ACCTS and Ecolabelling: A New Zealand Opportunity to Lead in Sustainable Trade
New Zealand is stepping into the global spotlight with its involvement in the Agreement on Climate Change, Trade, and Sustainability (ACCTS). This forward-thinking agreement weaves together trade liberalisation and environmental priorities, a bold move to align economic growth with the urgent realities of climate change. At the heart of this effort is Eco Choice Aotearoa, New Zealand’s only Type 1 ecolabel, operating under the robust standards of ISO 14024.
But what does all this really mean? Let’s explore the story of ACCTS, the opportunities it presents for Kiwi businesses, and the vital role of ecolabelling in making trade not just bigger but better for the planet.
ACCTS: How It Came to Be
The ACCTS journey began in 2019, with six nations (New Zealand, Costa Rica, Fiji, Iceland, Norway, and Switzerland) joining forces to negotiate a trade agreement with sustainability at its core. While Fiji and Norway contributed to shaping the agreement, they didn’t sign on in 2024 for domestic and strategic reasons. In the end, four nations stood as signatories: New Zealand, Costa Rica, Iceland, and Switzerland.
This wasn’t just another trade deal. ACCTS has redefined the rules by eliminating tariffs on environmental goods, making services like renewable energy and pollution control easier to trade, and setting clear guidelines for eco-labelling and fossil fuel subsidy reform. It’s a blueprint for how trade policy can tackle climate and environmental challenges, and New Zealand is right at the helm.
Why ACCTS Matters for NZ Businesses
ACCTS is more than just good news for New Zealand exporters, it’s a game-changer. The agreement clears the way for over 300 environmental goods, cutting tariffs on items like solar panels, wind turbines, and recycled building materials. According to MFAT, New Zealand exports of these goods are worth NZ$2.4 billion annually, with nearly NZ$1 billion heading to markets that previously lacked trade agreements.
Some of the standout opportunities include:
Renewable Energy Technologies: Think solar panels and wind turbines, essential for global decarbonisation efforts.
Sustainable Building Materials: Products like recycled wood and insulation are in high demand for low-carbon construction.
Low-Carbon Transport: Electric vehicles and bicycles, aligning perfectly with the push for greener mobility.
The agreement also opens doors to markets like Switzerland, Costa Rica, and Iceland, where demand for sustainable solutions is strong. Combined with liberalisation of environmental services, this could pave the way for Kiwi businesses to carve out a leadership role in the green economy.
Ecolabelling: A Key Ingredient in ACCTS
One of the standout features of ACCTS is its focus on ecolabelling; a topic that might not grab headlines but is crucial for shaping a sustainable trade future. Ecolabelling is already a staple in regions like Europe, where mature sustainability initiatives mean that eco-labels are often a prerequisite for public and private procurement.
By including ecolabelling guidelines, ACCTS does three critical things:
Sets out best practices for voluntary eco-certification programs.
Encourages alignment of standards to avoid unnecessary trade barriers.
Builds trust among consumers and businesses by ensuring transparency.
This is a golden opportunity for New Zealand to catch up with global leaders. As the country’s only Type 1 ecolabel, Eco Choice Aotearoa can help Kiwi products stand out in international markets, meeting the high expectations of conscious citizens and consumers.
Why Type 1 Ecolabels Stand Out
So, what’s the big deal about being a Type 1 ecolabel? It’s all about credibility. Under the ISO 14024 standard, Type 1 ecolabels like Eco Choice Aotearoa undergo rigorous third-party verification. This means products are evaluated on multiple environmental criteria, considering their entire lifecycle, from raw materials to disposal.
Here’s why this matters:
Impartiality: Third-party verification eliminates bias and builds trust.
Lifecycle Perspective: It’s not just about being “green” at one stage; products must deliver environmental benefits throughout their life.
Benchmarks: Type 1 ecolabels set clear standards, making it easy for consumers and businesses to compare products.
This approach is also a powerful counter to greenwashing, where vague or exaggerated claims mislead consumers.
