Southland is a pretty awesome place to live. We can produce our own milk and meat, grow a huge number of vegetables and grains, and our fruit trees are known for their spectacular crops. But there are some things we aren’t so great at; growing coffee is one of them. It’s not easy to produce coffee, tea, sugar, cocoa, bananas and cotton (among other things) in New Zealand so we have to rely on our neighbours overseas to get our daily fixes.

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.

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.

We have a number of businesses in Southland who have implemented the LEAN system, following on from receiving training through the former Enterprise Training Programme. Recently one business asked me what the difference was between an Environmental Management System (EMS) and the LEAN system. The following is summarised from a paper written by  Ross & Associates Environmental Consulting, Ltd for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and outlines how these are different systems, but are complementary in some ways.

Everyday business actions can impact on the environment, often without anyone knowing. Environment Southland frequently responds to incidents involving the release of pollutants where no perpetrator can be found. These incidents contribute directly to the degradation of our world-class natural environment.

The introduction of greenhouse gas emitting businesses such as fuel, electricity and large industry into the New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme (NZ-ETS) has received considerable coverage in recent weeks. Mike Mitchell from IFS Growth shares his views on the opportunities this presents.

Are there any Southland organisations who are ISO 14001 accredited? If so, did they aim for this from the outset, or start with the likes of Enviro Mark first. Read more about one local business Alliance Group.

Read the response to the question: What indications have there been that individual farms would be willing to take responsibility as the source of emissions for that industry?