Asia Pacific Infrastructure Property & Build | Industrial Safety News: April '19 - May '19 by Media Solutions

April - May 2019

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April - May 2019

TITLES HAVE CHANGED, YOUR RESPONSIBILITIES HAVEN’T… EMPLOYERS MUST ENSURE WORKERS ARE DEEMED COMPETENT TO SAFELY HANDLE ALL DANGEROUS GOODS AND HAZARDOUS SUBSTANCES. Competent chemical handlers are your onsite chemical safety advisor. We deliver cost-effective training customised to meet your needs: n HSWA Certified Handler n HSWA Competent Chemical Handler n Chemical Spill Response n Safe Handling of Asbestos n Safe Chemical Management for managers and supervisors n Safety Data Sheet Management in your business n National Environmental Standards n Site Compliance Assessments n Emergency Preparedness

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April - May 2019

Employers ill equipped to take responsibility for employees' domestic violence issues

n the aftermath of the horrendous mosque attacks and a law banning all but small calibre rifles and shotguns, major changes in employment and tax law now in effect may have been overlooked by many employers, particularly SMEs. However, controversially allotting responsibility for dealing with an employee involved in a domestic violence situation presents less well-resourced businesses with yet another complex compliance challenge without an obvious solution and the necessary support. For example, privacy concerns prevent an employer from going beyond a polite enquiry as to whether the employee (existing or prospective) suffers from any health issues which may impact on their ability to do the job. Yet the employer is now expected to ascertain whether a domestic violence situation exists. Helpful advice from government suggests a suspicious employer approach the employee’s family doctor, school teachers, relatives and workmates – really? What about our obsession with citing privacy and employment constraints when trying to elicit personal information, particularly from government agencies? Responding to an employee’s domestic violence situation involves a complicated programme

encompassing ongoing professional counselling, extended time off and frequent performance reviews, all while trying to maintain a successful business. Demand for counselling has soared in the wake of earthquakes, armed police incidents and now a terror attack. Given the overall scarcity of suitable professional counsellors, employers outside of major urban areas may simply not be able to access or afford the necessary expertise. Clouding this requirement for a plan to address psycho-social scenarios is the formerly clear distinction between ‘Workplace’ and ‘Non-workplace’ responsibilities. Government believes resolving a worker’s domestic violence situation raises productivity by reducing the need to be absent from work; a worker not distracted by their domestic situation is a safer worker on the job, therefore fewer accidents, is the rationale. The policy for dealing with a domestic violence victim will be reflected in the company Health and Safety policy and also individual employment agreements. Does this “duty of care” extend to part time/casual labour and contractors? While a commendable aspirational outcome, many business operators will regard this latest example as another expen-

sive compliance obligation which lacks a sound business case. Even though a reported 70 percent of New Zealand’s 540,000 businesses are just owner operators, this additional compliance obligation risks further undermining already struggling SMEs.

Domestic Violence

From April 1 2019, an employer has a legal responsibility to support an employee affected by a domestic violence situation. The new entitlement of up to 10 days paid leave each year is in addition to normal holiday and sick leave entitlements. An employee can request short-term (up to two months) variations to their working arrangements, to which the employer must respond within 10 days. The law expressly prohibits discriminating against an employee or prospective employee because they are, or may be, affected by a domestic violence situation. Furthermore, an employee can bring a personal grievance if they believe

their domestic violence situation is not being fairly considered. Employers should have a policy for dealing with staff who are seeking help for a domestic violence situation. The policy should recognise that the violence may be historical, preceding their present employment and that request for leave may come from the employee or a person with a dependant being subjected to the violence, for example a parent. There is clearly a confused relationship between workplace safety and non-workplace safety issues, which has yet to be explored and defined. General advice is available from the Employment New Zealand website. Meanwhile, employers should seek professional advice regarding a particular situation. Information provided here is designed for general guidance only and employers should seek professional advice in dealing with situations that may arise.

Barry Dyer

The views and opinions expressed by Media Solutions content partner Responsible Care CEO Barry Dyer may not necessarily be those of Responsible Care New Zealand. safetynews.co.nz

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April - May 2019

Content Partners for this issue

Barry Dyer Responsible Care New Zealand Page 3

Employers ill equipped to take responsibility for employee domestic violence issues

Contents

Safer gumboots

Toxic and corrosive substances compliance

12 Chemical industry leads by example

Pages 28-29, 44-45

20 Crucial contribution of water resilience 24 You can't push regulation change without economic provision 28 LGNZ welcomes water reform

Carly Price The Questioning Engineer Pages 24-27

Gene Marks Marks Group Page 39

40 Australia's first waste-toenergy plant

18 Deadly dangers of organic solvents

44 Local Government's mixed views on Urban Development Authority

Events: 17 33 43 51

Local Government New Zealand

34 Cyber Security

30 Reforming NZâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s broken Three Waters model

14 Managing airborne health risks

Dave Cull

National Safety Show NMEC ANZ Safety Tech Developing NZ

Stephen Selwood Infrastructure New Zealand Pages 30-31

46 Greening of global sourcing

Mat Langley CBRE Global Research Pages 46-49

50 The $5b Smart City

Published by Media Solutions Ltd PO Box 503, Whangaparaoa Auckland 0943 09 428 7456 Original material published online and in this magazine is copyright, but may be reproduced providing permission is obtained from the editor and

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Associate Editor

acknowledgement given to Media Solutions. Opinions expressed are those of the authors and may not necessarily be those of Media Solutions Ltd.

Mike Bishara

Michael Curreen

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ISSN 2624-0572 (Print) ISSN 2624-0580 (Online)

April - May 2019

Sponsored Article

Chemical industry leads by example The chemical industry continues to lead by example, helping to ensure essential chemicals encountered at work and at home are safely managed - safeguarding employees, communities and our environment

lagging indicators of safety performance in favour of identifying safer work practices and workplaces, by responding to workers’ suggestions about improvements. WorkSafe NZ has warned against business operators falling victim to uninformed and always expensive ‘consultants’. Responsible Care NZ site compliance assessments are non-threatening, effectively capturing and assessing chemical safety performance in a variety of workplaces. Conscientious business operators can add value by sourcing accurate, cost-effective workplace chemical safety advice and compliance tools from their suppliers, industry partners and Responsible Care NZ.

The core problem

hile 130,000 businesses are reportedly captured by the Hazardous Substances and Major Hazard Facilities regulations, the official mantra of “600-900 persons seriously harmed each year by unwanted exposure to chemicals in their workplace” presumably applies to all of the country’s 530,000 workplaces. Downgrading the flawed but effective HSNO Certified Handler requirement has inadvertently undermined an invaluable capability. The action deprived businesses, particularly 12

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SMEs, of an immediate and recognisable source of workplace chemical safety and compliance advice -- a safe chemical handling capability and emergency response knowledge – critical when a chemical incident occurs. PCBUs and SMEs must now devise their own solutions to ensure employees are competent to safely handle the chemicals with which they work.

So where to from here?

Responsible Care is a global voluntary chemical industry initiative devel-

oped autonomously by the chemical industry for the chemical industry. Chemical suppliers continue to help customers achieve workplace chemical safety aspirations through product stewardship initiatives. To help solve the inhouse chemical compliance dilemma in New Zealand, Responsible Care NZ www.responsiblecarenz. com delivers specialist and cost-effective Certified Handler standard training, complete with a certificate. Internationally, chemical industry leaders are moving away from relying on

Hundreds of business operators turned out for a free Responsible Care NZ compliance workshop, eager for accurate and practical advice, indicating an unsatisfied demand for assistance and education. Attendance highlighted the need to provide SMEs and others with the ability to access, correctly interpret and successfully implement complex regulations with clear and concise compliance advice. Inviting enquirers to “read the regulations” is falling well short of the industry educational expectations arising from WorkSafe’s Statement of Intent 2016-2020. A proven strategy is government agencies collaborating with proactive industry associations to best achieve workplace safety aspirations.

April - May 2019 The problem is that SMEs rarely join associations. However they all obtain their chemical requirements from suppliers and can benefit from product stewardship advice and cost-effective industry compliance initiatives. Responsible Care NZ extols less regulation in favour of enabling business operators to be increasingly self-sufficient, using cost-effective products and services such as site compliance assessments and specialist training. The focus is keeping people safe around the chemicals we encounter every day, by once again adding value to businesses. Proven, collaborative

and cost-effective initiatives to raise awareness and improve workplace chemical safety performance include: • Joint agency and industry-focused local compliance workshops at times convenient to SME operators. • WorkSafe NZ inspectors distributing free copies of user-friendly ‘compliance tools’ such as the Storage of Hazardous Substances HSNO Approved Code of Practice and posters explaining GHS pictogrammes • Supporting industry initiatives such as product stewardship • Referencing industry ‘compliance tools’ • Upskilling workplace inspectors in chemical safety.

