interactive but outcome driven to craft meaningful projects and organisations that can thrive in our community.

- Presentation: Southern Valleys Viticulture - Richard Hunter "Vineyard design and development to work with the land, benefit the soil, vines and farm"

- Dynamic discussion: Climate Karanga Marlborough's Budyong Hill x Future Farmers New Zealand (A Future Vision by connecting to the past and reimaging the future with degrowth at the heart)

- Unpanel: Lead by Graeme Dingle Foundations, Tayla Hayes (Voices of Marlborough's Future Generations) featuring Alex Phelps, Marlborough climate leader

- Presentation: Kate Bromfield, ChemHazel - Less is more with regenerative land practices

- Immersion Experience: Whitehaven Wines, Wairau Valley 

3 foundations of sustainability - People, Performance and Planet

Native tree planting projects, preserving waterways, incorporating bio-diversity for greater resilience, restoring ecosystems and soil health. 

- Speed Dating: Partnering for impact (fuelled by Yealands Estate Wines)

If you take your mind back to the 90's when speed dating was a thing, in this session you will find yourself seated opposite another attendee at Climate Action Week Marlborough and have 5 minutes with each person, before the bell rings and you move on to the next person to connect, build relationships, learn more about each others worlds, passions and values with the ultimate goal of building meaningful partnerships across our business community.

And in the spirit of making environmental and climate discussions fun, it will be fuelled by a glass or two of Yealands Estate Wines.

The day includes a locally curated morning tea, lunch and beverages.

DAY 5

Friday 23rd February 2024 - Activating the Blue Economy 

9.15am - 4.45pm

- Marlborough Sounds Bird Song experience: lead by Picton Dawn Chorus at Victoria Domain

- Collaboration Sessions: Working collectively with other people and organisations in the region on Emerging Industries that can create a regenerative and bio-diverse economy to create deep impact and drawdown our communities carbon emissions. These collaboration sessions will not only be fun and interactive but outcome driven to craft meaningful projects and organisations that can thrive in our community.

- Immersion Experience: Lochmara, Marlborough Sounds & Tory Channel Kelp (to be confirmed in December) 

- Ports of Marlborough: Environmental and Sustainability initiatives at their operational facilities 

- Presentation: Mike Casey - Forest Lodge Orchard and NZ0 - Electrifying New Zealand

- Speed Dating: Partnering for impact (fuelled by Yealands Estate Wines)

If you take your mind back to the 90's when speed dating was a thing, in this session you will find yourself seated opposite another attendee at Climate Action Week Marlborough and have 5 minutes with each person, before the bell rings and you move on to the next person to connect, build relationships, learn more about each others worlds, passions and values with the ultimate goal of building meaningful partnerships across our business community.

And in the spirit of making environmental and climate discussions fun, it will be fuelled by a glass or two of Yealands Estate Wines.

The day includes a locally curated morning tea, lunch and beverages (morning tea supported by Ports of Marlborough and local Picton Eatery & lunch at Lochmara)

Our Collaboration Sessions:

Over the last 12 months, across our in person events we have collectively been working on Project Drawdown Solutions that would impact our regions future in drawing down our carbon emissions by cultivating new industries and economic development.

Project Drawdown Table of Solutions highlights 100 solutions to drawdown carbon emissions and at Climate Action Week Marlborough 2024 we will be taking the ideation of some of these projects to the next level with facilitated design thinking methodology to transform these into local projects working on areas such as Seaweed Farming, Waste to Energy, Tree Intercropping, Net Zero Buildings, Plant Rich diets, Forest Protection, Composting, On shore wind turbines, Bicycle Infrastructure, Bamboo production, Bioplastics, Carpooling, Efficient aviation (The list of opportunities is endless)

Friday 23rd February 2024 - Green Drinks

• Green Drinks Gathering hosted at a local Marlborough venue to celebrate the commitment of our region in driving climate positive actions
• Evening event 5pm - 7pm

We look forward to seeing you in February 2024

A few things to note 

- The Humanitix booking fee will be donated to children's charities such as Manaia Kalani https://www.manaiakalani.org to support closing the education gap in Aotearoa, New Zealand.

You can make an additional donation, to go towards the purchase and community planting of Native Trees in Marlborough. We are working to have this matched by a local organisation, with every tree donated, they will match the commitment.

What to expect at each Immersion Experience

Each of our partner organisations will host an immersion experience in Marlborough. Through a tour of their facilities, you will see, feel, taste, smell and hear about the work they are doing and have done on their journey to create an environmentally and financially viable business that reflects the needs of their consumers, while paying close attention to the footprint they leave on this world and in our communities.

Hosted by the founders and leadership teams, you will get the opportunity to learn and be inspired directly by the leaders in Aotearoa, New Zealand in activating this meaningful work. 

What to expect from the activities each day?

Our Climate Action workshops, collaboration sessions, round table discussions and presentations have been designed to create interactive and meaningful educational experiences to further enable your learning and action oriented journey.

What to expect from our meaningful meals?

Each food experience will be a celebration, showcasing the amazing produce found right here in Marlborough. Each meal will delight & surprise, using locally sourced and produced ingredients. 

Our meals will be a combination of on site experiences or packaged and delivered in lunch boxes.

Who’s behind Climate Action Week?

Founded by Catherine van der Meulen from THINK Business & Entrepreneurial Women with Purpose, Catherine connected with the community of Marlborough to support the initiatives and has quickly developed a tribe of locals who are keen to support and drive the activities, initiatives and awareness in our community.

Steering Committee

Michael Wentworth - Yealands Estate Winery, Heather Donachie - Export Logistics, Edwin Massey - New Zealand Wine Growers, Dr. Kate Averill - Inclusive Sustainable Development, Tom Powell - Climate Karanga Marlborough, Kylie Matthews - AWWA Period underwear and Tayla Hayes - Graeme Dingle Foundation

As we know, it takes a village! And this is no different. As individuals it can often feel overwhelming on where to start, but as a community we can approach it differently to have a greater impact.

Founding Sponsor

Yealands Estate Winery. 

“We are not going to make the collective changes required to address climate change by making people feel guilty.  The way to success is to positively engage people, share and promote positive examples and to work together to tackle key issues.  I am looking forward to working with Catherine and the team to deliver a focussed event to highlight our environmental champions, educate and encourage action across the region.” Michael Wentworth, GM Sustainability and Strategic Projects at Yealands.

Imagination Challenge Partner

KiwiBank are proud to be a B Corp certified company, playing their part in creating an inclusive and sustainable economy where purpose-driven companies create benefits for everyone. 

Supporting Partners

Hortus, Herb & Olive, Ports of Marlborough

Community Partners 

EnviroHub Marlborough, Climate Karanga Marlborough, NZ Wine Growers, New Zealand Sustainable Wine Growing, NZ Land Care Trust, Marine Fisheries Association