In Next in Motion, we check in with members of our Next cohort, a group of purpose-driven businesses drawn from the finalists of the past two years of the Sustainable Business Awards, to see how they’re tracking. This edition lands in a hard economic climate. We want to be honest about both sides of that: the setbacks that come with building something new, and the genuine progress happening right alongside them.
We’ll start with the hard part. Among the tougher news this year was the closure of Critical., an Auckland-based business turning plastic waste into new products. It was one of the standout names on the Next List and, only last month, was announced as one of Aotearoa New Zealand’s nominees for the 2026 Earthshot Prize. Building a business that tries to do right by people and planet is hard at the best of times, and harder still in a year like this one. To Rui and the Critical. team: thank you for the ambition, the craft and the example you set. The work mattered, and it will keep mattering.
We sit with that and we also keep going. Alongside the setbacks, the past couple of months have brought a steady run of real progress across the Next cohort. Here is some of what has been moving.
On the screen and in the headlines
Materially Kiwi (formerly KiwiLeather Innovations) featured on Seven Sharp for its plant-based leather alternative made from rejected kiwifruit. The story pointed to genuine commercial momentum. This included discussions with major car makers like BMW and Volkswagen, and about 80 national and international brands wanting to work with the company. It has plans for a pilot factory in the Bay of Plenty, close to its fruit supply. Source: 1News, 12 June 2026
Levela Deconstruction was in the national spotlight in 1News coverage of Auckland’s storm-affected home recovery programme. At Levela’s yard in West Auckland, recovered timber from flood-damaged homes is being stripped, dried, sorted and returned to use. It is part of a wider deconstruction approach diverting 80–90% of material from landfill, showing what circular recovery can look like at scale.
Source: 1News, 15 June 2026
Funding and global traction
Cetogenix, the Rotorua cleantech company based on the Scion campus, has landed a “game-changer” $23 million grant in the United Kingdom to help commercialise and globalise its technology. Its Ceto-Boost platform uses hydrothermal oxidation to turn complex organic waste such as wastewater sludge into renewable natural gas and green ammonia, while cutting waste volumes and destroying contaminants. The three-year project is funded by UK water regulator Ofwat. Cetogenix will de-risk the technology in Europe with a view to bringing it back home. It is a textbook case of a Kiwi innovator going out to come back in. Source: NZ Herald, June 2026
Starboard Maritime Intelligence is helping protect the infrastructure that connects Aotearoa to the world. Alongside Kordia and the Government, the Wellington company has helped deliver a world-first 24/7 monitoring system for New Zealand’s undersea telecommunications cables, which carry around 99% of our data traffic. Following a successful local trial, both companies have since been awarded contracts to deliver the capability in European waters. Source: RNZ, 18 June 2026
EV Maritime is closing in on a fully electric future for Auckland’s harbour. The company’s second carbon-fibre EVM200 fast ferry has been launched and is completing performance trials, joining the first vessel that has been on the water since last year. Both were designed and delivered in Auckland, with a hull refined alongside Emirates Team New Zealand. The EVM200 platform is also winning work offshore, with projects underway for San Francisco Bay and a major all-electric ferry programme in Halifax, Canada. Source: NZ Herald, 25 May 2026
Powering the transition
Lodestone Energy continues to scale renewable generation, with construction confirmed for a new $50 million solar farm on the Ruataniwha Plains in Central Hawke’s Bay. The 50:50 joint venture with consumer-owned lines company Centralines is Lodestone’s sixth solar farm. The 31.5MWdc project is expected to generate around 50GWh of renewable electricity a year, enough to power roughly 7,000 homes, and will feed directly into the local network. Source: NZ Herald, 9 June 2026
Nature, carbon and community
CarbonCrop is providing the platform for a new BNZ and Pāmu model designed to unlock value from existing native forests while improving biodiversity. CarbonCrop supports the measurement, monitoring, allocation and traceability of carbon removals on a soon-to-be QEII-covenanted native block of around 600 hectares in northern Hawke’s Bay. It is a first-of-its-kind approach the partners hope to replicate across the rural sector. Source: Newsroom, 25 June 2026
The Forest Bridge Trust (TFBT) has had plenty on the go, bringing communities together around the mahi of protecting Aotearoa New Zealand’s whenua, waterways and native species. A South Head field day connected farmers, landowners and conservation experts to share practical solutions. A wānanga at Te Aroha Pā Marae inspired the next generation of kaitiaki through culture and hands-on learning. And TFBT trustee and conservation champion Liz Maire MNZM earned well-deserved recognition for decades of dedication to the natural environment.
Sources: South Head field day | Te Aroha Pā Marae | Liz Maire MNZM
Flying the flag on the world stage
Lanaco reached the moon, again. The Auckland wool-technology company’s EcoStatic filters flew aboard NASA’s Artemis II, the first crewed lunar flyby in more than 50 years. The filters are built into astronauts’ emergency breathing equipment, where they buy precious extra time in the event of an onboard fire. It is a striking proof point for a material grown on New Zealand farms, and for the same technology now reaching homes through Lanaco’s global air-purifier partnerships. Source: NZ Herald, 21 April 2026
International recognition also landed for three Next Listers. Critical., Mushroom Material and Materially Kiwi were named among Aotearoa New Zealand’s nominees for the 2026 Earthshot Prize. It is a reminder of the global potential of practical, scalable climate and circular-economy solutions emerging from the Next List. Source: Earthshot Prize
That is the tension this community lives with right now: genuine, globally significant progress on one hand, and a hard funding and trading environment on the other. The closures are real and they hurt. So does the momentum, in a good way. We will keep telling both sides of that story, because the people building this future deserve to be seen clearly. Not just when they win, but all the way through.