• Encouraging ‘no blame’ reporting of incidents • Acknowledging successful, proactive industry compliance initiatives • Restoring the status of Approved Industry Codes of Practice A refreshed and energized government strategy for improving workplace chemical safety is both welcome and essential if we are to significantly improve sub-standard performance and learn

from our successes and shortfalls. Expanding mutually beneficial government- industry partnerships helping business operators ‘do the right thing’ with minimal fuss and expense should be ‘a no brainer’. Chemical suppliers are ‘Impatient optimists’. They know we can all collectively do better through continuous improvement.

Responsible Care NZ provides practical products and services to enable compliance with New Zealand’s world class chemical management regime. Talk to us today about your compliance requirements. Phone: +64 4 499 4311 Email: info@responsiblecarenz.com Website: www.responsiblecarenz.com

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If this was your chemical consignment, what would you do? Let’s discuss how our 0800 CHEMCALL® 24/7 ERS can help Call 04 499 4311 safetynews.co.nz

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April - May 2019

Managing airborne health risks Confused about how to tackle airborne health risks? WorkSafe New Zealand principal scientist work-related health Philippa Gibson offers a simple management model and notes some common errors

he common refrain is that health risk management is hard – harder than safety risk management. I want to challenge that belief – it’s different but not harder. Good health risk management is a combination of activities that need to work together to be effective. Under the HSW Act 2015, PCBUs must eliminate (and if not eliminate, minimise) all risks associated with carrying out work. This includes work

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involving airborne health risks. Health risk management must consider a number of aspects – identification, assessment, control, review – with exposure monitoring being just one of them. PCBUs must understand and manage the risks of hazardous or toxic substances at work, so any limitations in their knowledge about these risks needs to be recognised and acted on. The information below

outlines the key elements of a good health risk management model you can apply at your place of work. When I talk to people who are struggling with health risk management, certain common factors often come up. For example, they might be focusing on just one part of health risk management, not the whole. Or they might be focusing on things they know (eg exposures or health monitoring data) and ignore

the things they don’t know, such as uncertainties in monitoring data or the effectiveness of controls. Following are some examples of classic mistakes I’ve encountered.

Identification

A common observation is some workplaces have safety data sheets (SDS), but don’t read them. I was involved in a health risk management prosecution where the business had pages and pages of health and safety risk information in its SDS, but did not use this information to identify its chemical health risks. (The pictograms alone – see the ‘exploding chest man’ –could have alerted them to risk.) Another common identification problem is not identifying dusts as health risks, especially food-related dusts such as flour dust and other allergenic

April - May 2019 and just having an SDS because ‘you’re supposed to’. • Not considering what additional health risks arise from the work done (eg does heating of chemicals, or a chemical reaction, cause an additional health risk?) If substances not covered by an SDS, or not supplied with one, are not hazardous. • Not identifying all health hazards, including physical, chemical, biological, psychosocial and ergonomic hazards.

Risk assessment

foods or food additives; while another is assuming that only liquids and gases are hazardous substances. Good health risk management means: • Acknowledging the health risks Safety Data Sheets are telling you are present. Read the descriptions of what the substance can do to a person. • Researching the potential health risks that could arise because of the process or activity – they may not be covered by an SDS. Not assuming it isn’t hazardous just because it may not be covered by hazardous substances regulations (eg food additives, flour dust and green coffee bean dusts are allergenic and can cause asthma) Poor health risk mangement means: • Ignoring what the SDS is saying about health risk,

The key to health risk assessment for workers is the exposure they actually experience, which requires understanding exposures as workers move around the workplace and do different tasks. The type of exposure they experience may vary with different activities, and in different locations inside and outside. Their level of exposure will vary as they move closer to or further away from the health risk. Mistakes occur when only a single set of data is used to make judgements around risk in situations where exposure varies considerably from day to day, job to job, or season to season. Other mistakes I have seen in risk assessment include using outdoor dust measurements meant for resource consent purposes (environmental monitoring) to make judgements about worker health risk. The problem is that the environmental samples do not reflect the exposure experienced by the worker. Another mistake I’ve seen more than once is using a gas meter to measure levels of a substance

that can’t be detected on that meter. When the results show – not surprisingly – no reading, it is assumed there is no exposure and therefore no risk. Good health risk mangement means: • Considering all the ways exposure could occur – on the skin, through the skin, inhalation, ingestion, injection. • Considering if some workers are more at risk from inhaling the substance (eg a substance that can have effects on reproductive ability, reproductive capacity, or can affect foetal development. Or, for people with asthma, a substance that irritates the lungs). • Exposure monitoring – engaging a competent person to develop a sampling strategy that will provide an adequate picture of workers’ exposure profiles. This will include the variation in exposure that will occur from different work patterns, differing work conditions, different work locations. • Assessing the effectiveness of current controls, eg assess if the extraction ventilation system is effective, if respiratory protection is doing what you expect it to do (suitable type and fit). • Considering the things that you can’t be sure about (uncertainties), such as can we say we always know what levels of exposure are, or do some things beyond our control affect the level of exposure? Poor health risk management means: • Only thinking of it affecting the skin, not of the vapour being inhaled. • If it doesn’t smell or doesn’t smell strongly

there is nothing in the air. • If you can’t see dust, gas, vapour, fibre or mist there is nothing in the air. • Ignoring susceptible workers, or those who may be more at risk than other workers. • Not considering level of exposure (exposure monitoring) in determining if there is risk, or if risk is suitably managed, or in determining what type of controls should be used. • Focusing on exposure monitoring when there is clearly an exposure that needs controlling – exposure monitoring doesn’t control the exposure, it just measures it. • Applying exposure monitoring results to exposure standards without understanding the health risk basis of the exposure standard, or understanding good sampling strategy, or understanding the variation in exposure across the work or place of work. • Assuming the controls are working effectively but doing nothing to assess them. • Focusing only on the things you ‘know’ about the risk, and not considering the limitations of that knowledge (eg our health monitoring is showing no negative changes in lung function, but is that testing going to show changes caused by respiratory disease before it’s too late to do anything about it?)

Control

It’s not uncommon for extraction ventilation (LEV) to be designed by in-house engineers who may not have the appropriate skills, such as the correct design of capture hoods. This is something the PCBU is likely to have to get outside expertise safetynews.co.nz

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April - May 2019 or advice on. The law is clear that controls used for managing health risks must be effective and fit for purpose. This means the design, testing and maintenance of LEV etc. must ensure it does what it is meant to – control the airborne contaminant and effectively manage the health risk. Good health risk management means: • Applying the hierarchy of control and provide the highest level of protection. • Being aware of the limitations of PPE, and not going straight to PPE as a control. It’s at the bottom of the hierarchy because of its limitations. • Designing control systems based on good risk assessment data. • Assessing and maintaining control systems to ensure they are working effectively. • Ensuring PPE when used fits correctly, is the right type for the exposure and provides a suitable level of protection compared to the level of exposure. • Providing training, information and supervision to workers to ensure controls are used effectively. Poor health risk management means: • Going straight to PPE as the form of control without considering the need for higher levels of protection. • Assuming every worker can and should use respiratory protection – those with cardiovascular or respiratory disease, for example, should have a medical assessment before being cleared to use respiratory protection. • Not considering the limitations of PPE or the 16

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Australia opens up discussion Safe Work Australia is currently evaluating the Workplace exposure standards for airborne contaminants to ensure they are based on the highest quality evidence and supported by a rigorous scientific approach. They are seeking public comment on the draft evaluation reports and recommendations for the workplace exposure standards (WES) throughout 2019, beginning with respirable crystalline silica and respirable coal dust. In particular, they are seeking comments of a technical nature regarding: the toxicological information and data that the value is based upon, and the measurement and analysis information provided.

additional risks they can introduce (eg respiratory protection + physical work + hot work conditions = heat stress risk). • Designing and installing control systems (eg extraction ventilation, or isolation) without understanding good design for control of airborne substances, nor understanding how that substance behaves in air in that workplace or for that job or activity. • Assuming the control systems are working and effective without any verification, testing, or maintenance of those controls.

