AUT Living Labs - Impact Story
“In the face of mounting environmental and climate crises, education has a key role to play in developing and sharing solutions that learn from and work with nature. Universities must adapt and innovate to respond to these challenges, to create new learning experiences and new ways to make research relevant for local communities. The AUT Living Labs grew out of a desire to radically rethink the roles and responsibilities of research and learning.”
Dr David Hall, Principal Investigator, AUT Living Labs
Planting a seed is but one step in growing a tree. Beyond sunlight and soil, a sapling requires tending and protection to grow.
This lesson in nurture can be applied to both trees and students at the Auckland University of Technology (AUT) Living Labs, as the programme fosters student learning, establishes meaningful partnerships and empowers young people with practical skills for climate action.
Living Laboratories is an AUT programme born from the vision of climate change policy researcher Dr David Hall, Prof Hannah Buckley and Assoc Prof Brad Case and taught by project-lead Jeff Silby. Established to see rangatahi nurture and grow a vision for a restored Aotearoa, the Learning from Nature initiative — as a part of their Living Labs programme — gives school students and staff the opportunity to undertake research while working with mana whenua on restoration projects.
Established in 2019, the programme transforms former agricultural sites into vibrant “Living Labs” that combine learning and meaningful restoration work — such as planting trees, monitoring growth, measuring the impact of weather patterns and learning about the different types of native plants that form a part of the unique ecosystems of Aotearoa. Their first site on Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei land in Pourewa serves as an outdoor classroom that connects people to nature by interweaving ecological science and mātauranga Māori.
With support from Whakatupu Aotearoa Foundation (funded by TMNZ), the Learning from Nature initiative aims to share knowledge not only about restoring ecological sites, but also to foster a deeper connection to the land. This shift from ‘living labs’ to ‘living classrooms’ will support students to become active, informed, and environmentally conscious citizens.
“For secondary school students, this is an opportunity for work experience, career development and transferrable skills – from simple skills of using a tape measure to using sophisticated tools like GIS integrated mapping. For younger students, the opportunity is to spark curiosity and passion for native species, to create exposure to our natural environment, and to increase familiarity with the mātauranga of our iwi and hapū partners.”
Jeff Silby, Project Lead and Teacher, AUT Living Labs
The project is also deepening the research and evidence base for Aotearoa-specific Nature-Based Solutions. With hands-in-the-soil experiments, they’re investigating how to restore native forests in a fast, cost-effective and risk-free way. This research directly addresses the objectives outlined in the New Zealand Government’s 2022 Emissions Reduction Plan and National Adaptation Plan, which highlight the importance of Nature-Based Solutions in protecting, restoring, managing and creating native ecosystems.
The Learning from Nature initiative also plays a crucial role in preparing students for the growing restoration economy. By offering education in Nature-Based Solutions, it equips students for careers in areas of restoration and regeneration. This will meet increasing demand for professional restoration and landscape design, as well as enhance the impact of voluntary and community-led restoration.
With start-up funding from Whakatupu Aotearoa Foundation, Jeff and the Living Labs team were able to extend the programme’s reach to primary and secondary schools, providing eco-educational experiences for over 650 students, 53 teachers and support staff, as well as 32 parent/community helpers. There is also ongoing development of an Educators’ Toolkit to extend programme learnings nation-wide.
AUT Living Labs represents a bold vision for the intersection of education and environmental stewardship. Catalysed by the support from Whakatupu Aotearoa Foundation, the programme’s Learning from Nature initiative continues to expand its reach and impact, having well surpassed their Year One target of 500 educational experiences. By integrating hands-on learning experiences, which interweave Western ecological sciences with mātauranga Māori, the programme is cultivating shared knowledge and future collaboration.
Ko te piko o te māhuri, tērā te tupu o te rākau.
The way in which the young sapling is nurtured (bent), determines how the tree will grow.
By the numbers
As at April 2024
650
student participation
9500
trees in the ground
$158k
invested in the first year by Whakatupu Aotearoa Foundation
Tax Drawdown: Use your tax payments as a line of credit
Every now and then, businesses can encounter cashflow struggles, whether you have overdue invoices or an unexpected bill to pay. When this happens, it’s typical to ask your bank for help. But did you know there’s an easier, cheaper way?
