From breakthrough to market
Mushroom Material is working on an alternative to polystyrene using mycelium (mushroom roots) and agricultural waste. The team has cracked a key production challenge, yields are now above 80%, and their first commercial delivery is due this quarter. Last month they showcased at JEC World, in Paris, one of the world’s largest shows for the composites industry. Now they’re preparing to raise investment to scale up to full commercial production.
Starboard Maritime Intelligence is live in Samoa and Tonga. It's providing transnational crime units with real-time vessel intelligence to detect illegal fishing, smuggling and organised crime across the Pacific. Read more
Traction, growth and capability
JT Group, property maintenance specialists, continues to expand nationally. With 90% of its operations now electric, the business is saving about 8,600kg CO₂e per month, offsetting the equivalent emissions of driving a petrol car around the Earth.
ŌKU New Zealand makes herbal products from native plants. Its Restore Tea has moved from research and development into clinical trials. It is being tested with pre-diabetic participants, a step towards proving it works.
Circularity embedded
Phoenix Recycling Group has diverted more than 717,000 kilograms of batteries from landfill and built a 350+ site national recovery network. It has also partnered with Toyota New Zealand to create an end-of-life pathway for hybrid batteries.
ImpacTex and Untouched World are now in their third season of fully circular retail signage — using textile waste to make in-store signage that can be repeatedly recycled. Read more
GoodWrap Recycling, with Pro Clima and Naylor Love, has done something simple but powerful by making plastic recycling a natural part of the construction site workflow at Wellington Airport. It’s now scaling the model nationwide. Case study
The Cleanery has launched a next-generation cleaner combining performance with low waste design. Ocean Cleaner uses omegafactant™, a protein-based technology that delivers up 4.8× grease breakdown and lifts virtually all residue.
Regeneration at scale
The Forest Bridge Trust is mobilising communities to restore biodiversity. It is deploying bat detectors across Rodney and scaling predator control to 500 traps to protect threatened species. Rodney Pekapeka Project and South Head update
East Coast Exchange (ECX) is gaining national and global traction as a model for community-led climate resilience. It features as the central case study in the Financial Markets Authority’s He Kākahu Whenua report on innovation in the Māori economy. It is now contributing to international nature data pilots with the Taskforce for Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD).
And alongside these initiatives, new thinking is emerging with Steven Moe curating fresh perspectives on business and purpose in Changing Paradigms.
This is the Next cohort.
Not just ideas, but traction, systems change and a growing signal that a different economy is not only possible, but it’s already underway!