Review

I have seen workplaces regularly gather exposure and health data that indicate controls are not working, or that workers may be getting harmed, but nothing is done in response to those red flags. A common response I hear from PCBUs is something like: “Sure we have a number of workers with

Access the consultation platform Engage to provide your comments on the draft evaluation reports and recommendations for respirable crystalline silica and respirable coal dust before 30 April 2019. The feedback received will be considered when making final recommendations regarding the workplace exposure standards. The draft evaluation reports and recommendations for the remaining chemicals on the Workplace exposure standards for airborne contaminants, as well as additional chemicals that are being considered for inclusion on this list, will be released throughout 2019.

reduced lung function, but they are smokers – they are doing this to themselves, so it’s unfair to expect me to control exposure to respiratory health risks when they are wrecking their own lungs anyway.” PCBUs might not have control over what workers do or expose themselves to out of work, but they do have complete control over the workplace (workers not following reasonable instruction aside) and have a responsibility for managing health risk at work. If health monitoring shows an adverse change in health, it is a red flag to review controls. If that review comes back showing all parts of the health risk management system are working effectively to manage risk, then that change in health is unlikely to be as a result of damage caused in that workplace. Good health risk management means: • Regularly reviewing controls to ensure they

are effective (eg testing ventilation systems). • Reviewing controls if anything indicates they are not working (eg worker complaints, health effects occurring). • Doing appropriate health monitoring, understanding its limitations, and treating it as a tool to prove that controls are effective rather than as a tool to show you if something is going wrong. • Doing exposure monitoring to verify that controls are effective at managing workers’ exposure. Poor health risk management means: • Not reviewing controls or maintaining them. • Not responding to complaints or red flags that suggest exposure is not controlled. • Treating health monitoring as a way of identifying if something is going wrong, i.e. waiting for adverse effects to show up before doing something about controlling risk.

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April - May 2019

ne incident occurred when a worker was applying a UV treatment to windows. The other incident occurred when a worker was applying adhesive while carpet-laying. Both the UV treatment and adhesive contained organic solvents. These incidents highlight the risks for workers (and others) when effective controls are not in place and safety procedures are not followed when working with organic solvents in enclosed spaces with poor ventilation and lack of personal protective equipment. In these circumstances, short-term exposure to very high levels of organic solvent vapours can cause headache, dizziness and light-headedness, progressing to unconsciousness, and death.

What are organic solvents?

For every person who dies in New Zealand of a work-related accident, 10 people die from a work-related disease. Organic solvents are a major

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Deadly dangers of organic solvents In two separate events, two workers fell unconscious and later died as a likely result of acute exposure to organic solvents, highlighting the serious health and safety risks of using organic solvents in enclosed spaces with poor ventilation and lack of personal protective equipment cause of these diseases. Organic solvents (eg toluene, thinners and MEK) are used to dissolve or disperse other substances. Organic solvents are used in many construction and manufacturing workplaces. You can find solvents in a wide range of products including: • adhesives (cyclohexane, acetone, toluene) • paints and lacquers (toluene, xylene, methyl ethyl ketone) • degreasers (trichloroethylene, perchloroethylene) • printing (turpentine, white spirits, xylene) • cleaning products

• metal cleaners • ink • resins • rust removers • surface preparation products • fuels They can enter the body, mainly through inhalation of vapour and through direct skin contact, and into the bloodstream where they can cause adverse health effects. Organic solvents readily evaporate in the air at normal temperatures. Therefore, high levels of solvent vapours can build up quickly in enclosed spaces with inadequate ventilation and when room temperatures rise

(eg small rooms or a shed on a hot day). If solvents are also absorbed through the skin as well as inhaled, the total exposure may be much higher. Short term health effects can include headaches, nausea, eyes, nose, throat and skin irritation, disorientation, feeling drunk/high, drowsiness Long term health effects can include mood changes, memory problems, concentration difficulties, tiredness, weakness.

WorkSafe’s advice Before starting work using organic solvents, PCBUs must complete

April - May 2019 a risk assessment and review their controls. It is important to consider eliminating the use of organic solvents by using solvent-free materials. If this is not possible then exposures can be minimised by: • substituting use chemicals with less toxic ingredients or water-based solvent substitutes • mechanical ventilation to increase the amount of fresh air into the work area • increasing natural ventilation by opening doors and windows • working outside in the open. Further minimisation controls include: • keeping lids on containers to prevent solvents evaporating • disposing solvent-contaminated rags in sealed metal containers • using only the minimum amount of solvent required for the job • scheduling working with solvents during cooler periods of the day and/ or when fewer workers are nearby • never using solvents to remove paints or grease from skin. As a last resort, use the appropriate personal protective equipment: • use a suitable respirator with the appropriate organic vapour cartridge filters for the solvents used • ensure the respirator is fit-tested for the worker, cleaned and maintained properly • wear suitable coveralls and gloves to protect the skin. Click here for further information and guidance

Safely managing workplace chemicals Workplaces are inherently dangerous. For those working in agriculture and manufacturing, mis-handling chemicals can present a significant hazard. WorkSafe NZ in conjunction with the EPA, set strict standards to protect workers from the chemicals present in every workplace. Five of the more hazardous workplace chemicals require competent chemical handling:

Carbon Monoxide

This odourless, colourless gas generated by fossil fuel burning equipment, including engines of all types and applications, forklifts, propane-powered heaters and gas water heaters, poses an extreme hazard to workers. Common symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning are headache, dizziness, nausea, vomiting, chest pain and confusion, resulting in loss of consciousness and even death.

Ammonia

Commonly used in the agricultural and food manufacturing industries, both as an ingredient in fertilizer and as a refrigerant, exposure to ammonia can cause irritation and serious burns on the skin and throughout the respiratory system. High level exposure will be fatal.

Chlorine

Heavier than air, chlorine will accumulate near the floor in poorly ventilated areas. Used in a variety of industries, particularly water treatment, low-level exposure can cause nose, eye, and throat irritation, while higher concentrations can result in chest pain, respiratory distress, vomiting and eventually death.

Hydrochloric Acid

A clear, colourless liquid, hydrochloric acid is extremely corrosive. Airborne exposure can permanently damage respiratory organs, eyes, skin, and intestines. Skin contact results in a painful chemical burn as it corrodes the soft tissues of the body. Most injuries occur during the transportation of the substance by ill prepared workers.

Sulfuric Acid

Commonly referred to as ‘Battery Acid’, sulfuric acid is a clear, colourless, oily liquid that is highly corrosive. It can cause severe chemical and thermal burns when it comes in contact with the skin, as well as blindness. Sulfuric acid is a common ingredient in fertilizer and part of the petroleum refining process. Anyone working with chemicals needs to be correctly wearing appropriate protective personal protective equipment and must be trained by their employer to competently carry out their tasks. Failure to do so can result in prosecutions for both employers and employees. safetynews.co.nz

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The crucial contribution of water resilience A changing climate and rapid urbanisation demand a rethink in how we build and run towns and cities

ities all over the world are confronted with a range of dynamic regional and global pressures, including climate change, population growth and the deterioration of urban infrastructure How we navigate this dangerous period of volatility will have major impacts on millions of people â&#x20AC;&#x201C; many of them vulnerable â&#x20AC;&#x201C; and on the critical ecosystems that underpin the health of our urban economies and societies. The unpredictable frequency and intensity of extreme weather is amplifying the acute

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shocks that threaten lives and property, and disrupt supply chains that provide cities with water, food and energy. At the same time, the chronic stresses inflicted by growing inequality and accelerating urban migration are exceeding the carrying capacity of institutions and infrastructure. Ecosystem degradation is further diminishing the natural buffering capacity that once provided a myriad of ecosystems services, including the partial shelter for communities from chronic and acute flooding and coastal storms.