As a TMNZ customer, you can access funds you have paid into our tax pool at any time. You can draw out your deposits as an affordable line of credit without the headache of a loan application, conversation with a bank, or Inland Revenue (IRD) paperwork and still keep your original tax deposit date.
How it works
Imagine your business is suddenly hit with a big cost and you need some quick cash. By getting in touch with TMNZ, you can access the money you’ve already paid into and held in our pool.
You can draw down the funds on a temporary basis, and our flexibility helps you solve a short-term business challenge in a simple, cost-effective way.
TMNZ Tax Drawdown allows you to use your tax payments in the pool as collateral to take out funds at attractive interest rates. You can request money at any time and it will land in your account within three to five business days (provided AML requirements are met).
The benefits
Tax Drawdown puts you in control. You can borrow money for a minimum of four weeks or a maximum of up to 75 days after your terminal tax date. Once you’ve paid us back, we can continue to hold those tax payments in the pool (which will be available for a future drawdown) or transfer the payments to the IRD to meet your tax liability.
Small businesses and larger companies alike can tap into Tax Drawdown, and there’s no limit to how much of your tax deposit you can withdraw.
If your current tax pool doesn’t do drawdowns, fear not. You can transfer your tax pool payments to us and kick-start the process immediately.
While Tax Drawdown is a bit like a line of credit, we don’t charge line fees or establishment fees like the banks.
TMNZ can also offer more competitive interest rates than the banks. Our rates are the same as our finance rates, which are much closer to the cost of a home loan than a small business loan. Interest costs depend on how much money you take out and the duration of your withdrawal and you’re only charged for the period you use the funds.
Kathleen Payne, Director of Strategic Partnerships at TMNZ, says Tax Drawdown can be a business lifeline.
“It’s really useful for businesses that need to make a capital investment, buy stock, or simply position themselves for the rest of the year. People can use our tax pool to their advantage and it’s so easy to do, with interest costs limited to the time they’re using the funds. It’s another working capital option for businesses, particularly in an environment where cashflow is causing a lot of constraints.”
How to use Tax Drawdown
Accessing your money is a painless process. Get in touch with us or ask your tax adviser to call or email our team.
Kathleen says Tax Drawdown applications are “relatively simple” and can be made multiple times a year.
“A small amount of information needs to be provided. We ask how much money you need and how long you need it for. We then work out your interest rate, finalise the terms, and get it signed.”
Kathleen says Tax Drawdown can help businesses and the New Zealand economy by freeing up money for investment and growth.
“If you think about what businesses use the funds for, it’s additional spending in the economy. Tax Drawdown enables people to use money at a reasonable cost to make capital investments, investments in staff, or meet a market challenge.
“All of these things help businesses survive and thrive, and it has a circularity for the whole economy,” she says. “It’s money going back into the business community while helping companies meet their tax liability. So everyone’s a winner.”
In need of flexible, affordable financing? Contact our team to take advantage of Tax Drawdown today.
TMNZ leadership update, January 2024
After 12 years successfully leading and growing Tax Management New Zealand (TMNZ), Chris Cunniffe has announced he will be retiring from his position and leaving the business in 2024.
While Chris will step down as CEO on 31 January, he will continue to support TMNZ in an advisory capacity, ensuring a smooth transition to TMNZ’s next Chief Executive.
Board Director and TMNZ Founder Ian Kuperus personally recognised Chris for his outstanding service:
"Chris has made a significant contribution to TMNZ, growing our purpose-led tax pooling business from seven people in 2011 to over 70 today, helping hundreds of thousands of taxpayers across New Zealand. Chris has shown an unwavering commitment to his team, clients and communities, through Whakatupu Aotearoa Foundation."
The Board has appointed current TMNZ Head of Transformation and People, Amanda Thorpe as Acting CEO, effective 1 February 2024.
“Amanda brings senior leadership experience in transformation, culture and high-performance, here in Aotearoa and overseas. We’re fortunate that Amanda, as Acting CEO, is well positioned to support the business through the next period of change.” says Ian.
Amanda will work closely with the TMNZ Leadership Team including Acting Chief Operating Officer, Matt Rama who prior to TMNZ managed another tax pooling business.
