INNOVATION
ŌTAUTAHI INNOVATIONS This city of ours is a special place. We challenge the status quo and routinely change the world. Ernest Rutherford pioneered nuclear physics just down the road from wherever you’re reading this, Kate Sheppard led an equal rights revolution from Ilam, and Bill Hamilton invented the jet boat on our rivers. We punch above our weight for fresh and innovative thinking. So, who’s pushing the limits today? What businesses are changing the future of humanity and helping the world in their own innovative ways? All these businesses call Christchurch home.
ELECTRICAIR
MEDSALV
In an achievement reminiscent of the Wright Brothers, Christchurch company ElectricAir recently flew their electric plane across Cook Strait. It was the world’s longest flight over water by a pure electric plane and cost about $2 in electricity. Gary Freedman founded the company in an effort to reduce the carbon emissions of the aviation industry and hopes their Cook Strait flight is the spark that shifts the industry towards electric.
Making NZ’s healthcare system more environmentally and financially sustainable, Medsalv reprocesses single-use medical devices and makes them clinically safe to use again. Christchurch Boys’ High leaver Oliver Hunt started it as a Masters project at the University of Canterbury. It has since won innovation awards all over the show. Medsalv has kept thousands of tonnes of medical waste from landfills and saved the NZ health system an estimated $100 million each year. Legends.