New tools and a new way of thinking

Helping cities increase their resilience will require a multi-level systems approach addressing collaboration and partnerships among social, political and economic institutions in all realms of urban life. It will depend, among other things, on new tools and approaches, including robust decision-making, emergency preparedness and developing infrastructure that can function in spite of increasing climate extremes -- bouncing back rapidly when its functions are impaired and creating space for cities to transform and

thrive under increasingly uncertain climatic conditions. Developing resilient infrastructure will be challenging. It asks planners and engineers to acknowledge that, in addition to the basic expectation of reliability under normal conditions, there is a need for it to survive and bounce back from extreme events that exceed design conditions. The ability to rapidly restore infrastructure to working order will be as important as preventing its failure in the first place. This means rethinking practices and design principles that are currently

April - May 2019

Population explosion Against a backdrop of rapid global population increase, urban areas will swell by an estimated 2.5 billion people by 2050. Almost 90 percent of this increase will occur in Asia and Africa. People living in these cities and towns, especially in low-income countries, face chronic and acute threats of flooding, extreme temperatures, and waterborne diseases

deeply embedded. The International Water Association’s (IWA) Principles for Water-Wise Cities aim to offer a holistic systems approach to assessing the sustainability of water management in cities: water services, urban design, basin management and people working together are four interconnected systems. They also aim to help urban leaders and communities develop and implement resilient urban water institutions and systems. The ultimate goal of the principles is to encourage collaborative action, underpinned by a shared vision among relevant stakeholders – bringing people together for resilient city planning.

This is further developed in the IWA Action Agenda for Basin-Connected Cities, which suggests pathways for action that urban stakeholders can take to improve the resilience of their surrounding watersheds. The Global Resilience Partnership (GRP) of more than 30 public and private sector organisations has also developed a series of principles to guide resilience approaches. These focus on inclusive decision-making, the importance of healthy ecosystems, and putting people and communities – especially women and marginalised groups – at the centre of decisions, and empowering them to help develop equitable and sustainable solutions. The IWA and GRP principles recognise the need for creativity and innovation in the area of flexible urban water systems that are robust, adaptable and resilient. These systems will be characterised by their ability to cope safely

caused by polluted water and poor sanitation. These risks are particularly devastating in dense urban areas, where large numbers have flocked and local building regulations often go unenforced. Such stressors are amplified by increasingly frequent and extreme events caused by a rapidly changing climate.

with uncertainties and, so, will be able to adapt to new, different or changing requirements. New techniques such as real-options analysis acknowledge the value of being able to expand, downsize or repurpose infrastructure investments rapidly. The latest process technologies are enabling more modular (decentralised) approaches to urban water management that give internal degrees of freedom, allowing many combinations to be considered, so flexibility can be optimised over time. These principles recognise the interconnectedness of water systems through a more ‘water sensitive’ urban design approach that seeks to enhance resilience through the integration of urban design and the built environment with the management, protection and conservation of water. In contrast to traditional development models that seek to optimise the individual com-

ponents of isolated systems, resilience models are designed as complex, adaptive systems that can absorb unexpected disturbance while retaining their basic structure and functionality. Resilience thinking uses science, planning, and stakeholder participation to discover flexible urban forms that increase the health and wellbeing of communities. More than simply improving the performance of the component parts of the built environment, change is needed at a system-wide level. For engineers approaching the challenge of contributing to urban resilience, it is critical to remember that strengthening communities of people is as important as designing resilient infrastructure to protect them. Building strong governance processes, participatory decision-making, and robust social networks can enable cities to survive, adapt and thrive in the face of an uncertain

"Building strong governance processes, participatory decision-making, and robust social networks can enable cities to survive, adapt and thrive in the face of an uncertain future and more frequent extreme events." safetynews.co.nz

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April - May 2019 future and more frequent extreme events.

Building city water resilience

Recently, Global Resilience Partnership (GRP) and International Water Association (IWA) joined a diverse set of partners at the Rockefeller Bellagio Center in Italy for a high-level workshop on the City Water Resilience Framework (CWRF), funded, in part, by a grant from The Rockefeller Foundation. The objective was to review and endorse the tools resulting from the research and development phase of the CWRF, which is led by built environment consultancy Arup. The first phase of the CWRF was rolled out in five global cities facing a spectrum of threats – Cape Town, Miami, Mexico City, Amman and Hull. It aimed to: • Understand the shocks and stresses that may impact the city water basin • Assess the resilience of the city water basin • Generate and appraise interventions that yield greater resilience for the city water basin in question. The systemic and bottom-up approach of the CWRF can be more time consuming and resource intensive than

traditional approaches. Its value, however, is in how it identifies vulnerabilities to building water resilience and how it prepares a blueprint for defining characteristics of a resilient urban water system. Guidance applied by the CWRF is based on three assumptions: • Future climate and hydrological conditions will no longer be broadly similar to the past so we must identify pathways to building resilient urban water systems • City water systems cannot be thought of in isolation from the hydrological and decision-making context in which they sit, including the basins, the built infrastructure and the national socio-political and economic context • Important interdependencies exist between the city, the water system and other systems (such as energy, food supply and communications), which affect the resilience of the city. Cape Town – a city in the news recently because of water issues – has initiated dramatic behaviour changes across its populace to reduce the impacts of a prolonged drought. The CWRF worked with the city council and the Cape Town resilience officer to identify the shocks

and stresses to which the city was vulnerable. It identified these in the context of how Cape Town is situated within the water basin. Critically, the analysis looked at how water was used within the basins that feed the city, thereby gauging the resilience of the system rather than examining the city itself. The CWRF interviewed stakeholders from Cape

Town to determine local perspectives on the resilience of the urban water system. These generated a picture of key water shocks and stresses, and what helped or hindered residents in dealing with them. Key issues that emerged included effective regulation of water quality and quantity, education on resilience issues, and better policies

The component parts of a resilient city The Rockefeller Foundation, in its 100 Resilient Cities programme, defines urban resilience as “the capacity of individuals, communities, institutions, businesses, and systems within a city to survive, adapt and grow, no matter what kinds of chronic stresses and acute shocks they experience”. 22

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This highlights some essential concepts. Resilience is more than a characteristic of the technology and infrastructure systems in an urban environment; it is based on the collective capacity of people, institutions, commerce and infrastructure to respond, adapt and transform in the face of uncertainty.

April - May 2019 Cape Town identified key points of exposure to reduce the impact of future droughts and new infrastructure, such as rainwater harvesting and desalination plants

to minimise risks to vulnerable communities.

Seeking out the root cause

The systems approaches employed by IWA, GRP and CWRF are critical to developing resilience responses. They identify the root causes of complex development challenges and how these can be addressed within the political, economic, ecological, and social systems in which they exist. Technology breakthroughs and innovative designs need to be coupled with comprehensive system changes to the urban processes, institutions and regulations that shape our cities. To build its water resilience, Cape Town implemented demand man-

agement mechanisms instituted by the city administration, including advanced pressure management and water restrictions. These helped reduce water consumption by more than 50 percent compared with predrought levels. They also identified key points of exposure to reduce the impact of future droughts and new infrastructure, such as rainwater harvesting and desalination plants.

Stakeholders in a sustainable future

Building a cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s water resilience requires holistic and innovative approaches that engage multiple stakeholders, from individuals to governments. These platforms will

guide and support the development and implementation of sustainable resilience measures by taking account of local problems and needs. This may require new ways of thinking about urban development; however, demand-driven approaches will reduce citiesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; vulnerability and increase their capacity to cope with changes.

The IWA, GRP and CWRF approaches are important steps towards creating a global standard for water resilience assessment that informs planning and investment decisions. More is needed than simply improving the performance and efficiency of the component parts of the built environment â&#x20AC;&#x201C; change is needed at a system-wide level too.

This article is adapted from a report first published in the IWA The Source magazine by Kala Vairavamoorthy, Nathanial Matthews and Paul Brown which set out the aims and thinking behind key initiatives to promote and implement resilience. Dr Kala Vairavamoorthy is executive director of the International Water Association. Dr Nathanial Matthews is programme director with the Global Resilience Partnership. Paul Brown is president of Paul Redvers Brown, Inc. www.globalresiliencepartnership.org safetynews.co.nz

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April - May 2019

You can’t push regulation change without making economic provision A Cabinet Paper released in late November sets out a long overdue road map on the future for the ailing and aging Three Waters facilities. Carly Price navigates through the proposals

he options for the future regulation and service delivery of the Three Waters (drinking, storm and waste waters) are designed to ensure that an incident such as the Havelock North event two years ago is not repeated. The question is whether or not the planned changes will help ensure that the sharing of best practice will become more efficient and accessible to all industry players. It is more important now than ever before to make sure that accurate, technical water management information is accessible for both Local Government and other management bodies. The widespread outbreak of gastroenteritis in Havelock North in August 2016, and the subsequent illness of more than 5000 people due to the presence of campylobacter in the water supply was a clarion call that New Zealand’s drinking water management must come into line with practices that are commonly found overseas. Across Europe, Northern America and Australia, the regulation of drinking water quality and the economic regulation of these utilities, is far more advanced and bespoke

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than the current framework in New Zealand. This is because, historically, these areas have not been fortunate enough to have such a clean source of water as New Zealand. But that was before agricultural and industrial pressures on New Zealand’s resources increased not to mention the impact of climate change. We no longer have such guaranteed safe sources of water. The New Zealand water industry needs to adopt the learnings from the rest of the world and leapfrog the processes these

What does the paper say?