As TMNZ looks to the future, the business remains committed to continuing to build on its successes and delivering the best people and client experience, as well as continuing to donate its profits to Whakatupu Aotearoa Foundation for a restored New Zealand.
The TMNZ Board has begun the recruitment process for a permanent CEO and once complete, new leadership will be communicated through TMNZ channels.
For queries please contact TMNZ Brand and Marketing Director, at charlotte.tremewan@tmnz.co.nz
TMNZ & CA ANZ IRD Satisfaction Survey 2023
TMNZ and CA ANZ have worked together to bring you the results of the 2023 Satisfaction Survey.
Tax practitioners say it takes longer to get a response from Inland Revenue Department (IRD), but they find that tax officials are helpful and demonstrate a good understanding of client issues, according to the 2023 Inland Revenue Satisfaction Survey.
The annual survey is conducted jointly by CA ANZ and Tax Management New Zealand (TMNZ) to provide insight into what tax practitioners think of the way in which IRD administers the tax system.
Click through to read the full results on Acuity Magazine here.
How you can use tax pooling like a savings account
In business, cash is king, and being able to access funds quickly in a crisis can mark the difference between success and failure. In an unpredictable world, having the ability to access cash during challenging times can be priceless.
With tax pooling, companies can easily request refunds of provisional tax payments they have made at the year to date without waiting to file their tax returns. They can receive their refunds within a matter of days.
Tax can be one of the largest expenditure lines for a business, so flexibility is vital.
In this economic climate, it’s far from ideal to have large sums tied up with Inland Revenue (IR).
What if you can’t access the money in an emergency?
What if your profitability projections trend down over the year, meaning you’re likely to overpay?
For taxpayers with a 30 June year-end, the first instalment of provisional tax is due on 28 November. Every business and sole trader should ask themselves these questions, especially if their work is seasonal or cyclical in nature.
Businesses should also think about the accessibility of their funds if their income is difficult to predict or fluctuates due to factors such as commodity prices, adverse weather events, or the exchange rate.
Accessible tax money
Depositing tax payments into a tax pool can form part of an effective risk management strategy in times of uncertainty.
Look at it like depositing into a savings account with the added benefit of eliminating late payment penalties and IR interest. You can still access your funds if you need to, you’re covering yourself for tax time and possibly extending your time to pay.
How depositing provisional tax into a tax pool works
Tax pooling operates with the blessing of the New Zealand tax department. TMNZ has been a registered provider of the service since 2003.
Companies deposit their provisional tax payments into a shared pool instead of directly into their own IR account.
Each payment is date stamped as at the date it is made into the pool (e.g., 28 November). Funds are held in an account at the IR. This account is managed by an independent trustee, Guardian Trust.
A taxpayer holds their payments in the pool until it instructs TMNZ to transfer their deposits to their own IR account.
Taxpayers can request a refund from TMNZ of provisional tax deposits held in the pool at any time without having to file their tax return or an estimate with IR.
Refunds may be subject to meeting anti-money laundering requirements. (Corporate taxpayers also need to be mindful of imputation credit account impacts when requesting a refund of tax they hold in the pool).
A taxpayer typically instructs TMNZ to transfer their tax deposits to their own IR account once they finalise their tax return and know the amounts required at each instalment date to satisfy their liability for the year.
As the tax being transferred from the TMNZ tax pool to a taxpayer’s IR account has been date stamped to when it was originally paid into the pool, IR recognises it as if the taxpayer paid the whole amount on time.
This remits any IR interest and late payment penalties showing on the taxpayer's account.
Access previously paid funds
If you’re short on cash, tax pooling also allows you to temporarily withdraw deposits you hold in our pool.
You can access the amount of provisional tax funds you have deposited (minus an upfront interest cost). You also have the option to restore your deposit at the original deposit date once your cashflow situation has improved.
Buy some time
When preserving cashflow is high on the agenda, you can use a tax pool to defer upcoming provisional tax payments to a date in the future without incurring late payment penalties.
For example, someone with a 7 April terminal tax date could have up to 75 days from that date to settle their provisional tax.
Earn more interest if you’ve overpaid
If you have surplus tax remaining in the pool once you have transferred money to the IR to satisfy your liability, you can earn interest above the IR’s credit interest rate by selling the excess tax to other pool members that have underpaid for the year or have received a notice of reassessment from the IR.
