From re-using dairy by-products to making better bean bags - NZ's first clean-tech expo
• April 23, 2026
Cleantech Expo is hosted by AUT. Photo: Benjamin Wickers
New Zealand's first expo for clean-tech technology companies was hosted at AUT yesterday.
Clean-tech are products and services are aimed at reducing or eliminating negative environment impacts.
Cleantech Expo organiser Tanya Pleshkova says the expo was also an opportunity for AUT students to upskill themselves.
“[It’s an opportunity for students] to understand what they can start working on to help the planet and help New Zealand to grow.”
Cleantech Expo organisers Maile Giffin, Tanya Pleshkova, and Kristen Flannery. Photo: Benjamin Wickers.
There were 30 clean-tech businesses represented at the expo.
One, called EcoBeans, produces a plant-based replacement for polystyrene.
Ecobeans founder Sarah Heine says they provide a better alternative to fill bean bags that still look and feel like polystyrene.
“It’s just a better material.”
Rubbish stuck in a branch through the Highland Park Estuary. Photo Supplied
Another business at the expo was Mara Bio, a biotech company, which take by-products from the dairy industry and transforms them into foods like protein, dietary fibres, and peptides.
Co-founder Steve Boggs says the company has a positive environmental impact.
“We are able to, by utilising [our fermentation process], reduce the CO2 emissions [by] up to 40,000 tonnes [a year]."
Another expo organiser, Maile Giffin, says while most people think of clean-tech as windmills and solar panels, it’s much more than that.
“It’s really about getting rid of single-use [products] and moving into renewable, sustainable and recyclable.”
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Our journalists sometimes use AI tools which are checked by humans for accuracy.
AI was used to transcribe audio from the interview.
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