Iceberg floats past Dunedin, New Zealand.

It's Nov 2006 an Iceberg floats past Dunedin, New Zealand. The Oscar winning documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, featuring Al Gore is showing at cinema's. I was living in Dunedin at the time when a large iceberg broke off from the?Ronne Ice Shelf?in Antarctic and drifted as close as 100km off the Dunedin coastline. This wasn't a small iceberg, by the time it reached the Dunedin coastline it was 500m long and standing 100m high out of the water. You could see it from land.

Here’s the irony. It wasn't normal for icebergs to float past Dunedin. The previous reported sighting of an iceberg floating past Dunedin was in 1931.?So was it novel or concerning? At the time it appears it was more novel, rather than concerning. People took sightseeing flights out to the iceberg to view it close up. A famous sheep, Shrek landed on the iceberg. Shrek's fleece was shorn on the iceberg for charity.?

18 years later how did we not see this as a concern? Why was an iceberg floating past Dunedin. This should have been a massive wake up call!?

Instead at the time we emitted more carbon into the atmosphere to view this unusual phenomenon.?

Since 2006 more icebergs have drifted past Dunedin, however not visible from land.

So if this should have been concerning in 2006. What have we done different in the past 18 years to address climate change??

Last week Destination Queenstown Inc & the Queenstown Business Chamber of Commerce held the inaugural Electrifying Queenstown Summit. Electrification has tangible long-term economic and environmental benefits for businesses & households.?

The event had two sessions. The morning session was informative, kicking with Richard Fletcher CEO of Aurora Energy Limited New Zealand s peaking about future proofing the network. Mike Casey was our keynote speaker sharing his in-depth knowledge of electrifying his cherry farm, Electric Cherries . Mike is also the CEO of Rewiring Aotearoa , an organisation on a mission to show the economic and environmental benefits of electrification for all New Zealanders. We then we had the power of a panel (no pun intended). Ben Fahy facilitated an extraordinary panel session with Toni Anne Glover , Trent Yeo (self-confessed OG geek), Mike Casey and Glen Coates. My key takeaway, it's not that hard just get on with it and start.

That afternoon we moved to the marquee at Millbrook Resort . We had 30 wonderful trade exhibitors including Green loans from 澳新银行 , Bank of New Zealand , Westpac New Zealand & ASB Bank , along with mortgage brokers from Vega Group . Did you know many major banks offer green loans up to $80k at 1% interest for up to 3 years.?

Greenhawk Chartered Accountants Kelly Brown was on hand to help ambitious companies looking for a partner with their?tax, business performance and climate action.

Polestar had a selection of EV’s for people to take for a test drive and experience the design? & performance from these stunning vehicles.

Bailey Gorst from ChargeNet - EV Charging Solutions was on hand to ensure we had fast charging solutions.

Local family owned store Better by Bike had a great array of E-Bikes available for active transport solutions.

Marine transport from Naut , thanks Lindsay Faithfull for reminding us about the reliability of electric propulsion. Vessev , Eric Laakmann & Candela , Kostya Marchenko both had the latest in foiling electric ferries.?I can't wait to see the first electric hydro foiling Ferry on lake Whakatipu.

Solar and battery solutions from Queenstown Solar , SolarZero & Regan Heal from Infinite Energy.

Energy suppliers, lines &?network from PowerNet , Aurora Energy Limited New Zealand & Octopus Energy could answer purchasing and exporting of energy.

If you needed to know more about your footprint or environmental impact, Kate Meyer from Planetary Accounting Network , Cayley Alger from Toitū Envirocare , Tom Hallam from CarbonTrail & Cristina Barraclough from Ekos have you covered.

So stoked to have the legend Sophie Ward and her team from Wastebusters leading the way to zero waste. Accompanied by the incredible team from KiwiHarvest Queenstown & Central Lakes ?

The innovation lounge from Queenstown Airport (ZQN) was a great way to catch up with many local businesses and hear what they are already doing to electrify their businesses.

The afternoon finished off with Briony Bennett from Ara Ake giving us more insights to the work they are doing in the energy sector and flex. Flexibility to enable a two-way common communication protocol between an electricity distribution company and flexible supplier.

Events like this not only show the benefits economically and environmentally of electrification. But more importantly help businesses plan for the future and build electrification into their long-term plans.

Looking forward to the next event. Maybe Aviation can showcase their electrification plans? Kiri Hannifin Air New Zealand and Ryan Barta BETA TECHNOLOGIES ? Or what Catherine MacGowan Wisk is doing with eVTOL??

Queenstown lakes has the ambitious goal that the visitor economy reaches carbon zero by 2030.?

If only 10% of iceberg floats above the surface of the ocean. We are still only scratching the top of the iceberg, there is much work still to do. However I’m excited to see the energy coming out of this event and willingness to electrify everything, rapidly.

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