Please note that this is subject to market demand.
The purchasing taxpayer can reduce the interest cost faced on their underpayment significantly when applying this tax against their liability. This also eliminates any late payment penalties.
Overpayers earn more interest while fellow taxpayers pay less. Everyone’s a winner!
Find out more
To learn more about managing your provisional tax, check out our calculating provisional tax guide and cashflow management tips for businesses.
Alternatively, please get in touch with our friendly support team if you have any questions. We're always happy to help.
Manage IR exposure with corporate tax pooling
With the 28 November provisional tax date fast approaching, now’s the perfect time to talk to larger clients about the benefits of TMNZ corporate tax pooling.
Tax pooling is an Inland Revenue-approved system to help New Zealand businesses manage their provisional tax. Instead of paying the IRD directly, taxpayers can purchase overpaid tax from other tax pool members and pay into the tax pool when it suits them.
As some businesses overpay tax when they have funds to spare, they help to cover other taxpayers that need a bit more time to meet their obligations. We like to think of it as businesses helping businesses.
TMNZ is proud to be New Zealand’s original tax pool, pioneering the concept in 2003. We haven’t looked back since, helping large businesses, SMEs, and sole traders with tax management.
With tax pooling, businesses that can’t meet their provisional tax liabilities can purchase tax from those that have overpaid. This is charged at a lower interest rate than the IRD’s use of money interest charges, and companies also avoid late payment penalties.
There are advantages on both sides of a tax pool. Companies that have overpaid into our pool can also earn more interest on their surplus tax than if they had paid the IRD directly.
Clients that experience volatility or pay substantial amounts of provisional tax (e.g., more than $100,000 at each date) can reduce their exposure to use of money interest by paying provisional tax into the Guardian Trust/TMNZ tax pool account at Inland Revenue (IRD) rather than directly into their IRD account.
In summary, here are all of the ways corporate tax pooling is great for large companies:
- Companies earn more interest on surplus tax than they would if they overpaid the IRD.
- Tax can be purchased if businesses have underpaid income tax.
- Tax can be swapped across provisional tax dates to reduce exposure to use of money interest.
- Overpaid tax can be refunded within three to five days — without filing a return.
- Businesses can access TMNZ’s in-house expertise for corporate tax pooling advice on how to optimise their provisional tax payments.
- Money is deposited in the TMNZ tax pooling account at IRD.
What’s more, by using the TMNZ tax pool, you and your clients are also helping to give back to New Zealand. All our profit is invested in the Whakatupu Aotearoa Foundation, supporting social and environmental causes.
Contact us today to find out how TMNZ tax pooling can help your clients.
How tax pooling can help your tax management
Meet Andy, a builder who has run his own business for three years. Things are going well, and he’s set to make a substantial profit in the current financial year. He’s well-paid and smart enough to set aside tax he owes with each payment. But clients don’t always pay him on time, causing some serious headaches.
Like many businesses, Andy experiences cashflow issues. He makes a profit but doesn’t always have enough funds in his account to pay provisional tax when it’s due.
What should Andy do? Grin and bear the Inland Revenue’s late payment penalties and use of money interest charges after missing his payment dates? Or seek a better option?
Luckily, Andy’s accountant Lisa knows all about tax pooling and how it can relieve the financial pressure.
Tax pooling explained
Andy asks his accountant how tax pooling works and some of its main benefits.
Lisa explains that tax pooling has been available to taxpayers for two decades, starting in 2003 when TMNZ became a registered provider with IR.
The accountant says tax pooling has clear benefits over traditional tax management:
- Taxpayers can choose to pay their liabilities in a time and manner that suits them, without having to worry about IR interest and penalties.
- They can make significant savings on use of money interest charged and eliminate late payment penalties if they miss or underpay provisional tax, or if they are reassessed by IR.
- When taxpayers overpay into the TMNZ tax pool, they can earn a much higher rate of interest on overpayment of funds than they would receive from the IR.
Who oversees TMNZ’s tax pool?
Lisa assures Andy that all payments made into TMNZ’s tax pool account at the IR are managed by an independent trustee, Guardian Trust.
Guardian Trust oversees the bank accounts into which taxpayers pay their money, as well as the transfer of funds from the TMNZ tax pool to Andy’s IR account.
