From climate solutions to governance action

Climate change is no longer a peripheral issue for boards. It is reshaping the operating environment in which organisations must survive, adapt and grow through physical disruption, transition pressure, shifting markets and changing expectations.

The task now is to move beyond treating climate as a specialist topic and instead integrate it into core board responsibilities: strategy, risk appetite, investment decisions, capability and accountability.

This governance lens sits at the heart of Kiwis in Climate – Voices for Climate Solutions in Aotearoa New Zealand. The book brings together perspectives from more than 30 New Zealanders across business, community and government. These voices illuminate the choices boards now face: how to stay resilient as climate impacts intensify and how to position for opportunity as the economy transitions.

For many boards, climate first arrived as a risk item – flooding, storms, supply chain fragility, insurance cost and availability, and regulatory uncertainty. Those risks remain real, but climate is increasingly also a strategy question: where will growth come from, what will customers and investors expect, and what investment will be required to remain competitive?

Energy is a clear example. Malcolm Johns, CEO of Genesis Energy, puts the opportunity case plainly: “New Zealand has more opportunity from an energy transition than it has risks. To achieve a market-based transition that not only delivers net zero by 2050 but goes beyond this to deliver a renewable energy platform for the health and wealth of future generations will require our leadership and our population to think and act through an intergenerational lens.”

That intergenerational lens is central to governance. Directors are stewards of long-lived assets and enduring institutions. Capital decisions made today about infrastructure, partnerships, energy systems, products and services shape competitiveness and resilience for decades. Boards therefore need to be confident that management is stress-testing the business model against credible transition pathways.

This is where the financial dimension becomes unavoidable. Climate-aligned decisions can reduce cost and volatility -- for example, through energy efficiency and electrification, and strengthen resilience against physical disruption. For boards, this reframes climate action as prudent financial stewardship, not “doing extra” but governing for durability.

There is also a consistent message across business voices that climate and profitability are not inherently in conflict. Nick Morrison, Director, Go Well Consulting, reflects: “I have spent the past 10 years of my life working with businesses and organisations to help them improve their sustainability performance and play their part in building a new economy for the 21st century: an economic system that is circular, regenerative and inclusive.”

Circular and regenerative approaches are not just communications themes, they can translate into new ways of creating value, including redesigning products and processes, reducing waste and input dependency, strengthening supply resilience and protecting brand trust.

Markets and capital allocation sit close to the board table and the book’s business voices also speak directly to that lever.

Rohan MacMahon, Partner, Climate Venture Capital Fund, and Carl Vink CFInstD, Chief Executive, Whakatupu Foundation, write: “The market has a critical role to play in bringing our climate ambitions to life . . .  we have many world-class innovators and entrepreneurs in Aotearoa. We can live in a more sustainable and climate-positive way, and the fantastic thing is that, if we get it right, in the long term we can be better off financially.”

Boards can unintentionally block progress if hurdle rates and payback periods are misaligned with long-lived risk and opportunity. Equally, boards can unlock progress by clarifying risk appetite, setting expectations for transition planning, and ensuring management has the mandate and capability to act.

Carolyn Mortland, Executive Officer Sustainability, Zespri, captures the lived experience of organisational change: “Some of the most satisfying work I’ve done has also been the hardest. The times when it felt like you were getting nowhere, that no one ‘got it’. But then, a breakthrough. Looking back, these hard-fought wins are what really made the progress that matters.”

This highlights the persistence required to embed climate into strategy and operations.

A final governance theme is agency. Through defining strategy, capital allocation, executive incentives and risk oversight, boards set the tone for how seriously climate considerations are embedded in organisational decision-making.

The responsibility is clear. Climate considerations must be embedded in strategy, capital allocation and risk oversight rather than treated as a parallel workstream. The task is not perfection, but disciplined governance involving asking better questions, insisting on credible transition plans, aligning incentives with long-term outcomes, and ensuring the organisation remains resilient in a changing world.

Kiwis in Climate – Voices for Climate Solutions in Aotearoa New Zealand brings together bold and practical visions for acting on climate, with scientists, politicians, CEOs and citizens demonstrating what is already under way, and what more is required, to mitigate and adapt to climate impacts.

Directors interested in exploring these perspectives further can find details here of the March launch events.