In terms of the sustainability challenges we are facing, some would argue that the advertising industry has played a big part in getting us into this mess, through it’s role in promoting materialism and ego-driven consumption. (Clive Hamilton is a particularly strong advocate of this position).

Here at the Invercargill TOP 10 Holiday Park, we are proud members of the Southland Sustainable Business Network and enjoy reading the regular newsletters sent to members. However, I still feel we are at times inclined to be price driven rather than always looking at the sustainability issues when we do things. We are as guilty as the next person and it's only because we have the benefit of hindsight from building several units and also the early involvement with the Sustainable Tourism South Project that we started down the track of thinking differently.

When we began searching for local businesses who were implementing sustainable practices, we found a lot of examples of good stewardship. The Anchorage Motel in Te Anau encourages their guests to take away their toiletries and finish it up, rather than leaving behind a half used product. They also supply motel units with re-usable bags for guests to use. Other accommodation providers are collecting used bars of soap and returning them for manufacture into biodiesel. CleanBiz, a cleaning product supplier, takes back empty containers from customers, washes and re-uses them.

After an interval approaching 22 years, in October last year I resumed biking to work for a variety of sensible reasons. I confess that it took a little adjusting to.

Sometimes, with all the best intentions, changes we make result in some unintended consequences. Some environmental solutions actually create other problems. Most people or organisations who have started their sustainability journey have at least one story to share along these lines. You know, when you have tried to change something to improve the environmental outcomes, but for some reason or another it has ended up causing another problem that you didn’t intend.

Your biggest energy saving opportunity is likely to come in a very small package. I occasionally hear people say that "we are not going to change the world by changing a few light bulbs". Indeed it's not the only answer, but as well as changing the world, changing your light bulb will reduce your electricity costs and may have other benefits too. The Energy Efficiency Conservation Authority says that most businesses can reduce their energy bills by at least 20% through energy efficiency improvements. One of the areas almost always noted on an energy audit, is lighting. To give an example, in 2008 the Ascot Park Hotel in Invercargill had an energy audit completed, where it was identified they could save $11,000-$16,000 per year through changes to their lighting alone. You can read more, or even listen to Peter Ridsdale talk about the Ascot Park Hotels energy audit on their case study on www.sustainablesouthland.co.nz.

Last month I attended what felt like the social event of the year - the Environment Awards. Such a positive buzz of enthusiasm from young school kids right through to some of our region's older pioneering tourism operators. There were a number of businesses nominated for awards. However, I felt there should have been a greater number of nominations because there are so many more businesses doing wonderful things that I am aware of.

If you are keen to go down the road of obtaining an 'ecolabel' to prove to your customers that you are as green as you say you are, the next step is to work out which certification programme suits your needs. It's a complex business, but thankfully there is a really handy tool to help you.

If you are ever so lucky to have the opportunity to have a say in the design of your workplace or home, you'll find yourself with hours of research to do. When you begin to look into it, there are so many opportunities to make the indoor spaces we spend time in more energy efficient, water efficient, pleasant and healthier places to be. Something also worth putting some grey matter to, is what changes we can make to our existing building stock to achieve the same outcomes. The following are some innovative ideas to get you thinking about retrofitting.

Energy ratings on appliances are great, they help communicate with us, the buyer, about something very important when we are comparing different models – the running costs. By having ratings, this also helps encourage the manufacturers to keep making more efficient models. However, when comparing different models, it’s not quite as simple as assuming those with the highest ratings are going to cost less to run. Buying a 5-star rated large fridge may actually consume more energy than a 2-star small fridge, even though the larger one is more “energy efficient”. Confused? Read on before you make a purchasing decision, or go writing anything specific into your company purchasing policy.