Because the tax being transferred has been paid and date stamped as at the original due date, any penalties and interest are wiped once the payment is processed by the IR.
Companies of all sizes can use tax pooling
Tax pooling can help businesses of all sizes, from companies with thousands of employees down to sole traders. TMNZ’s tax pool is the largest and most established in the country.
Lisa’s research found two companies TMNZ has helped.
One company uses tax pooling to counteract fluctuating seasonal revenue:
“It takes away all those stresses. You’re passing it on to somebody else and saying, ‘take care of this for me, I don’t know what to do, we’ve got a shortage of cashflow’ and it’s the best way of putting more energy into your business and doing the things that you’re good at.”
The second company uses a tax pool as they need to invest in equipment regularly.
"With a business like ours, we are investing quite heavily into assets like cars, campers, and boats. Cash upfront is important [for] us to have.”
TMNZ has helped both companies manage working capital and mitigate the risk of fees and penalties.
“What is the cost of this?” Andy asks.
“Just TMNZ interest,” Lisa replies.
Tax pools can help with voluntary disclosures and audits
Lisa looks through Andy’s expected outgoings for the year. These range from the cost of living to many other expenses associated with owning a business.
The accountant realises that in a previous year, Andy made a mistake on one of his returns and must file a voluntary disclosure with the IR.
“How can Andy get ahead with the current year if he now has to pay an additional amount of tax for a past year?” Lisa wonders.
TMNZ can assist taxpayers who owe an increased amount of tax as a result of a voluntary disclosure or audit.
Tax pooling provides 60 days from the date the IR reassessment notice was issued to buy the tax payment he needs and send it to the IR.
The different tax types available to purchase are historic income tax payments, deferrable tax, and agreed delay tax, as well as other tax types such as GST, RWT, PIE, FBT, NRT, and DWT.
Lisa can use TMNZ to reduce the interest and late payment penalties cost of Andy’s voluntary disclosure.
For the current tax year, Lisa can set up either a Flexitax or Tax Finance arrangement to give him more flexibility and time to pay (up to 75 days past his terminal tax date for that tax year).
Lisa has other clients that are medium-large taxpayers with big bills and paydays. TMNZ’s Tax Deposit solution can help them.
Other advantages of tax pooling
There are several other advantages to using a tax pool:
- Excess funds paid into the pool can either be used for future dates and any other tax types where a reassessment has not been issued.
- There’s the option to sell surplus tax to a taxpayer who has underpaid to earn additional interest.
- The refund process is much faster than directly through the IR (within three to five days, and without having to file a return for the year).
Take back control
Take control of your tax management with TMNZ tax pooling — a more convenient way to meet your provisional tax obligations.
We offer solutions for all kinds of businesses and financial situations. If you’re new to paying provisional tax, check out our resources on managing tax and business cashflow here.
Ask your accountant about tax pooling options today, or get in touch with our team to find out more.
Paying provisional tax – do you want it to be easier?
Kiwi business owners are all too familiar with the concept of provisional tax, and for many, paying it can be a bit of a chore.
One of the biggest issues people face is the IR’s inflexibility. Inland Revenue (IR) sets the dates you have to pay, and you’ve got no choice but to follow their lead.
No consideration is given to the time of year, business cashflow, or seasonal circumstances. After all, no one wants to pay a big lump sum when cashflow is tight.
The IR model doesn’t consider whether businesses are light on cash, have an urgent need for money, or a better use for their funds. You simply have to pay up or face the penalties — with IR interest on top of late payment fees.
But there’s one thing you should know about paying provisional tax. There is a better, easier way: tax pooling.
Tax pooling gives you more choice over your tax and lets you make payments on your terms without incurring the IR’s wrath.
The option has been available to New Zealand provisional taxpayers for more than two decades.
Since 2003, thousands of businesses have been paying provisional tax through tax pooling providers like TMNZ. We let you pay what you owe at a time that suits you.
The best part? Tax pools are IR-approved.
So, how does a tax pool work for paying provisional tax?
A tax pool is all about balance. Some businesses in our pool may end up overpaying their liability. These overpayments help other businesses in the pool that need more time to pay. A collective approach.
Users of our tax pool do have to pay some interest, but it’s charged at a much lower rate than the IR’s interest or the rates you’d pay for taking out an overdraft with the bank. There are also no late payment penalties to think about.