The paper outlines the roadmap for the government’s changes for the industry. The first and most significant step is to detail policy decisions for the regulation of all Three Waters and confirm the regulatory institutions that will implement these standards in June 2019. In late 2019, Cabinet will consider policy proposals for service delivery arrangements (including aggregated water suppliers and funding options) and economic regulation.

" Drafting effective legislation is not easy. The sooner drafting commences, the sooner New Zealanders can be assured they are receiving safe drinking water and are minimising environmental impacts from wastewater." other countries went through. This will ensure that we are getting not just safe water, but the best quality water. We need to examine as an imperative if this new Cabinet Paper will help the industry move towards risk- based, sourceto-tap management of our drinking water supplies.

What are the positives?

The paper does look like the government is tackling the hard issues despite the anticipated challenges in actually changing the sector. This should be recognised and applauded as a good start to initiate the change that is needed. The commitment to provide Cabinet with detailed policy proposals for the

regulation of the Three Waters in June this year is encouraging, to enable legislation to be drafted. Drafting effective legislation is not easy and takes time. The sooner drafting commences, the sooner New Zealanders can be assured they are receiving safe drinking water and are minimising environmental impacts from wastewater. It is logical and efficient to look at the Three Waters together because they are interconnected – stormwater and wastewater are the biggest contamination sources for drinking water after all. Additionally, the paper considers economic regulation and overall stewardship — which is a really positive foundation for change. The regulation of water quality, alongside consumer protection should never be undertaken in isolation so it is encouraging that there is recognition as part of this wider context.

What are the challenges?

Setting water quality and environmental regulations before considering economic regulation, service delivery arrangements or funding mechanisms risks creating

April - May 2019 © The Questioning Engineer

unrealistic or insufficient standards. Either the government sets a high and expensive standard, or because they wish to keep costs low, they may specify a standard which is too low. In jurisdictions with robust economic regulation, the balance between costs and quality is kept closer to equilibrium due to the tensioning process of balancing quality with the willingness to pay. The advantage of the economic regulation is the industry is motivated to find efficiencies through innovation — higher standards are sometimes possible without higher cost. It is good that the uncertainty around regulation will be cleared up by the middle of 2019. However, the long timeframe for service delivery arrangements leaves

the industry in limbo for another year before our water suppliers will know who will own and run the assets in the future. This will inevitably impact on Local Councils’ decisions to invest in infrastructure in 2019, because it will be harder to convince both ratepayers and councillors to pay for infrastructure with an uncertain long-term ownership. If this reluctance eventuates, it will be even longer before many rural New Zealanders get safe water all year round. Another impact of the uncertainty around service delivery arrangement is that workers within the industry do not know where their role will sit in the 2020’s – will the Council still be their employer, or will it be a large amalgamated water supplier?

There’s a huge skills shortage in the industry, so it is unlikely there will be a large reduction in the number of employees across the whole industry, but it will be tumultuous change for employees nevertheless. Having to wait a whole year longer (making it three years after the Havelock North incident) may well cause some discontent.

Largest challenge

But the largest challenge of all is helping the wider community understand how their drinking water is changing. This is not a technical challenge – there is plenty of science to show the increasing demands on the water cycle are impacting the quality and quantity available for drinking. It is a cultural change challenge. The arguments that

seem to underpin much of the resistance to change is two-fold: Our water is clean; therefore we don’t need all the extra ‘stuff’ that they do overseas Water should be free and we can’t charge people for what they use. Both of these arguments are based on the core identity of how New Zealanders see themselves. The government and the wider industry will continue to meet resistance to changes unless they also address how New Zealanders identify in this way. Changing the regulation is an important part of the solution, but so is addressing our assumptions that our water is still clean and free. Continued next page safetynews.co.nz

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April - May 2019 © The Questioning Engineer

Steps forward

Looking at other countries with highly-controlled management of water supplies, it is important to recognise that their regulation is not a tick-box approach. Demonstrating the quality of water by only monitoring for pathogen-surrogates on a semi-regular basis, is not standard practice. Instead, the regulation is based on minimising the risks of contamination through multiple barriers with robust business systems ensuring preventive risk management is practised at every level of the organisation. In this case, the demonstration of water quality through ‘compliance monitoring’ is one final check, demonstrating what the supplier and the regulator already knew from all the other checks – that the

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water supplied was or wasn’t safe.

Future-proofing

In anticipation of the changes ahead, the best way for professionals to future-proof their careers is to stay up-to-date not only with the domestic industry, but also with international practices. This is because it is highly likely that any new regulations will be modified from existing requirements and practices overseas. The Havelock North

Inquiry identified the ‘Six Principles of Drinking Water Practice’ that are commonly used overseas, as the best way to approach supplying water. Industry professionals should be up to date on what these principles look like in practice. One of the best ways to do this is through online training, whereby asset managers and operators can access the latest resources and information without taking significant time away from the task in hand. Now, more than

ever before it is essential that accurate, technical water management information is readily available for all in the industry. It is now a necessary solution to ensure that change within the water management industry is sustainable and that we are up to speed with the lessons learned by other countries to obtain consistently safe water. Graphics in this article copyright The Questioning Engineer

Carly Price has worked in the water industry for 18 years (including eight years as a regulator) across Australia, New Zealand and Tanzania. She has worked for large consulting firms and government agencies in many roles from Planning Engineer, Technical Analyst to Program Manager. She is the Managing Director of The Questioning Engineer which runs online and in-house training programmes for water industry professionals. carly@thequestioningengineer.com | 021 995 096

April - May 2019 © The Questioning Engineer

New works spend in water infrastructure There’s been a huge increase in capital expenditure on water infrastructure since 2015. Capital expenditure and new works totalled more than $1.1-billion in the 2018 fiscal year. These funds are drawn almost entirely from the public purse, so we ought to be interested in ensuring we get value. It’s perhaps not surprising that sector data shows that since the 2015 fiscal year, capital expenditure has grown by 13% for drinking water, 56% for wastewater and 55% for stormwater. The average price of goods in the consumer price index rose by a comparatively lowly 13.7% over the same period. Sector data has been collected through the National Performance Review (NPR) an annual benchmark of drinking water, wastewater and stormwater service provision co-ordinated by Water New Zealand. The benchmark report released early in March shows report participants spent $370 million on capital expenditure for water supply systems, $511 million on wastewater systems and $238 million on stormwater systems. Read the full report here. Some of the rising costs are partly explained by other data in the report, which suggests local authorities are slowly starting to close the gap between their actual and budgeted capital expenditure. There has long been a shortfall between the capital authorities had budgeted to spend and the actual

works they delivered. In 2015 actual capital expenditure for the average NPR participant was trailing budgets by 37%. By 2018 that gap had closed to only 8%, suggesting local authorities are slowly overcoming the hurdles that have been preventing them delivering on their capital works programmes. No doubt community expectations and the looming spectre of tougher compliance standards driven by central government policy are driving needs for improved environmental performance of wastewater and stormwater systems. Many in the industry have long predicted a renewals bow wave facing the sector. It is possible we are starting to see the effects translate into increased renewals activity. Mother nature also has a role to play. Significant spikes in capital expenditure on wastewater systems and stormwater systems in 2016 and 2017 are largely attributable to expenditure in Christchurch, where earthquake rebuilding has been ongoing. There remains a challenge to unpick the exact drivers of the sectors growing capital spend. One thing is not in doubt – the pipeline of work servicing the water sector is to remain strong for many years yet. By Lesley Smith Principal Data Scientist Water New Zealand safetynews.co.nz

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April - May 2019

LGNZ welcomes drinking water reform, not 'silver bullet' policy making Local government knows that high quality drinking water, wastewater and stormwater services are critical to the ongoing health and success of our communities and the environments they live in

hat’s why councils are highly interested in the drinking water regulations that central government will be unveiling in the middle of this year. Councils are concerned about the scope of these reforms, in the sense that efforts to prevent another Havelock North may expand beyond the original problem, and stray into dictating service provision outcomes, such as the mandatory amalgamation of three waters infrastructure.

