“If you talk to the people in the supply chain, this is probably the best part of their business — whether it’s the top maker or the spinner or the knitter — because of the certainty and the consistency,” says Brakenridge. “Then if you look at the retail brands we’re working with, despite the recession they’re doing pretty good too ... the sum of the whole is worth more than the individuals.”

Urgent Couriers has built its own sustainability ecosystem and become a leader in its sector as a result. When the courier company adopted sustainability as a guiding philosophy in 1999, it indeed began with small, single steps — recycling paper, turning off computers, that sort of thing.

“But it made me realise that as an organisation which has a couple of thousand clients and around 100 people who work for us on and off, we have an opportunity to have a reasonable amount of influence,” says Bonnici.

“The more I got involved, the more passionate I got about the idea that even an SME has the opportunity to actually make a bit of a difference. And we should. It’s part of your licence to operate.”

Bonnici was introduced to environmental sustainability while completing an MBA at Auckland University in the mid 90s — a topic covered in a single weekend of the two-year course.

But Bonnici was taken with the idea. Urgent Couriers produced its first sustainability report in 2001 and remains the only courier company to prepare a standalone report on the subject.

Urgent is well aware sustainability means much more than ‘being green’ and the philosophy is embedded in all aspects of the business. The company’s first sustainability report, for example, also revealed a critical workplace sustainability issue: its courier drivers were simply not making enough money. Bonnici knew only too well the daily challenges facing courier drivers — he started working as one in 1984 before setting up Urgent in 1989 — and the company decided to take a bold lead in the industry and implement price increases to help address the issue.

“From a pure business perspective, sustainability is about being here for the long haul, and if we’re not doing the right thing by the people that face our clients every day, then we’re not here for the long haul,” he says.

Other examples of its holistic approach include a 40% weighting on suppliers with a sustainability focus, and providing support to not-for-profit organisations such as the Auckland City Mission.

The four exemplars chosen by the Sustainable 60 judges —Locus Research, The New Zealand Merino Company, Urgent Couriers and IAG plus Westpac, specially commended as the only company named a finalist in all categories and an exemplar finalist — run that sustainability thread through all aspects of their business. And it’s a powerful thing.

Sustainable Business Network CEO and Sustainable 60 judge Rachel Brown talks about the ‘ripple effect’, citing small exemplar winner Locus Research as a great example of how even a small business can have a wider impact in terms of sustainability.

The Mt Maunganui-based research, design and development company has just six staff, but has positioned itself as a leader both here and abroad in the field of Life Cycle Thinking (LCT).

Managing director Timothy Allan trained as an industrial designer then worked for iconic Kiwi companies Macpac and Design Mobel before founding Locus Research in 2002. He’s a passionate advocate for the power of both R&D and sustainability to add value to design and, given his ability to build relationships and networks, his passion is contagious.

The company has spearheaded the establishment of the Sustainable Design Group for New Zealand, a network of design professionals; worked with industry body Textiles New Zealand on Transform, an initiative aimed at helping textile companies develop innovative products; and developed a series of workshops to educate businesses and other interested parties on LCT. Allan also speaks internationally on the topic.

“I like the country I live in — whenever I go away it’s reinforced ... and it’s going to take an awful lot of care and attention to keep it that way,” says the New Zealand natural history buff.

Sometimes, says Allan, you need to be hard-nosed about your principles; if a client isn’t at least prepared to engage with research, sustainability or LCT, he’ll tell them perhaps Locus isn’t the company for them.

“And people respect that,” he says. “My ability to persuade people to do things has been solely based on the fact that they think I believe it too. It’s that simple. If it looks negotiable that’s exactly what people are going to do.”

The company has focused on being vertically integrated, often undertaking the gamut of a client’s design work from R&D, to product design, through to point of sale and graphic design. Given the breadth of its offering, another focus has been boosting the sustainability of its workplace by implementing strong systems, including continuous professional development.

Says Brown of the company: “It has got very strong social, internal staff and also social contribution parts of the business, but it also has this really strong dedication to reducing the actual environmental footprint of its operation. Then in the service that it offers its clients, it’s also going out and looking at their service offerings or product offerings and working out how they can redesign those so that they’re much lighter on the environment, or contribute positively to the environment.”

Large exemplar winner IAG is the only New Zealand insurance company to put sustainability at the core of what it does — and there’s a strong business case for such a strategy, says the company’s sustainability manager, Sarah Holden.

The company started on its sustainability journey about six years ago when it realised the severity and frequency of extreme weather events was on the rise. As a company that insured against such events, it wanted to better understand the risks surrounding climate change. Over the years, however, its concept of sustainability has grown to encompass its five key areas of performance: financial, customer, environmental, people (staff) and community. “The whole concept of sustainability is all about risk reduction,” says Holden. “It’s in our best interest to keep insurance as affordable and available as possible.”

IAG’s suite of sustainability-focused ideas and initiatives is broad, and with 1900 staff and 2.5 million policies in place, it is realising opportunities to bring about substantial changes both within the organisation and without.

The company has achieved a 10% overall reduction in CO2 levels since it began measuring and reporting them in 2004, and is targeting a 20% reduction and carbon-neutral commitment by 2012. NZI Centre — the new, state-of-the-art green building in which 750 of its staff work — has not only helped the company reap savings from efficiencies, it has positively impacted the workplace culture, says Holden, reducing absenteeism and staff turnover.

On a community level, the company’s State Driver Reviver programme, which offers travellers a welcome roadside break during busy holiday periods, exemplifies the risk reduction strategy: fewer accidents, fewer claims, better business.

It is in the company’s vast supply chain where its leadership in sustainability can really amplify. A pollution prevention planning initiative the company rolled out among motor vehicle repairers in Christchurch (in conjunction with the city council) has now been rolled out among IAG’s nationwide network of motor vehicle repairers.

Holden’s advice to any company embarking on a sustainability journey is to begin by asking some fundamental questions: why are we doing this, what’s at the core of our business, and what’s driving it? It’s considering sustainability at this strategic level that will bring about change, she says.

Sustainable 60 judge Rick Christie reckons IAG is walking the talk. “They seemed to be very aware that the sustainability of their customers’ business was very much at the heart of what they do,” he says. “They weren’t just another provider; they demonstrated they knew what they were all about.”