Geia (global, environmental, impact, assessment) social enterprise chief executive Casey Davies-Bell said a team of 11 people who were mainly University of Otago student volunteers had spent the past 18 months creating a website and working on phone app to measure the environmental footprint of businesses.
More than 30 businesses, representing industries including marketing, hospitality and health services, from throughout New Zealand had signed up to the company's website to have their environmental performance displayed online.
The company aimed to enable all businesses who were interested in being more sustainable to be able to do so, Mr Davies-Bell said.
``All businesses matter and make a difference, from corner dairies to large corporations, but most of them can't afford the help they need because the entry barriers are too high.
``We are aiming to take the barriers away.''
Geia would assess ways businesses could reduce consumption around travel, energy and waste, and put them in touch with a company who could implement practical measures to reduce spending and consequently, carbon emissions in these areas, he said.
The Geia website would rank businesses on a leaderboard, based on Ministry of the Environment criteria,with those with the best environmental rating at the top.
Shoppers could then join a loyalty programme and earn points towards cash prizes when they shopped at businesses on the leaderboard.
The higher up the board the business they shopped at was, the more points the consumer would earn, Mr Davies-Bell said.
Vogel St Kitchen owner Riah Mclean said while the restaurant had always been sustainably focused, it was investigating the prospect of making pellets to burn from coffee waste.
``At the moment 50kg of coffee beans goes out the door every week.
``We are exploring how we can use old canola oil and coffee beans dried and compressed to make pellets which would be a really efficient way of heating.''
The business was also hoping to establish a Dunedin collection point for takeaway cups which at present had to be transported out of the city to be recycled, she said.
If implemented, both measures would increase the businesses sustainability and bump them up the leaderboard, Mr Davies-Bell said.
Polson Higgs senior business consultant Hamish Walker said the company had worked with Geia for a few months, during which time paper use had been reduced by 25%
``Now everyone has a Microsoft Surface, people get a bit of stick if they turn up to a meeting with paper.''
The business hoped to halve its paper consumption, he said.
``The payback and rewards are a lot more than Geia's consultant fee.''
Business was the strongest contributor to environmental change.
``The real driving factor will be when customers are choosing the better performers to shop at.''
A phone application that showed consumers the most sustainable businesses by location and category was hoped to be launched during the University of Otago Orientation Week 2017.
