Professional Development: Waste Management

Leading the way! Waste Management’s Green Star solutions for the construction industry

Waste Management has become the first waste company in Aotearoa to meet the New Zealand Green Building Council’s Green Star construction and demolition waste reporting criteria.

AWARDED A COMPLIANCE Verification Summary, Waste Management has proven it can support the building and construction industry towards meeting Green Star standards by maximising their resource recovery and minimising waste throughout New Zealand.

General manager of customer, strategy & sustainability Ingrid Cronin Knight says New Zealand’s building boom currently contributes 40 to 50 per cent of all waste.

“New Zealand can do much better. Our services make it possible for more than 70 per cent of building and construction waste to be recycled. We have solutions for every kind of construction project, small or large-scale, and we can now provide the certified waste reporting to achieve Green Star requirements.”

The New Zealand Green Building Council runs Green Star and Homestar, two tools that rate and communicate the sustainability of New Zealand’s buildings. Covering both commercial and residential builds, these ratings systems strongly encourage the sustainable management of waste.

“Last year, we told the construction and demolition waste sector that change was coming. After consulting the industry, we added the Waste Reporting Criteria to Green Star, setting in place a

Timber and metal are among the building materials that can be recovered and reused.

third-party audit process to ensure waste contractors and processing facilities are doing what they say they are,” NZGBC chief executive Andrew Eagles says.

“By successfully completing this process, Waste Management is providing greater assurance to the wider industry and is helping develop further transparency around our sector’s waste.”

And huge gains can be made in resource recovery within the industry

“New Zealand can do much better. Our services make it possible for more than 70 per cent of building and construction waste to be recycled.”

because much of the demolition and construction waste thrown out can be diverted to other uses. For example, timber, metals, plasterboard, concrete, bricks, asphalt, clean soils, cardboard, polystyrene, and green waste can all be recovered and transformed into a range of products, including mulch, aggregates, fertiliser, and compost.

Sorting construction waste for better recycling is more straightforward than many might think.

Waste Management delivers a variety of bins, so teams working on-site can separate materials easily. Waste Management then efficiently maximises material recovery and supplies the reporting necessary for Green Star and Homestar accreditation.

Ingrid Cronin Knight says while the sustainable solution is more expensive than throwing everything away as general waste, it is increasingly favoured by leaders in the building and construction industry.

“We all have a responsibility to make better choices. A circular future is the only future that will ensure we make the very best use of our precious resources, minimise waste and reduce our impact on the environment.”

To take your construction business’ sustainability strategy to the next level, go to

wastemanagement.co.nz/for-builders

Case study: Waste Management’s Auckland HQ

When Waste Management’s new Auckland HQ was built in 2019, the company used best practice methods, including waste separation on-site, to ensure 99.5 per cent of demolition waste and 76 per cent of construction waste could be recycled or reused.

“It’s one of the reasons our new HQ has achieved a 5 Green Star rating (indicating New Zealand excellence) and gives our sustainability team a reallife example of how effective building & construction resource recovery solutions can be.”

Post COVID Business Restructuring.

In the current environment, employers might be forgiven for thinking that the pandemic and impact of COVID-19 might mean a relaxing of some legal requirements around restructures. In a recent Authority case, an employer (Kenderdine Electrical Limited) had a phone call with one of their employees during a proposed restructure process. The employer talked through the impact of COVID-19 on the business and mistakenly took the employee’s sympathetic response as an acceptance by the employee to the restructure. The Authority found the employer’s restructure process was defective. Pandemic or not, all restructure-related employment laws continue to apply as strictly as ever.

BRONWEN NEWCOMBE DIRECTOR

GET THE PROCESS RIGHT:

1. GET IN TOUCH WITH YOUR EMPLOYMENT LAWYER

before you start the process.

2. UNDERSTAND THE BUSINESS COMMERCIAL REASONS as to why you are considering a restructure. Are they justifiable? Are they legally sound?

3. ENSURE YOU FOLLOW A FAIR PROCESS

which complies with legal requirements, despite any urgent impact of the pandemic.

4. CONSIDER REDEPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES.

An employer may be forced to offer redeployment opportunities to an employee who has lost their job in a restructure. Understand your obligations. For further advice on how to avoid personal grievance claims, get in touch with Bronwen, employment law specialist within the Commercial team.

DAVENPORTSLAW.CO.NZ 09 883 4400

Time flies as teams and clients reconnect

CAN IT REALLY be only in February this year that KC Legal amalgamated with Turner Hopkins? To say it’s been all hands to the pump since then is an understatement! Dare I say, but as we march into the second half of 2022 (where did those first six months go?), I’m happy to report that Turner Hopkin’s offices are fully open for business. All staff have returned to the premises, and our workplaces are finding their hearts again.

We’re meeting clients face-to-face but also have the full suite of remote meeting options still in place. If nothing else, Covid has helped many businesses, particularly the legal profession, embrace technology, which in turn has provided more flexibility for both staff and clients.

Like many organisations in New Zealand, at Turner Hopkins, we’re now focused on rebuilding our staff culture and re-establishing the social norms of that long-forgotten morning tea break and social events. There’s much excitement about our first official staff social event of the year: a Primo Italiano class, where we’ll drink wine, and make fresh pasta and a dessert to be devoured at the end of the evening.

As always, the team at Turner Hopkins can help with all your business needs, whether you need advice on commercial contracts, commercial leases, franchising, debt recovery, or company (finance or staff) restructures. Be assured that we have the specialists to help you avoid the pitfalls and keep your organisation running smoothly.

Our private client, family, immigration, and property teams are all also ready, willing and able to provide trusted advice when you need it. With a larger property team around me, I’m able to concentrate on property development, subdivision work, and more complex commercial property matters. For me personally, however, the best thing about being a fully integrated part of Turner Hopkins is the camaraderie and support of a truly exceptional team.

Kate Chivers

Principal

Turner Hopkins

400 Lake Road, Takapuna, Auckland 0622

Ph: (09) 801 0776

E: kate.chivers@turnerhopkins.co.nz

www.turnerhopkins.co.nz

EVENTS SPONSOR

Can interpersonal skills make a difference?

WE HAVE INTERVIEWED thousands of candidates over the past few years for extremely diverse roles. There is one common behaviour across all of them that is crucial to employers: good interpersonal skills.

Often employers focus on hard skills, the talents that make a person qualified for a role. However, it is the interpersonal skills such as the candidate’s ability to listen, engage and communicate, that are incredibly important, no matter the role.

Candidates with these qualities are seen as great contributors to the workplace. They are more likely to engage with others in the business and build great relationships with external customers and third parties.

The benefits of these traits to a business are huge. The ability to problem-solve with teammates, to build collaborative relationships, and to better understand customer needs.

One particularly important trait is emotional intelligence. We have a great article on our website covering this but in short it encompasses self-awareness, perceptiveness, consideration for others, empathy, and self-management. Other attributes are effective verbal and digital communication, active listening, reliability, teamwork, and general positivity.

Someone lacking interpersonal skills can appear to others as being anti-social. Not to be confused with shyness or introversion, anti-social behaviour in the workplace can lead to miscommunication, errors, and an inability to work effectively.

Using effective questioning at the time of interviewing will help you to build up a picture of a person’s interpersonal skills to ensure you get exactly who you need to fit within your team and your business. Of course, you can always ask for our help… we’re interviewing every day.

Lisa Hill

Managing Director