What About EPDs? A Different Kind of Transparency
While Type 1 ecolabels certify a product’s overall environmental performance, Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs), governed by ISO 14025, serve a different purpose. They provide detailed, quantitative data about a product’s environmental impacts, based on a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA).
EPDs are especially important in sectors like construction and manufacturing, where buyers need precise data to comply with green building standards like LEED or BREEAM. While EPDs don’t judge whether a product is “good” or “bad” for the environment, they offer critical transparency for making informed decisions.
Eco Choice Aotearoa embraces both worlds by offering Type 1 ecolabel certification and facilitating EPD services through a trusted partner. This dual approach ensures:
Market Reach: Kiwi businesses can meet both consumer and industry-specific demands.
Global Alignment: Products gain credibility in international supply chains.
Sustainability Leadership: New Zealand businesses can showcase genuine environmental commitment.
Why It All Matters
With its ecolabelling focus, ACCTS gives New Zealand a seat at the global table for sustainable trade. It positions Kiwi businesses to thrive in a world where environmental accountability isn’t just a nice-to-have. It’s non-negotiable.
Through Eco Choice Aotearoa, New Zealand has a powerful tool to navigate this new landscape. By combining the credibility of Type 1 ecolabels with the transparency of EPDs, New Zealand businesses can take charge of building a sustainable, resilient economy.
As trade evolves, so too must our approaches to sustainability. With ACCTS, New Zealand is taking a step towards it’s ready to lead in words and action.
This article was written by Eco Choice Aotearoa’s Head of Strategic Partnerships, Stella H Jeon.
Clare Hobby – Global Director of External Engagement at TCO Certified, Board Member at the Sustainable Leadership Purchasing Council
Clare has been working in sustainability for over 20 years — before it was cool, and before most companies knew what scope 3 emissions were. Her main challenge today is getting companies to look beyond emissions data to other factors like biodiversity, human rights, etc. This includes encouraging organisations to focus on actions that actually move the needle – sustainable purchasing, product longevity, and greater access to renewable energy.
What first drew you to working in sustainability, and what keeps you motivated?
I like to say I “slid on a banana peel” into sustainability before it became mainstream. Back in the late ‘90s I worked in the foreign service and was on a trade mission with a number of sustainability-focused organizations. I was so inspired by their commitment to the issues, and something clicked – sustainability was where I belonged.
Can you tell us about the sustainability challenge you’re most focused on right now?
Right now we’re focused on circularity as a way of reducing the climate impact of electronics. Upwards of 80% of the lifetime emissions in the average computer happen in the manufacturing phase, so this means we have to make sure that electronics are designed and made to last. That way we can reduce the need for excess manufacturing. But good design and manufacturing are only part of the story. The important challenge for all of us is to use our IT products longer. Take care of them, share and repair. It makes a big difference to the climate impact and slows the flow of e-waste – and we’re also working on a sustainable cloud initiative, so stay tuned.
What helps you stay effective in this field without burning out or compromising your values?
Two things keep me going – the mission and the people! The mission is clear and there’s still work to do. The people are the glue! I’ve had the opportunity to work alongside the most dedicated and interesting people I could hope for. From interviewing factory workers in China, to working on complex sustainability challenges with our team, or representing TCO Certified in UN meetings, there’s a deep appreciation that comes from this shared commitment to a more sustainable world. I’m also really grateful to work for an organisation where sustainability impact is the number one goal. It’s in our DNA. This clarity is so important so we can lead with purpose and integrity.
Moumita Das Roy – Commercial Communications Manager, Dulux NZ
Moumita’s path to sustainability wasn’t a straight line, it evolved from her lived experiences. At Dulux NZ, Moumita’s work sits at the intersection of marketing, communication, and sustainability, helping to translate complex environmental commitments into stories that customers, partners, and communities can understand and trust.
What first drew you to working in sustainability, and what keeps you motivated?
