Sector Guidance
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About
The Sustainable Agriculture Finance Initiative SAFI was established by The Aotearoa Circle in 2021 to accelerate further investment and support for sustainable agriculture in Aotearoa New Zealand.
The initiative was led by a Steering Group made up of major banks in Aotearoa New Zealand – ANZ, ASB, BNZ, Westpac, and Rabobank – along with the Ministry for Primary Industries, with secretariat services provided by EY.
The Steering Group worked to develop guidance for sustainable agriculture finance that takes note of emerging international frameworks as well as existing good farming practice standards used by Aotearoa New Zealand growers and farmers.
In July 2021, the Phase One SAFI Guidance was released by The Aotearoa Circle. Going forward, Centre for Sustainable Finance: Toitū Tahua is collaborating with MPI to ensure its’ further development:
The SAFI guidance is a living document that is open-source and voluntary. It provides guidance on sustainable agriculture risks and opportunities and can be used to improve understanding of domestic and international best practice and different types of sustainable agriculture solutions. This includes practices to reduce emissions, improve long-term resilience and deliver more sustainable outcomes in terms of water, waste, pollution and ecosystems.
The SAFI guidance is intended to support a consistent framework, from the finance sector, for integrating sustainability considerations into funding for New Zealand’s agricultural sector.
What does it cover?
The Phase One SAFI Guidance covers the following environmental and social sustainability aspects:
Climate change mitigation
Climate change adaptation
Sustainable use and protection of water
Circular economy, waste prevention and recycling
Pollution prevention and control
Healthy ecosystem
Labour rights
Animal health and welfare
Health and safety
The SAFI guidance covers on-farm operations (behind the farm-gate). It takes note of existing domestic standards and frameworks already used by large numbers of farmers and growers, including He Waka Eke Noa, and has been reviewed by key industry stakeholders across the dairy, arable, horticulture and red meat sectors.
It also takes note of international frameworks as a starting point, including the EU Taxonomy, where a farm is required to meet minimum practices (based on the principle of Do No Significant Harm – DNSH) for each environmental aspect, comply with social safeguards and make a substantial contribution to climate change mitigation or adaptation.
SAFI Data Project Findings Paper
Since the launch of the SAFI Guidance in July 2021, the SAFI steering group has identified data, especially climate data, as being a key enabler for the successful implementation of SAFI and improved understanding of climate-related risks. In January 2022, Toitū Tahua launched an agriculture data project which involved interviewing banks, farmers, and data and technology solution providers to identify data needs, availability and access issues.
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About
Updated May 2023.
The construction and operation of buildings is responsible for around 20% of our domestic emissions. The role of green finance in supporting the building and construction sector to meet Aotearoa New Zealand's targets for 2030 and 2050, and in doing so decarbonising our homes and buildings cannot be underestimated.
The Green Bond Principles are quite broad in terms of defining "Green Buildings". For this reason, NZGBC has set out their view on green building certifications that can drive down carbon emissions towards the targets set by the Paris Agreement, COP26 and beyond.
Green building certifications support the measurement, reporting and tracking of a building's performance setting baselines, designing roadmaps for improvements, and supporting disclosure of climate related risks and environmental impacts. They also evidence the meeting of sustainable development goals and improving resilience to climate change.
Find out more here.
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About
A report to provide guidelines for investors on the principles of impact investing in the Aotearoa NZ context. This is a collaboration between the Impact Investing Network, Centre for Sustainable Finance: Toitū Tahua and PwC.
New guidelines will help counter skepticism in a small but growing area of investing called ‘impact investing’. The guidelines are also expected to help mainstream funds meet rising expectations for investments to have positive effects on communities, climate and the environment.
The voluntary guidance is the first industry-led definition of impact investing in this country. It gives a working definition of impact investing as “investments made with the intention to generate positive, measurable social, cultural, or environmental impact alongside a financial return”, and outlines eight guiding principles.
The definition largely follows the accepted international one, developed by the Global Impact Investing Network, adding ‘cultural’ to recognise the relationship with mana whenua and Te Tiriti o Waitangi.
Download the full report here.
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About
In collaboration with an industry-led drafting committee, the Responsible Investment Association Australasia (RIAA) and key regulators, the Centre supported the development of a principles-based Stewardship Code for the New Zealand investor sector.
Launched in September 2022, the Stewardship Code is being housed by a secretariat jointly managed by the Centre and RIAA.
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About
An informative guide designed for philanthropic organisations interested in exploring climate investments within Aotearoa New Zealand. Key considerations include:
Expected climate impact
Potential returns
Mitigation vs adaptation focus
Investment vs. granting
Equity or debt
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About
The implications of climate change and the resulting need to transition to a low-carbon economy is a major force shaping Private Markets. Investors, including Private Equity firms and other alternative asset managers, are seeing climate-related factors increasingly affecting the financial performance of portfolio companies’ and funds’ returns. At the same time, shareholders, regulators and the public are calling for increased incorporation of, and transparency on, emissions considerations in investment decisions.
Private Markets’ response to this trend reflect the wide range of investment models in the industry. Some firms are taking bold and highly visible steps, such as committing to align to net zero across their portfolio(s) by 2050 or sooner. Others are focused on building asset-specific competencies that will enable decarbonisation at their portfolio companies. Regardless of approach, there are challenges that all Private Markets investors face: data scarcity, unclear pathways to net zero and increasing polarisation on taking into account decarbonisation when making investment decisions. Regardless of model, these challenges inhibit action.
To enable Private Markets firms to drive a transition to a low-carbon economy, Initiative Climat International (iCI) and the Sustainable Markets Initiative’s Private Equity Task Force have developed the Private Markets Decarbonisation Roadmap.
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Overview
The aim of the SEDG is to provide practical, structured guidance on disclosures expected of small-to-medium enterprise (SMEs) within the supply chains, in relation to environment, social and governance (ESG) matters.
The SEDG is aligned with the main global frameworks and reporting standards as well as reference to local reporting requirements. The Guide consists of disclosures that are most commonly required for a company to portray its ESG standing.
About
The SEDG is a guide to help your company decide what Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) disclosures to track and report. It seeks to provide a simple and standard way for Malaysian SMEs in supply chains to disclose on ESG.
The SEDG covers indicators that can be tracked and disclosed to measure ESG progress, as well as provide for different levels of adoption. The guidance structure of the disclosures consists of most referenced topics in ESG disclosures. The Guide provides the metrics needed to track progression in each 15 topics and identifies 35 disclosures in selected standards that correlate to chosen disclosures. The SEDG also offers additional guidance to provide SMEs additional information to further guide on the requirements of the disclosure.
The Objectives
The objective of this Guide is to support SMEs in their adoption of Sustainability by providing guidance on the data requirements of their journey. This serves various purposes including – to achieve the SMEs own goal of adopting ESG to be competitive and relevant, to respond to requests from stakeholders, and to qualify for incentives provided to companies with enhanced ESG disclosures.
It provides SMEs (as the data preparers) with a simple and standard set of disclosures to track and report.
It provides stakeholders (as the data requesters) with a simple and standard set of disclosures to ask for.
It provides standard-setters with a simple and standard set of disclosures to support their policies.
You can download the Simplified ESG Disclosure Guide (SEDG) and supplementary information here.