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As stewards of the three waters, local government has long known that population pressures – particularly ageing and shrinking populations – pose a significant challenge to our ability to provide water services in the future. Aging infrastructure, intensive land uses and climate change are also testing local government’s ability to maintain the quality of freshwater bodies in some places. But a necessary first

step in addressing these challenges is to have a fit for purpose regulation framework and regulator in place. In 2015, LGNZ released the findings of their 3 Water Project, which found that the regulation around drinking water standards was not strong enough, and not well enough enforced. Unfortunately, our calls for stronger regulation fell on deaf ears, opening the door to the Havelock North drinking-water contamination

in 2016. It is worth noting at Havelock Norther was 100% compliant with the drinking water regulations at the time. This is why over four years later LGNZ again are calling for the Government to focus on drinking water reforms first, particularly on strengthening regulation and enforcement, as they embark on their Three Waters Review. We welcome the Government’s urgency, but also recognise that decisions made in haste

April - May 2019 can have far reaching and unforeseen consequences for our communities. Local government has worked hard to build a proper evidence base for water reform, upon which we can make good quality decisions. That evidence, gathered through the Water 2050 project, develops a coherent framework for water policy that integrates water quality, quantity, infrastructure, costs and funding, and an overarching governance framework for local and central government. In November, LGNZ released the Local Government Position Statement on Three Waters. The statement is based on four principles, that LGNZ sees as essential to achieving good three waters reform. 1. Fix drinking water first 2. Let existing regulations run their course 3. Take mandatory aggregation off the table

4. Incentives matter What is clear from our work is that water is a hugely complex area, and that we need to prioritise investment to where it can make the most impact. Drinking water is where the most immediate challenges are and this is where we need to

focus first. Both the Havelock North Inquiry and LGNZ’s own work show this is an area that requires our primary focus. Getting regulation and enforcement right will incentivise councils to innovate in their service delivery to meet the differing challenges in their area, allowing them to take into account variability in factors such as source water quality, infrastructure, investment, population size and more. Our research, as well as the Government’s own reports, show that it is largely small, rural councils that need assistance to pay for hard infrastructure upgrades, and that is where targeted policy response is needed to address specific issues. This is why we are urging officials not to shut the door on innovation

by pursuing a policy of mandatory aggregation or amalgamation as a silver bullet fix to challenges in the three waters space. We are not against aggregation, where it makes sense – some councils have already pursued this as a solution. What we are against is mandatory aggregation, which is tantamount to one size fits all policy making that doesn’t recognise the diversity of our regions and their water supplies. At LGNZ, we believe in incentives. Set up the incentives right, and the results will follow. Unfortunately, under the previous regulatory regime, the incentives were poor. The government needs to get the regulation right to incentivise improvements, and leave it to councils to meet the regulation, based on the local choice of their communities.

Dave Cull

President of Local Government New Zealand and mayor of Dunedin City. safetynews.co.nz

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April - May 2019

Reforming New Zealand’s broken Three Waters model The system for delivering drinking water, wastewater and stormwater services is failing the health of New Zealanders and the environment

he big numbers which emerged in the wake of the Havelock crisis are well known: • Up to four people dead, 45 hospitalised and 5,500 sick • 759,000 New Zealanders (20 per cent of the population plus a further 625,000 on un-monitored supplies plus an unidentified number of tourists) receiving “not demonstrably safe” drinking water • Between 18,000 and 100,000 people suffering

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acute gastrointestinal illness each year due to poor drinking water • 44 supply zones with boil water notices in place over 2015/16. But these statistics tell only half the story. They do not cover the environmental impacts of poor wastewater and stormwater service delivery. Every day councils across New Zealand dispose of poorly treated sewerage into waterways and the marine environment, contributing to New

Zealand’s bio-diversity crisis and making once-popular swimming spots unswimmable. The absolute minimum required to bring water services around the country up to scratch is $2.5 billion – unaffordable for many of the councils affected. Yet, in reality, the number is much higher, since this estimate excludes non-compliant discharges into the marine environment. Problems are not isolated, they are spread

across the country. The Havelock North Inquiry found “a widespread systemic failure among water suppliers to meet the high standards required for the supply of safe drinking water to the public.” Problems have not been solved, they continue to occur today. E-coli was recently found in Wairarapa drinking water – for the second time in 2019. But the fact that our water services are delivered locally means that problems have to date

April - May 2019

been viewed as local exceptions – not as characteristic of a national water services system which is broken. The three waters system needs an overhaul which addresses the reasons why the organisations charged with water services delivery have found it difficult to execute all their responsibilities: 1. Issues of capability, which have allowed both service failures to arise and solutions to be deferred. 2. Issues of scale, which see major asset improvements load too much cost onto small rate-payer bases and council balance sheets. 3. Lack of oversight, which has allowed service providers to be largely

self-regulating. It is important to note that funding is not one of the key issues. Auckland Council’s water arm, Watercare, is able to fund all its water activities with no significant barriers (though it is challenged to finance investment because its activities remain on the council’s balance sheet). That other councils encounter issues around funding reflects a lack of willingness to charge for water use by volume consumed. When service charges reflect demand, experiences not only at Watercare, but also in electricity and telecommunications, show infrastructure can be fully funded. Issue 3 can be, and is being, addressed with lit-

tle difficulty. Central government can – and must – establish an independent and specialised water regulator to monitor the quality of drinking water. Regional councils or a central agency like the Environmental Protection Authority can tighten up oversight of wastewater and stormwater discharges into the natural environment. But issues around capability and scale are more challenging. Even if the majority of New Zealand’s 67 water agencies resolved their self-inflicted funding challenges – or if central money solved it for them – they still would be challenged by scale and capability. Small councils simply can’t maintain the skills and systems to properly operate complex water services and nor can their small balance sheets accommodate major new investments like treatment plants. They need more customers so that they can spread the costs of adequately qualified professionals over a larger user base and ensure these professionals are busy and have a career path. Whether they are regulated effectively or not, if small and capability-constrained councils can’t procure assets when needed and oversee safe and healthy networks, then they won’t. What are required are much larger “region-

al-scale” specialist public water service companies – say, between one and five across the country. This would give the entities the scale and capability to maintain staff with expertise and experience in operating and building water networks. Importantly, three waters activities would sit off either council or government balance sheets, meaning debt could be raised independent of other public institutions. Water agencies could borrow to meet capital requirements, manage networks with a longer term horizon and much more efficiently allocate capital. Funding would be provided via volumetric water charges, for water supply and wastewater. Stormwater would be funded via a rates allocation from councils (since stormwater is generally not related to household water consumption). Regulators would benchmark performance against both price and quantity, ensuring consumers paid a fair, competitive price for healthy drinking water and clean waterways. This is the model that other jurisdictions similar to New Zealand are following because it delivers better outcomes. Now is the time that central government must take a leadership position to effect this change before the next Havelock North event.

Stephen Selwood Chief Executive of Infrastructure New Zealand

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April - May 2019 The RSL 400 safety laser scanner combines safety with a detailed measurement value output for AGV navigation

On safer paths A new safety laser scanner ensures that AGVs are operated safely while simultaneously capturing the measurement values for the navigation software

hen the triangulation principle is used for navigation, automated guided vehicles (AGVs) are usually equipped with two different sensors: one for safety and one for navigation. The new RSL 400 safety laser scanner from Leuze electronic handles the safety aspects while providing all measurement values for the AGV's navigation based on the natural-navigation principle. The measurement values have an extremely high angular resolution and accuracy. This is important to precisely determine the position of the AGV. This means that only one scanner is needed for safety AND navigation. Measurement value output of the

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RSL 400 is optimised for navigation software that functions according to the principle of natural navigation with SLAM (Simultaneous Localisation and Mapping). With each revolution of its deflection unit, which last 40 milliseconds each, the safety laser scanner emits 2700 light pulses. These are scattered in all directions on obstacles. Parts of the scattered light are transmitted back to the scanner and used to calculate the distance to the obstacle. Similar to a map, the navigation software contains an image of the respective room, including all fixed boundaries. The current position of the AGV is then calculated by comparing the measurement values to the map. This concept is referred

to as natural navigation. The more detailed and exact the measurement values of a scanner are, the more precisely the AGV can navigate. With an angular resolution of 0.1°, the RSL 400 can capture the environment in high detail over the entire measurement range up to 50 m. This is achieved through a particularly narrow laser spot that maintains its perpendicular shape over the entire scanning angle. It also reduces incorrect measurements, the likes of which can occur on edges.

