Call for improved environmental reporting

Forest and Bird, Issue 281, 1 August 1996, Page 4

Call for improved environmental reporting

ENVIRONMENTAL reporting by New Zealand companies was poor, claimed KPMG Peat Marwick, the organisers of national awards to promote environmental disclosure, whose winners were announced in August. "By international standards

New Zealand companies are well behind in their environmental policies and disclosure practices," said head of KPMG’s Environmental Unit, Ken Tremaine. "Some companies have gone backwards." The judges were particularly disappointed with local authority reports — a new category in this year’s awards. None of the reports received were thought to be of sufficient standard to justify an award. This, despite the statutory obligation of regional, district and city councils to report on their environmental impacts and their responsibility to monitor the state of the environment of the area under their protection. Watercare Services won the main award, for the second year running. It’s report giving a detailed analysis of the organisation’s environmental impacts and a comprehensive statement of environmental policies and objectives was considered by the judges to be a model for other organisations to emulate.

Rare matagouri find |

A SMALL population of one of the North Island’s most depleted native plants — matagouri (Discaria toumatou) — has been discovered on a farm near Bulls. While relatively common in parts of the South Island, particularly in Canterbury, the distinctive tangled, thorny shrub has been almost obliterated from the North Island — reduced to a few fence lines on the Wairarapa plains, a few scattered plants near Waiouru and on some coastal dunes in the east. DoC botanist Colin Ogle said that the rediscovery of the plant, also known as wild Irishman, was a significant link with the past, as the native shrublands of which it was an important component once flourished on the dunes of the Wanganui, Manawatu and Horowhenua districts but had almost totally disappeared with human settlement. Because of its rarity

in the North Island today, few people realise that matagouri used to be widespread. Old records showed the plant as far north as the Bay of Plenty and Manukau Harbour. Mr Ogle said that the discovery was important in maintaining the diversity of the species’ gene pool. He pointed out that the shrub also provided habitat for lizards and nesting birds which used the thorny habit of the plant as protection from predators.

False claim from Coal Corp

FOREST AND BIRD has forced the withdrawal of a series of high-profile advertisements in the national print media due to their containing false environmental claims. The series of double-page ads by Coal Corp — now metamorphosed as Solid Energy — stated that "modern coal from Solid Energy was full of surprises. It’s clean and economical .. ." Full of surprises indeed, since no fossil fuel can be described as clean. Coal, in fact is Vv

one of the dirtier fuels since it produces per unit of energy more airborne pollutants, particularly sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxides (important contributors to acid rain) and CO, (the main contributor to the Greenhouse Effect) than comparable fuels such as oil and gas. Forest & Bird editor Ian Close wrote to the Advertising Standards Complaints Board (ASCB) in March arguing that the advertisement breached the ASCB’s code for environmental claims. After notification from the chairman of the ASCB that the board had agreed to hear our complaint, Coal Corp decided to withdraw the advertisement. The backdown by the stateowned corporation — currently engaged in a major expansion of mining activity — follows its canning of an earlier advertisement claiming that coal was "environmentally sensitive". That ad was withdrawn also, after Greenpeace lodged a complaint with the ASCB.