All you have to do is tell us the tax amount due and when and how you’d like to pay. We’ll take care of the rest and notify the IR.
Why haven’t I heard about this before?
While tax pooling isn’t common knowledge among small businesses, it is considered best practice among many accountants and tax advisers.
How can I start paying provisional tax with tax pooling?
Discuss tax pooling with your accountant (or with one of our Premium TMNZ Accounting Partners) ahead of your next provisional tax instalment or if you’ve struggled to match business cashflow with your past payments.
Ask your adviser to download this free guide that provides simple information on how tax pooling works.
Want to learn more about tax pooling?
Get in touch, or book a tax pooling overview with one of our experts.
NZ Food Waste Champions 12.3 – Kai Commitment - Impact story
“As New Zealanders, we would hate to know how much [food] waste there is so this is about fundamentally reversing something that just does not sit within New Zealand culture.”
Former Prime Minister, Rt Hon Jacinda Ardern – speaking at the launch of Kai Commitment
One third of food produced globally is wasted. This is equivalent to 1.3 billion tonnes of food that is never eaten. When food is thrown away, it can produce harmful emissions in landfill. It also wastes the energy, fuel and dollars that went into producing it in the first place.
And the wasteful situation within industry is mirrored at home. In New Zealand, 157,398 tonnes of edible food are thrown into household bins each year. This typically ends up in landfill and can produce approximately 409,234 tonnes of carbon-equivalent emissions annually.
Our attitude to food has become unnecessarily disposable and in considering the statistics it’s unsurprising then that reducing food waste has been ranked as the third best global solution in addressing climate change. This is a powerful motivator for action and the greatest gains in reducing food waste start with addressing industry systems.
Having researched international responses to the problem, New Zealand Food Waste Champions 12.3 Charitable Trust (NZFWC 12.3) was launched in March 2020 with the ambition of radically reducing food waste and the associated environmental impacts. Kai Commitment is a voluntary agreement between leading food business in Aotearoa who have committed to measuring and reducing their food waste and associated emissions. It is the start of something big and a sign that businesses are seeking to tackle the issue proactively.
It was the opportunity to catalyse a system change in the way we manage and measure food waste that inspired Whakatupu Aotearoa Foundation to back NZFWC 12.3 and the Kai Commitment. The impact on the climate is clear – food waste is a big problem that can be solved through achievable actions. The road leading up to Kai Commitment has required broad and sophisticated discussion. Ultimately, everyone wants to do the right thing but it has been difficult to know where to start.
NZFWC is to be the independent convenor of a national, co-designed and industry-led agreement using internationally proven framework where food businesses will:
- Set common food waste target(s);
- Measure and record food waste data; and
- Take action to extend their food waste reduction initiatives above business as usual.
- Collaborate on food waste reduction across the supply chain.
Kaitlin Dawson is leading the initiative at NZFWC with support from Miranda Mirosa, Director of the University of Otago Food Waste Innovation Research Theme, and Deborah Manning, Founder of Kiwi Harvest and NZ Food Network. Both are NZFWC 12.3 Board Members.
Kaitlin brings a long-standing passion for reducing waste and believes the success of Kai Commitment will come from teamwork. “Food waste is a design flaw, it occurs at every stage in the process which is why collaboration from across the sector is not only desired, but also necessary. The programme and vision we have for a future where collaboration is the norm, will mend the breakdowns from farm to fork. We are confident that if food waste can be designed in, it can be designed out and will achieve environmental and economic value.”
The Kai Commitment will support the individual food waste reduction actions of each signatory, encourage collaboration and innovation, and evolve into a community of best practice to build sector capability. The launch of Kai commitment occurred in November 2022 at signatory Fonterra’s Auckland office. Goodman Fielder, Countdown, Silver Fern Farms, Foodstuffs, AS Wilcox and Nestle were also in attendance as committed business, and New Zealand’s then Prime Minister Rt Hon Jacinda Ardern gave the main address. Kai Commitment is off to a solid start in helping NZFWC 12.3 achieve their goal of halving food waste in Aotearoa by 2030.
