5 Minutes With Alistair Schorn, OANZ's newest board member
Alistair is an Independent Economist with more than two decades of experience in sustainability and wellbeing economics, regional economic development, and international trade and investment. He holds a Master’s Degree in International Economics and is a Member of the New Zealand Institute of Directors
Alistair currently advises economic development agencies, chambers of commerce and private companies in New Zealand on issues of economic development, corporate sustainability, integrated reporting and climate disclosure. Until June 2021, he was a Senior Economist at Infometrics, one of New Zealand’s leading economic consultancies.
Before relocating to New Zealand with his family in 2018, Alistair’s career included five years at WWF, the Worldwide Fund for Nature, as Head of the organisation’s Trade and Investment Programme. He also spent a decade at Trade and Investment South Africa, an organisation similar to New Zealand Trade and Enterprise, operating in the fields of international trade and foreign direct investment. From 2001 to 2004 he served in a diplomatic assignment as the Trade Commissioner in the South African Consulate General in Mumbai, India.
Alistair was elected as a board member at the September AGM. We recently caught up with him to learn more about who he is and what makes him get out of bed in the morning.
What motivates you in the morning?
I strive to make a difference through the various projects I’m involved in, even if it is only for a single individual. I’m fortunate that most of the choices I have made during my career have allowed me the opportunity to do this.
Being a parent has probably reinforced this for me - I worry about the state our world will be in for my kids if we as a society don’t change the way we do things.
This is probably also a big part of why I was attracted to being part of OANZ - I sense that the organisation has an increasing opportunity to make material changes to our country’s food system and primary industries.
App/technology you couldn't live without?
Pretty boring but probably all the news apps I have on my phone - both local and international. I try as much as possible to gain insights from credible sources that reflect a range of views - with news and information being so readily available,I think there is a real risk of being caught in echo chambers that reinforce one’s existing views.
What are you most thankful for today?
Family, health, being able to visit parts of our beautiful country that I haven’t seen before. In the October holidays, we did a long road trip on the North Island, going as far as Northland. Next year the plan is for a winter road trip to the South Island ski fields for skiing and snowboarding with my son.
Name a book you think everyone should read.
“Less is More” by Jason Hickel is a deep dive into the emerging economic theory of degrowth, which will unquestionably be necessary to bring human society back to the point of operating within safe ecological planetary boundaries while at the same time increasing individual and collective wellbeing.
What are you working on right now?
Tiffany Tompkins, the OANZ CEO, and I are working on a research project for the Our Land Our Water / Toitū te Whenua, Toiora te Wai National Science Challenge. The project aims to shed some light on the opportunities for organic exports into the EU, that are presented by the NZ-EU Free Trade Agreement and the EU’s domestic policies, such as their Farm to Fork Strategy.
We feel this research is very timely, considering the recent conclusion of the NZ-EU Fair Trade Agreement and the stated intention on the part of the EU to export their domestic environmental and social objectives to their trading partners.
The Farm to Fork strategy includes a goal of transitioning 25% of the EU’s food production to organic. This is likely to present significant opportunities for organic exports into the EU. At the same time, the tightening of EU regulations with regard to issues such as deforestation and the use of pesticides means that the competitive advantage for regenerative organic products in the EU is likely to grow significantly in the future.
The World feels pretty crazy with wars raging, the global pandemic and climate change. What are you most hopeful for in the future?
That we can recalibrate our society to get back to living within the means afforded to us by the planet, if we’re going to be able to do this, I can’t see how it will be possible without a significant shift to regenerative organic primary sector production.
You specialise in sustainability and well-being economics. What is the most significant change you have encountered over the last few years?
The shift from purely economic measures of progress (e.g. GDP growth) to more broad-based measures (as captured here in New Zealand in the Living Standards Framework) has been really significant - this is something that has been on my professional radar in various roles since around 2006, and it’s gratifying to see it coming to life in different contexts.
You were recently elected as an OANZ board member. What are you hoping to achieve?
I hope to be able to bring some different perspectives to the Board in areas such as well-being measurement and non-financial disclosure. In New Zealand, the most imminent examples of this are in the area of climate disclosure - both in the NZ External Reporting Board’s Climate Disclosure Standards and, for primary sectors, in the He Waka Eke Noa process.
At the same time, I’m hoping to learn a lot more about organic production and the contribution that it can make to New Zealand’s primary sectors.
Name one thing you’d like to see change in the Pacific/Oceania region, just one thing that would make it better for everyone.
Ultimately I would love to see organic production become the norm rather than the exception in Aotearoa.