Catalysts for Change: The Business Case for Taking Sustainability Seriously

Black Cat Cruises | March 2025

For Black Cat Cruises, conservation has been part of the business since day one, but recently, they’ve broadened that commitment by looking at how to reduce their wider environmental impact. As part of that journey, they joined the Developing Your Sustainability Roadmap course to build knowledge across the team and make sustainability a shared focus. In a space that can often feel overwhelming, taking the time to learn has helped turn good intentions into confident action.

Chief Executive Paul Milligan says, “We absolutely want to learn more and trying to find those areas that we don’t intuitively work on, its about trying to build some better processes. And I guess looking at the bigger picture and asking ourselves what our long-term plan is.... Things like carbon footprint measuring can be quite a daunting task, as it can balloon out to all sorts of things. So don’t hesitate to get a bit of advice from others, there are many support resources in Christchurch. There are people who can help you know what’s appropriate for your business and guide you through it.”

Marketing & Sales Manager Ania Truman says, “It was a really brilliant course, it simplified everything and helped us take actionable, measurable steps toward creating a sustainability plan, which we’re now writing. It was also great to connect with other businesses on the same journey, even if we were all at different stages and from different industries. We realised we were already doing a lot, we just hadn’t documented or communicated it.”

Tend2Create | March 2025

Sinéad Coffey, Founder of Tend2Create, brings a strategic lens to everything she does, and sustainability is no exception. After taking part in the Developing Your Sustainability Roadmap course, she found real value in how the sessions translated complex concepts into clear, practical steps.

"Jonathan Pooch delivered a powerful and practical session on sustainability. His expertise and delivery style made complex concepts easy to grasp and apply, especially in a Christchurch business context. The workshop struck a great balance between strategic insight and actionable steps - I walked away with a clearer path forward for embedding sustainability into real business decisions."

Aqualinc Research Ltd | March 2025

Julian Weir, Principal Engineer and Groundwater Modelling Lead at Aqualinc Research Ltd, joined the Developing Your Sustainability Roadmap course earlier this year.

He says, it is "a great course. Jonathan (from Deta) was knowledgeable, practical, helpful, friendly and explained things really well. Business Canterbury were also well organised, friendly and made us feel that were were genuinely welcome. Thanks for making the course the success it was."

Auburn | 2023

Charlotte Sullivan, founder of Auburn, a local strategy, marketing and innovation business, joined the Developing Your Sustainability Roadmap course to better support her SME clients on their sustainability journey.

"I attended this course to help me better understand how my SME clients can overcome the feeling that this is too big a subject, and to put structure around their sustainability planning. Jono is an excellent facilitator and brought all the subject matter to life with his considerable experience in this field. Some of the many helpful takeaways he offered included: recognising but not being put off by the diversity of the term sustainability, starting where you are and discovering what sustainability means for your business, celebrating what you're already doing (and what you do next), and prioritising initiatives for effort vs impact.

"This course was also a great way to connect with other Business Canterbury members beyond the brief chats at networking events and to share ideas. It has given me a framework to encourage my clients to recognise the growing importance of communicating the great things they're already doing as well as putting plans in place for their next steps. I highly recommend this course, excellent value for money."