Corporate Climate Action Tracker Aotearoa (CCATA) aims to assess the climate action (or inaction) of New Zealand’s most well-known companies, to help make clear how our organisations are doing with their sustainability goals.
From 2023 forward, around 200 organisations in New Zealand are now required to disclose their climate related risks. This includes banks, investment schemes, insurers and other large financial actors. Alongside this, many other companies are also beginning to make voluntary sustainability and climate reports, however this information is not standardised and is often difficult to understand.
In 2023, in conjunction with the University of Otago, Stuff published a Climate Action Scorecard – a synthesis of public sustainability information from 19 well-known companies. Stuff’s goal was to help conscious consumers better understand which organisations were taking action to reduce emissions, how transparent they were being and whether their broader company activities matched up with sustainability goals.
From this project, CCATA has evolved to establish a long-term synthesis of data in order to track, year-on-year, how NZ’s largest companies are progressing with their sustainability and emissions reduction targets. The goal is to increase transparency and accountability within and across sectors, and to encourage more organisations to increase their sustainability efforts.
For information on our methodology, click here.
Professor Sara Walton teaches and researches in the area of sustainability, climate change and business at the Otago Business School, Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka University of Otago. Sara developed the Master of Sustainable Business and helped establish He Kaupapa Hononga Otago’s Climate Change Research Network. She has recently worked with MOTU on a Just Transitions Guide for MBIE, BRANZ on construction company readiness for climate change, Stuff with their Climate Scorecard Project and worked with a team for MPI/FMAG to understand company decisions around offsetting or abatement of GHG emissions. Her current projects include, Āmiomio Aotearoa a circular economy for the wellbeing of NZ, an effectiveness evaluation of Climate Risk Disclosures for the XRB and the development of this Corporate Climate Action Tracker Aotearoa.
Lucy (Te Rarawa) has been working in strategic communication and digital marketing for many years, and is now pursuing her Master of Sustainable Business at the University of Otago. She is currently working on her thesis on organisational sensemaking of growth and emissions reduction goals through a systems thinking lens. She is also a board member for the Nelson Environment Centre and is passionate about climate reporting, disclosure, transparency, system change and the possibilities of a post-growth future.
Andrea Foley (Kāi Tahu, Kāti Māmoe, Waitaha) is an Assistant Research Fellow at Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka, the University of Otago, with a background in computer science, geology and environmental science. Andrea is the Lab Manager for the Physics Antarctic Ice Lab and Kaitiaki Kaupapa for He Kaupapa Hononga: Otago’s Climate Change Research Network. Research projects that Andrea has worked on recently include the Corporate Climate Action Tracker Aotearoa, Climate Scorecard Project (Stuff), Construction company readiness for climate change (BRANZ), Envisioning low carbon futures: a stakeholder/community approach, and sulfate irrigation trials at Macraes gold mine.
Pii-Tuulia Nikula is an Associate Professor at Eastern Institute of Technology in Napier, where she lectures on Sustainable Organisations and Research Methods. Pii-Tuulia’s research has explored organisational decarbonisation drivers, practices, and trajectories. She is also a Co-Founder of a global climate action non-profit CANIE incentivising climate action across the international education sector.
Limi is a software developer with a deep interest in the energy industry. Limi was responsible for web development on this project