Sustainability

Waikato Management School's expertise in this field is focused on enabling individuals and organisations to improve the environmental, social and economic impacts of their actions.

We are leveraging our expertise in several areas — including climate change and the circular economy — to have an impact on the responsible management of organisations and the development of responsible employment practices in New Zealand.

Amiomio Aotearoa researchers, including Professor Eva Collins, Professor Les Oxley, Associate Professor Steven Tucker and Dr Zack Dorner, have been in the media regarding the launch of circular economy initiatives for business and the making of building materials from waste saving money and the environment.

Associate Professor Jason Mika was involved in a Business Desk article that discussed how New Zealand's finance and investment sectors are starting to move in a 'greener' direction due to the looming climate crisis. Read Investors need to think green to survive in the sustainable finance space on BusinessDesk Finance.

In the recent strategic partnership between WMS and Cardiff Business School (Wales), Professors Kim Pickering, Les Oxley, Eva Collins and Associate Professor Jason Mika described the research programme of Āmiomio Aotearoa, bringing together Mātauranga Māori and science to address fundamental knowledge gaps through a multidisciplinary and collaborative research programme that builds on existing, and creating new, areas of research excellence in materials science, economics, kaupapa Māori, business, law and regulation, and public policy.

Watch the presentation

Professor Eva Collins recently gave a professorial lecture on the topic 'Will business ever be truly sustainable?'

She discussed how businesses have engaged with sustainability — sometimes effectively, and sometimes with negative results.

Watch Eva's professorial

Guest speaker Professor Janek Ratnatunga, CEO of the Institute of Certified Management Accounts, presented on the topic ‘Green Swan: The existential cost of the plastic pandemic.’

He discussed the 'whole-of-life' costing issues related to plastic production versus plastic consumption.

Watch his seminar

Centering Culture in Public Engagement on Climate Change
The Deep South, National Science Challenge

Co-Principal Investigator: Professor Debashish Munshi (School of Management and Marketing)

This project aims to engage with a wide range of New Zealanders about how we can all better prepare for the future impacts of climate change. This two-year research project will also explore how people's own cultural values shape and influence their adaptation strategies to the new realities of climate change.

A particular focus of the project is on identifying risks climate change poses to the tourism sector and how all those involved with tourism can manage risks to the sector. The project also undertakes significant practical engagement by involving businesses and communities in deliberation on the best ways to address the shared challenges they face with climate change.

Knook, J., Dorner, Z., & Stahlmann-Brown, P. (2022). Priming for individual energy efficiency action crowds out support for national climate change policy. Ecological Economics, 191, 8 pages. doi:10.1016/j.ecolecon.2021.107239

Kurian, P., Munshi, D., Cretney, R., Morrison, S., & Kathlene, L. (2022). The cultural politics of climate change adaptation: an analysis of the tourism sector in Aotearoa New Zealand. Political Science, 73(2), 143-160. doi:10.1080/00323187.2021.2021803

Kariyapperuma, N., & Collins, E. (2021). Family logics and environmental sustainability: A study of the New Zealand wine industry. Business Strategy and the Environment, 30(8), 3626-3650. doi:10.1002/bse.2823

Collins, E. (2021). How collaborative advantage can deliver low carbon solutions.