An eye on obstacles

In addition to the angular resolution, the distance values are also important. With a typical error accuracy of <30mm, these are highly precise. In addition to that, the values are not affected by the reflectance of the object, whether it is a reflector or a black wall. The additional output of the received signal strength value for each beam allows autonomous detection of reflectors by the navigation software. When beams strike a reflector, the values differ

greatly from any other environment. This makes simple and reliable detection possible. In addition to the navigation aspects, there is no lack of safety: the compact RSL 400 safety laser scanner offers up to 100 switchable protective and warning field pairs. Thanks to this the protective fields can be adapted to the respective movement and load conditions as well as the speed of the vehicles in many different ways. And in 4-field mode with 50 switchable field sets, the device can monitor up to four protective fields simultaneously. This enables safe and reliable reduction of the speed of AGVs. With a scanning angle of 270°, the RSL 400 can also cover the front and side areas of AGVs at the same time, that is “around the corner.” With these features and a maximum operating range of 8.25 meters, even large AGVs can be fully safeguarded with only two RSL 400. Jörg Packeiser joerg.packeiser@leuze. com www.leuze.com

• Advising • Mentoring • Connecting Maintenance Engineers

Save The Date

12-13-14 November 2019 Energy Events Centre, Rotorua Speaker, Sponsor and Exhibitor Enquiries Welcome

More information:

www.nmec.co.nz Chris Thomas +64 27 297 9643 chris@specialevents.co.nz

Leanne Powley +64 21 134 6315 leanne@adminoncall.co.nz

Lifting the Game of Maintenance Engineering

April - May 2019

rom your emails, anyone can learn about your work, our relationships, our vacations, and our medical problems. Someone in control of your email account could impersonate you and scam your friends and business partners, as well as reset passwords to any account linked to the email address. Email security is of high importance, and while perfect anonymity and security might seem unachievable, it is rather easy to secure your account against some of the most equipped adversaries â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and without too much cost.

Improve your company email security No matter if itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s private communication or business, your emails contain practically all the information there is to know about you and your business

Strong passwords protect your account from hacking To make sure that no one else has access to your account, simply change your password. The most important characteristic of your password is that it should be unique. This means not only do you not use this password on any other service, nobody uses this password on any service. Ideally, your password is also a long one. A password manager and the diceware technique can both help you to find a good unique password. You should also enable two-factor authentication for your email account. Two-factor authentication works by sending a secondary, one-time password by text message to a registered phone, making it far harder for anybody to access your account, even if they have your password. Regular housekeeping on your account is essential for good security. Make sure that no one has

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set any redirects or filters that automatically forward your email to another account. Also, check your previous logins and see if you find anything suspicious. Some email providers allow you to link your account to other apps or platforms. Make sure that all of these integrations are trustworthy and needed.

Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t load images and be careful about tracking links To track the reach and effectiveness of their emails, many companies, especially newsletter providers, will track the links in their emails. This is done to see how many people, and even who

exactly, read the email, clicked on certain links, or forwarded the email. When you hover your mouse over a link, your browser should show you its destination, which you can copy it into a text editor for further inspection. You could open the link in the Tor Browser to disguise your location, although this would still reveal the time you opened the link. Another strategy used to track you is to include images into your emails. When you open the email, you automatically load the image from a remote server. This can contain a tracking code, and reveal to mailing list administrators who opened the message. You can most

likely configure your email provider to not load external images by default, thus disabling the tracking code. Links might not only track you, but rather send you to sites that host malware, or phishing sites.

Be careful opening attachments

Attachments can contain all kinds of malware, such as cryptolockers or trojans. Only click on files that you expect, and whose senders you trust. It is advisable to open commonly infected formats such as pdf, xls, and doc using the builtin functionality of your webmail provider, or to open them in a virtual machine. Either way,

April - May 2019 make sure your computer is up to date. Antivirus software helps but is not a guarantee of a virus-free computer.

Encrypt your emails with PGP It is possible to encrypt emails to protect them from being snooped on, intercepted, and altered by even the most skilled and well-funded adversaries. Pretty Good Privacy

(PGP), also called GNU Privacy Guard (GPG), is free software that encrypts the contents of your email in a way that means only the intended recipient can see it. However, it does require the recipient to use the software as well. When using PGP, both you and your contacts will create a keypair on your devices, which includes a public and a private part. You can exchange

the public key, verify its authenticity, and encrypt your emails with this key. To decrypt the information the private key is necessary, which never leaves the computer. Though very secure, PGP does still leave some information out in the open, called metadata. The metadata includes the email addresses of the sender, recipient, time the message was sent, and the approximate

email size. Avoiding metadata is difficult and might entail not using emails at all. For an example, have a look at Off-the-record (OTR) , an encrypted chat protocol. OTR encrypts your messages, but also creates a new key for each conversation, to make it more difficult to link them.

Tor, and others might only have an IP address, but no n ame at all.”

always connected communities: • Low-Tier Underground Forums: Usually free and open-access forums, with many novice members. • Higher-Tier Dark Web Forums: The access is generally restricted through things like strict membership vetting, only hosting the site on Tor, or other requirements for access. Members of these sites are experienced and regarded as reputable by other members of the criminal community. Rippers (members that

This article was originally published by ExpressVPN

What do you know about the dark web? Mention the dark web and people think of a massive, mysterious online criminal underground, where products and information are bought, sold, and traded, hidden away from the eyes of the public and the law, but is that really what it’s like, or is that just cybersecurity marketing hype?

o what’s in a name? There has been a tendency to label the dark web as “any website not indexed by Google,” but this definition is far too broad. Recorded Future’s director of advanced collection, Andrei Barysevich, has worked as a consultant for the FBI Cyber Division and with international law enforcement on many cases involving Russian cybercriminals. He offers this definition of the dark web: “The term ‘dark web’ can be confusing. I’d

like to name it the criminal underground. Let’s imagine a nondescript entrance to a bar in a dark alley — a place which you will not find in the yellow pages. If you know the secret knock and password, they’ll let you in. Otherwise, good luck next time. The same concept actually applies to the criminal underground, or dark web communities, which you will not find via Google or any other search engine. Some of them may only be onion sites accessible through

Friends in Dark Places

There might be the temptation to think that every person accessing the dark web is a criminal looking to profit from the misfortune of others. Recorded Future recently conducted social network analysis on threat actor data. From this work, we saw that the dark web is organized in three distinct and not

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April - May 2019 scam other members without delivering a good or service) are scarce, and rigorous banning is enforced in order to protect the community. • Dark Web Markets: Market sites with listings of illicit services and goods, stolen credentials, credit card dumps, and so on. The access is usually open, meaning that they do not require an existing member to vouch for new registr ants. Although there are many shared connections between the lower and higher-tier forums, barely any of these profiles are also present on the markets.

Cyber Threat Actors Profiting From Exploits

Threat actor communities monitor sources and look for vulnerabilities to exploit and profit from. In many cases, analysis of new vulnerabilities will be translated into the native languages of dark web communities to help them better understand the ways they could be weaponized. It is also common for proof-of-concept malware to be developed and shared through code repositories. Threat actors will then seek ways to use this malicious code in malware or exploit kits. Once threat actors are content that the malcode is effective, they will begin to market it to the rest of their dark web community. One advantage to defenders here is that threat actors also use the CVE naming convention when discussing vulnerabilities or selling malware. This means that intelligence gathered from the right sources

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can give unique insight into those vulnerabilities actually being exploited in the wild. In the eyes of a criminal, no company is unique. Often perpetrators will initially cast a wide net and move toward the easiest prey. It’s far more likely that a company becomes a victim via a common attack vector rather than a highly sophisticated and tailored attack.

The Role of Cryptocurrency

The rise of these online criminal communities has coincided with that of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Monero, and Litecoin. Traditionally, threat actors looking to make money through exploits and malware would have to find a way to eventually get their hands on the cash they earned either as payment for developing them or the profits from their use. This was also the reason they usually got caught. Law enforcement generally applies the rule “follow the money.” To provide a greater level of anonymity for illicit transactions, many dark web communities had been using Bitcoin, but recent research from Recorded Future revealed that Bitcoin’s increasing popularity and transaction cost has driven cybercriminal organizations to use lesser known currencies like Litecoin, Monero, or Dash.

