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Casey's work demonstrating how electric technology that is available today can lead to more profitable businesses and his electrification advocacy work as CEO of Rewiring Aotearoa has earned him another title, this time the Otago Daily Times business leader of the year.
In the midst of the cherry harvest, Mike Casey has received another cherry on top.
As business editor Sally Rae wrote:
He was happy to open the gates to the orchard, saying for a long time, the primary sector in particular had been seen as climate negative, rather than positive.
But here was a primary sector entity which was leading the charge on electrification which ultimately drives down fossil fuels and lowers farm input costs — ‘‘that gets people curious’’.
Mr Casey was never a preacher — ‘‘you must never tell people what they should be doing’’ — rather, it was about showing people what he was doing and they were welcome to ‘‘take from this whatever you want’’ — ask as many questions and take as many photographs. Being more co-operative rather than competitive was when change was ultimately shifted.
... Being an entrepreneur, it was all about problems to solve and right now there was no bigger problem to solve than the climate problem. He was buoyed by the reception to Rewiring Aotearoa’s message, particularly that it was reaching a lot of different types of Kiwis.
Often climate action was not pro-business but he was a businessman so it was about pairing good smart business with climate action, and his goal was for New Zealand to be seen as a ‘‘beacon of light’’ on how to do that.
When Mike Casey bought his house near Cromwell, it came with gas bottles on the side of the home for water and an expensive diesel system for the underfloor heating. He replaced both of them with a Steibel Eltron system and it's been saving him money ever since. As technical manager Bhawesh Singh told him at the Electrify Queenstown conference, there has been a big influx in enquiries from homes looking to get off the molecules and onto electrons.
Read moreDownloadConfidence that cutting regulations to make solar power more accessible - won't jeopardise people's safety. A new Regulation Ministry reports laid out a potential blueprint to legalise plug-in solar and reduce the time and cost of panel installation. Rewiring Aotearoa CEO Mike Casey shares his thoughts with Andrew Dickens.
The burgeoning demand for solar was also a chance to address a mismatch between the numbers of training opportunities available and young people searching for work, Casey said. "The mums of New Zealand are telling me that there's not enough apprenticeships for their kids and the solar installers of New Zealand are telling me there's not enough trained people."
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