My sustainability journey wasn’t planned. It evolved from my lived experiences. Migrating to Aotearoa meant rebuilding both life and career, and that process made me deeply conscious of resources, resilience, and community. I learned quickly that nothing should be taken for granted. Not opportunities, not materials, not the environment that sustains us. As a communicator, I became increasingly aware that sustainability succeeds or fails based on how well we tell its story. Data alone rarely changes behaviour; connection does. That realisation drew me toward my sustainability work.
What’s surprised you most about the barriers that still exist in the sustainability space?
The biggest barriers aren’t technological, they’re human. Real progress happens when sustainability becomes a shared responsibility rather than a specialist function. When people understand that small, consistent decisions matter, momentum builds naturally.
How can women building a career in sustainability be better supported?
We need to broaden our understanding of what sustainability leadership looks like. Many women arrive in this field through non-traditional pathways. Communications, community engagement, design, or business strategy. Support means reducing the invisible burden of constantly proving credibility, particularly for migrant and culturally diverse women navigating new professional environments. Sustainability requires collaboration, empathy, and long-term thinking, qualities often undervalued in traditional leadership models but critical for systemic change. Creating spaces where those strengths are recognised will help more women thrive in this sector.
Elisha Willeam Peter – Sustainability Consultant, Tonkin + Taylor
Elisha works in climate change, helping businesses with their emissions reduction plans, carbon inventories, ecolabel verifications, and climate risk assessments. She represents what it feels like to be a young person navigating climate anxiety while continuing to show up with passion and persistence to create a sustainable future.
What first drew you to working in sustainability, and what keeps you motivated?
I’ve always wanted to work in the environmental space but I never realised there was such a defined field as sustainability when I was at university. After graduating, I looked for roles that would allow me to contribute to environmental issues, and that’s how I found my first sustainability role. You could say I stumbled into it, but I’m so glad I did. Working in sustainability has opened my eyes to the human side of things. I’ve learned that actions, policies, and decisions all have very tangible impacts on both the environment and communities. We can’t make decisions that protect the planet at the expense of people, there has to be a balance. That’s what keeps me motivated.
How can women building a career in sustainability be better supported?
I genuinely believe that women supporting women goes a long way. I’ve been fortunate to have been surrounded by admirable and inspiring women, both professionally and personally. Throughout my career so far, I’ve been guided by women who have encouraged me to develop my technical skills and challenged me to step outside my comfort zone. It’s also important to create safe and inclusive spaces that amplify women’s voices. Many women, myself included, can find it difficult to assert ourselves in discussions, so building spaces where we feel comfortable speaking up and developing our public speaking and leadership skills is essential.
What helps you stay effective in this field without burning out or compromising your values?
It hasn’t always been easy. With increasing competition in the field and tight budgets often leading organisations deprioritising sustainability, it can feel like an uphill battle. But I try to remind myself that even small, consistent actions are much better than doing nothing at all. When things do get too overwhelming, I make it a point to recognize that and take time to step back — whether that means slowing down, spending time in nature, or leaning on my colleagues in the sustainability space who share the same passion and understand the challenges. Those moments of rest and connection really help me stay grounded and stay true to my values.
Gabriela Baron – Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Engineering and Design, University of Auckland
Gabriela’s work sits at the intersection of design, conservation, and community participation. She’s particularly focused on how we reimagine conservation — not as separation from nature, but as relationship woven into culture, education, and everyday decision-making.
What first drew you to working in sustainability, and what keeps you motivated?
I was first drawn to sustainability because I felt, very deeply, that the way human systems operated were disconnected from life itself, from land, from community, from our own inner nature. Sustainability, for me, was never a technical misalignment, but about remembering that we are part of living systems.
What keeps me motivated is purpose. Purpose is not something you find once and can never look back, it is something that keeps calling you forward, especially on days when you feel lost. I find strength in helping people rediscover their relationship with the more-than-human world. I believe purpose is like a quiet compass, it picks you up when you are discouraged and it reminds you why the work matters when the world feels overwhelming.
What’s surprised you most about the barriers that still exist in the sustainability space?