The vision of NZ Food Waste Champions 12.3 (NZFWC 12.3) is He Taonga Te Kai – an Aotearoa where food is valued, not wasted. Their mission is to progress SDG Target 12.3, to end food loss and waste across the New Zealand food system.
By the numbers
As at March 2023
2030
target year to halve food waste in New Zealand
6
businesses signed up
$90k
our investment
Mindful Money - Impact Story
“If we can change the way money flows, we can change our future for the better. By shifting investments away from fossil fuels and into renewable energy, for example, we set in motion potential exponential growth in ventures that can bring energy security, improved health outcomes, environmental benefits and financial returns. Who wouldn’t want that?”
Barry Coates, Founder – Mindful Money
New Zealand is the only place in the world where investments made through third party companies, such as KiwiSaver, can be scrutinised. That said, the information has been hard to find and even harder to interpret. You might need a Master’s Degree from Yale University to extract the detail from this financial rabbit hole, and to be able to properly assess it. Fortunately, economist Barry Coates, Founder of Mindful Money, has those skills and he assembled a team of willing volunteers to get the job done for us.
“Even when we can see a list of named companies that KiwiSavers have invested in, it might not be clear what they do. And they could be investing in other funds, and so on, until it is impossible to see the companies they actually invest in,” says Barry.
This dedicated endeavour marked the start of Mindful Money, launched in 2019 with Rt Hon Grant Robertson in attendance. Barry and his team have quickly made progress finding out what KiwiSaver funds are really invested in, and then included all the retail investment funds. There are now 800 funds analysed on the Mindful Money website.
In 2019, the team at Mindful Money exposed a whopping $130M total investment by KiwiSavers in nuclear weapons. As something that is utterly at odds with our collective and historic identity, Barry decided to give KiwiSaver fund managers a window to take action ahead of naming the companies publicly. In a year, this had dropped to $52M and then to around $15M. Now it is less than $10M.
These revelations continued when Mindful Money published a list of all of the New Zealand funds invested in companies aligned to the Putin regime. They all sold those investments. And in 2023, Mindful Money uncovered a further 88 KiwiSaver funds investing in companies whose activities benefitted the Myanmar military, who are responsible for massive human rights violations. Again, Mindful Money are checking to ensure that these funds are shifted before releasing names.
Transparency and accountability are huge drivers for change, but what about positively enabling proactive choice? Empowering Kiwis with the tools to access information on their investments – in a manageable way – via the Mindful Money website means they can move their funds away from fossil fuels, weapons or animal cruelty if they want to and instead invest in the issues they really want to see – such as social housing, renewable energy, forest regeneration.
It was at this juncture, when Barry was seeking to increase the number of investment options that create social and environmental good, that he connected with Whakatupu Aotearoa Foundation through mutual friends at the Centre for Sustainable Finance. Mindful Money were already making great progress on generating transparency in the investment market, but it was clear that if more Kiwis and fund managers were looking for positive investment options, Mindful Money should be playing a proactive role in signposting some solid options.
Whakatupu Aotearoa Foundation was keen to see Barry take this next step in changing how the money flows, using it as a lever in bringing social and environmental impact alongside financial returns. The potential here seemed huge, but it would need some dedicated resource for research. The Foundation has funded a new role of Investment Manager at Mindful Money, taken on by financial expert Justine Sefton.
“We have traditionally been working with a culture of investing broadly and safely in known entities, which is why fossil fuels persist as assets in KiwiSaver portfolios,” explains Justine. “The truth is fossil fuels aren’t bringing the financial returns that they used to. They are not the future. We need to invest in smarter technologies and systems that have greater potential to bring about the kind of equitable financial, environmental and social future that we actually want and need.”
Barry and Justine are interviewing fund managers and researching the market with the aim of putting more investment options in front of fund managers. Mindful Money is conscious that they need to be more than whistle blowers, and that generating avenues for impact investment is equally part of their wheelhouse. Investors not only want to avoid harm, they want opportunities for their investments to create positive benefits.
Mindful Money has already provided fund information – free of charge – to 349 KiwiSaver Funds and 453 Investment Funds. They have set a target for New Zealand investment in positive impact of $100M.
By the numbers
As at April 2023
302k
Kiwis checked their funds on Mindful Money’s website
$165m
diverted to ethical funds so far
$50k
invested by Whakatupu Aotearoa Foundation