• ACE (Annual Carbon Emissions calculator) update 2010
• Hi tech and environmental efficiency
• Standing on the shoulders of science

ACE update 2010

Each year we review ACE, the GHG emissions calculator freely downloadable from our website, to make sure it continues to meet the needs of its users. Most importantly we update its underlying emission factors to ensure they align with those put out be the Ministry for the Environment (MfE) at the end of each year. ACE 2010 contains factors published by MfE at the end of 2009 which have been derived from the analysis of 2008 data. In addition, and based on user feedback, we have made a couple of other changes:

• Added New Plymouth as a destination/departure city in the flight calculator
• Added new refrigerants to the refrigerant calculator
  

ACE 2010 will be released in early March. All existing users of the current (ACE 2009) or older versions will be notified of its availability by email, so that they can commence using it for 2010. This new version is suitable for analysis of activity data pertaining to any period from 2008 onwards. For 2007/2008, users should use ACE 2009, and for 2006/2007, ACE 2008 is most relevant.

If you do not currently use ACE but would like to be notified of ACE 2010’s release, please contact us by clicking here.

As always your feedback on ACE is welcomed and appreciated. We would like to thank those of you who have in the past months taken part in our brief user survey. For those who haven’t but would like to, please click here.

Hi Tech and environmental efficiency

A recent article in The Press highlighted the often unsung but very significant role of exports from the technology sector. As reported in the TIN 100 Report^[1] the combined export revenues of the top 100 technology companies was $5.1b in 2009 placing it behind dairying (NZ$11.3) and tourism (NZ$9.3) but ahead of many other higher profile sectors e.g. meat, wool, horticulture.

Without dwelling on the relative ranking of the sectors it is useful to consider these numbers in light of the current discussion on catching up with Australia. As noted by Professor Paul Callaghan to match Australia's per-capita prosperity, we would need to lift our GDP by US$30 billion a year. Simplistically this is equivalent to increasing Fonterra's production,  or the numbers of tourists visiting New Zealand, by a factor of four to five. It is debatable whether either of these is achievable or desirable and Prof Callaghan makes a convincing argument for another “higher technology” route e.g. Rakon, Fisher & Paykel, and spinouts from our universities such as Magritek.

So if we did follow the high tech route let's consider for a moment the big environmental advantages. Companies such as Rakon and Magritek needed no new resources to start except brains and market understanding. They need practically no land, they incur no significant costs of transport across the world, because their products are worth tens of thousands of dollars per kilogram or, better still, weightless.

Quantifying a single environmental indicator, such as greenhouse gases (GHG), gets even more interesting.

New Zealand’s key traditional exports typically have a value under NZ$11/kg product e.g. Whole Milk Powder at about $4/kg and at the higher end Merino wool may be in the range $10 – 11/kg.

A number of NZ studies have shown that GHG emissions associated with these traditional export products may be in the range of 0.9 – 10 kg CO2e/kg product. Depending on the specifics of each production system, we have calculated that the emissions per revenue earned are in the range of 0.2 – 2.5 kg CO2e/$ returned, or 0.2 – 2.5 tonnes per $1,000.

In comparison, if we are exporting mainly brains and people, even allowing for “airfreight”, there are significant differences. For example a flight that goes from Auckland to Sydney to Dubai to Doha has a total distance of 14,574 km with a return trip carbon footprint of 2.4 t CO2e. i.e. about $1,000 of business would need to be generated from the travel to be on a par with our more traditional exports. Another example is a high tech product such as a Magriteks portable spectrometer with a total weight of 5kg but a value more in the range of $1,000’s per kg. Thus the carbon footprint of any number of trips and export of a service or product by an engineer or software developer will be relatively minor in comparison to the production and transport emissions of our more traditional exports.

However, it is important to note the challenges faced, and significant efforts made by primary production systems in measuring and reducing their emissions. These sectors are and will be significant in our economy and the challenge for them is how to manage their supply chains to best environmental and economic effect.

[1] The TIN 100 2009 Report is a benchmarking study of the country’s 150 largest (by revenue) technology companies in the areas of High Tech Manufacturing, ICT Software/Services and Biotechnology.

Standing on the shoulders of science

On a similar theme and as noted in our previous newsletter three separate reviews of the NZ science systems are currently underway. They were to report on progress last year but to date nothing has been released. However, in December last year a useful contribution to the debate was made in a discussion paper released by the NZ Institute.

Amongst a range of sensible recommendations they note:

“Pursuit of a strictly agricultural strategy may be seen by some as an alternative to developing a high performing innovation ecosystem. But the size of the economic performance gap is too large to be overcome by any feasible improvement in agricultural output or value-added – the gap is equal to several Fonterras. A step change in agriculture would require innovation, and an innovation system that can deliver well for agriculture could also be leveraged to make gains in sectors beyond agriculture. Thus an agricultural strategy complements an innovation strategy.”

While our traditional export base is and will remain critical to the NZ economy by almost any measure we will be ”better of” as a country (albeit possibly not equal with Australia) with a diversity of businesses and technologies growing the economy. Hopefully any reformation of the science system will reflect this.

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