What surprises me the most is how often sustainability is still framed through structures of control rather than relationship. Sometimes the conversation is purely technical, very institutional, or very male-dominated in its style of leadership, and we risk forgetting the emotional, cultural, and spiritual dimensions of how humans are interwoven with natural systems.
Another barrier is the persistence of voices telling women that they must choose between softness and strength, between care and intellectual rigor, between nurturing and leadership. I don’t believe these are opposites. I believe they are different expressions of the same creative force.
How can women building a career in sustainability be better supported?
Women in sustainability need spaces where they can grow without having to shrink parts of themselves to fit into existing systems. We need communities of women who celebrate each other’s success, who lift each other up, and who remind each other that our value is not defined by how loudly we speak or how hard we perform. I think of it as a kind of rewilding: allowing ourselves to step out of the domestication of external expectations and reconnect with our own inner rhythms, creativity, and wisdom. And let feminine energies express themselves in the ways that feel most natural and unique to each of us.
We need diversity and redundancy. I would love to see more mentorship, more cross-generational connection, more spaces where girls and women can see themselves reflected in leadership, science, design, and conservation (through a feminine, relentless lens) and where they can feel free to find their tribe of women who celebrate life, beauty, and purpose together.
Rachael Randal – Manager, Sustainable Procurement & Supply Chain Partnerships, Science and Sustainability Auckland Transport
Rachael leads a sustainability and procurement team at Auckland Transport, working across $2 billion worth of contracts to turn sustainability commitments into measurable outcomes. She’s not just a champion of sustainable procurement but takes an intersectional approach to sustainability as she works to advance economic, environmental and social rights for all.
What first drew you to working in sustainability, and what keeps you motivated?
I spent the first part of my career working in communications and engagement in the healthcare sector. My favourite part of that mahi was working closely with patient advocacy groups, hearing about their experiences navigating complex systems. The people I met and worked with taught me to look at policy and strategy through an equity lens and to always ask questions about whose voice is being heard, who is the system designed for, and why.
After having children and when my second child was a toddler, I made the decision to go back to university to do postgraduate study and master’s research focussed on the social, political and economic dimensions of global environmental change. Together, these experiences have shaped how I think about environmental, social and economic rights, climate action and sustainability, and the importance of always critically interrogating the power dynamics at play.
What’s surprised you most about the barriers that still exist in the sustainability space?
What surprises and worries me the most is how narrow the sustainability lens can become. There’s a real risk of carbon tunnel vision, where reporting emissions becomes the dominant, sometimes only, focus. Reducing emissions is critical, of course, and we do need to measure and report to demonstrate this. But if we pursue it in isolation, we won’t get the outcome we need. Sustainability isn’t single-issue, it’s about ‘meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.’ Environmental, social, and economic systems intersect. If we electrify a fleet but ignore questions around who benefits and who is left behind, or transition industries without thinking about biodiversity, workforce impacts and even accept that people around the world will be exploited and human rights will be degraded in the process, we have totally missed the point.
I’m also often surprised by how little understanding there still is about intersectionality. The communities most affected by environmental degradation and climate related hazards are the same communities facing economic exclusion, systemic racism and other discrimination, or health, housing and education inequities. People don’t experience climate risk, economic insecurity or social marginalisation in neat silos. They experience them simultaneously and these harms and disparities exacerbate each other.
What would progress look like in your industry five years from now? What needs to change to get there?
The rate of change can often feel frustratingly slow, but when I look back across the last 5 years, it’s clear that progress has been made, and this is much easier to demonstrate now we have better systems for data capture, monitoring and impact evaluation. Five years from now, I’d like to see more recognition around New Zealand of the important role of procurement in enabling organisations’ sustainability commitments. This is key if they are to move beyond ambition statements to action and progress.
I’d also like to see more cross-sector collaboration, as this is essential if we are to generate meaningful outcomes. Clarity on where each entity sits within the theory of change so we can each understand our role in the system will help organisations to align decisions accordingly and maximise our collective impact.