It’s Probably Not Speaking Your Language

Traditional dark web “markets” selling illicit drugs, firearms, or stolen credit card details may

operate in English in order to reach the widest ava ilable audience. However, the kind of dark web communities that develop and trade malware are predominantly Russian- or Chinese-speaking forums. This language barrier presents significant challenges to anyone trying to collect and analyze intelligence from these discussions. This is where technology can help. Machines that are able to understand these languages can collect and analyze data from dark web locations and alert you to relevant information as well as translate these references so you are able to read them.

Thieves and Geeks: Russian and Chinese Threat Actors

Russian forums leave very little room for socializing or camaraderie. These sites are places of business, not bastions for community. Respect and trust are built on successful financial transactions, and the reliable, consistent forum members rise to the top of their trade, while those with lesser consistency are given poor ratings. Despite being focused on business, successful members offer useful tools and good customer service. Sellers of trojans and spam services give out holiday discounts, and bulletproof hosters pay referral bonuses to any existing customers who send them new business. These actors operate with the financial wit of the major corporations they themselves so often target. Unlike Russia’s underground hacking commu-

nity, many of China’s first hackers rallied around patriotism. Chinese forum members feel an overwhelming sense of community online. The term “geek spirit” is used to describe the culture of these forums. It’s referring to groups of technical individuals who hope to create a more ideal society. Many of these forums require members to engage with a post, either through a comment or personal message, before being able to purchase or trade malware.

It’s a Useful Tool for Organized Crime

Intelligence gathered by Recorded Future from dark web communities shows that organized criminal groups (OCGs) are using hackers as a service to defraud businesses and individuals. These groups operate just like legitimate businessesin many ways, with a hierarchy of members working as a team to cre-

April - May 2019 en some members to set up other dark web sites to report offenders. Visitors to these sites are able to flag the user profiles they suspect, as well as information on how they are scamming other forum users.

Bad Actors Use the Dark Web to Recruit Corporate Insiders

ate, operate, and maintain fraud schemes. A typical group is controlled by a single mastermind. The group might include bankers with extensive connections in the financial industry to arrange money laundering, forgers responsible for fake documents and supporting paperwork, professional project managers who oversee the technical aspects of operations, software engineers, and skilled hackers. Some groups include exlaw enforcement agents who gather information and run counterintelligence operations. The members of these cybercriminal syndicates tend to have strong ties in real life, and often are respected members of their communities. They certainly don’t regard themselves as ordinary street criminals. They rarely cross paths with everyday gangsters, preferring to remain in the shadows and avoid attention from

law enforcement and local mafia branches. However, schemes that require large numbers of people — for example, those with large cash-out operations — can involve a chain of intermediaries who recruit and manage the “troopers.”

There’s No Honor Among Dark Web Thieves

In Russian forums in particular, there is little patience for selling poorly executed tools or deliberate dishonesty. Members with poor ratings or bad reviews often end up on the forum’s blacklist and can be sentenced to a role as a “kidala,” or “ripper,” meaning an individual who rips off others. There are no apprentices in this corner of the dark web, and few Russian forum members are willing to teach anyone anything without clear financial benefit. The problem of rippers on these forums has driv-

There are cases when cybercriminals need an “inside man” to help them profit from their illegal activities. They most often look to find an individual in an organization who can help them with something like “cashing out” stolen credit card or account information. To recruit these insiders, threat actors will often advertise for them on dark web markets and forums. Getting alerted to potential insider threats on closed forums or the dark web takes two forms. Monitoring for direct mentions of your organization or assets are the first priority, as mentions likely indicate either targeting or a potential breach. Industry mentions or tangential targeting are the next avenue of monitoring, as mentions of a “UK bank” or “x number of banking accounts” attempt to cover the source of the information.

Data Leaks Aren’t Only on the Dark Web

In most cases, threat actors who have breached financial data will look to find ways to monetize it through less skilled and more commercially-minded intermediaries. This means using sites known as “carding forums” that

sell either synthetic card numbers that will pass cursory checks, or card “fullz” — comprehensive records that pair stolen credit card numbers with the associated CVV codes — and in some cases, the social security number or date of birth of the actual owner. Actors selling leaked credentials from websites or other systems also crop up on the dark web. As a way to advertise the legitimacy of the breached data, they will often publish incomplete lists of their breached data not just to the dark web, but also to more easily accessible paste sites (sites like Pastebin or Ghostbin). These are useful sources to monitor for potential compromises of credentials in your own organization.

Just One of Many Sources of Threat Intelligence

We mentioned at the start that just thinking of the dark web as all the sites not indexed by Google is too broad of a definition, but it’s not entirely wrong, either. If you only collect data from open sources when generating cyber threat intelligence, you will miss out on just about everything happening in the criminal underground. That can be a huge blind spot in your organization’s risk assessment — the most comprehensive threat intelligence comes from data gathered not only from open sources, but technical sources and the dark web as well. Article sourced from Recorded Future safetynews.co.nz

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April - May 2019

obile devices are becoming a top target of attack, a trend that in many ways is rooted in poor vulnerability management. Android fragmentation has been a discussion in the security community for a number of years because many mobile manufacturers either stop supporting devices when new versions come out, or are slow to make updates available — leaving consumers believing they are up to date when they check for the latest updates. To truly understand the scope of this issue, according to Google’s developer site, over 50% of Android devices are running Marshmallow, which was released in 2015, or something even older. 38

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Mobile malware more than a consumer issue 20 percent of external cyber attacks were carried out through mobile malware, Forrester Analytics Global Business Technographics® Security Survey 2018 finds Privacy-minded employees often reject MDM solutions. Mobile enabled employees are happier and more productive, which has a direct impact on your business. Unfortunately, many organizations that have tried to deploy MDM solutions found that privacy concerns limit adoption. In fact, Forrester surveyed one large manufacturing company and found that

40% of employees rejected this control. Ensure employees have access to an antimalware solution. Earlier this year, Check Point determined that mobile malware that had the ability to evolve was coming preinstalled on phones, loading variants of itself for campaign-level control. Recognizing the productivity gains of a mobile workforce, we need to provide

employees with a solution that will leave them comfortable that you can’t snoop on the photos, contacts, and personal details on their personal devices. Providing them with access to a mobile antimalware solution that is not managed by your organization will alleviate these concerns while ensuring a mitigation of risk against the coming tide of mobile malware.

April - May 2019

Netflix and Google confirm everyone's fears about the cloud It's not the security, it's the loss of control

etflix has just confirmed everyone's worst fear about the cloud. Make no mistake, Netflix is a cloud-based application. It delivers (and collects) data online for a monthly fee. At work, I get data about my customers, suppliers, employees, activities, and emails streamed to me. At home, I get the same information -- except it's about Kimmy Schmidt, Queen Elizabeth, and a bunch of teenagers in the '80s exploring the Upside Down. Different data, same type of delivery. It's all on the cloud. This past week, Netflix did something that makes me -- and many of my business clients who rely on their cloud-based accounting, customer relationship management, collaboration, and email systems -- shudder. The company raised its prices. A lot. Thirteen to 18 percent, or about two bucks

a month for the typical subscriber. That's a bad, bad sign. Why? Because we're all going to pay it. I certainly am. Like my company's cloud-based systems, I've come to rely heavily on Netflix. What will happen to those women in prison? Will there be another visit to Hill House? Is Jane really a virgin? Who the hell is Jane? Will Jason Bateman finally accept that the new episodes of Arrested Development suck and instead just focus on Ozark because that show is awesome? Forget religion, pets, children, and sunsets. Netflix has become my reason for existence. Here, take the extra two bucks. Just gimme Kimmy. The sad thing is that not only does Netflix know this but so does Microsoft, Amazon, and Google, the three largest providers of web-based services. So also do Salesforce.com, NetSuite,

Square, Intuit, Dropbox, and hundreds of other cloud-based systems that have become mission critical to businesses like mine. The people who are running those companies are not only watching Mindhunter on Netflix (it's about psycho-murderers, and hopefully you've picked up the irony) but they're also licking their chops. Why? Because, trust me, the CEOs at each of those companies are saying to their minions: Hey, if Netflix can raise prices, so can we! Sure, we may take a little heat. But our bulging bank accounts

will make up for that. And besides, what are people going to do? Leave us? Naaaaah. They'll just pay. And we will. Don't believe me? Well, Google just followed Netflix and announced an increase in its business G Suite prices. Here we go ... That's the worst thing about the cloud. It's not about security or performance. It's about the loss of control. Once our businesses move to a cloud-based system, then we're addicted to it, just like Californians have become addicted to Jane the Virgin, which confirms many of the suspicions I've had about the people who live there. As a business person, you will do what the rest of us Netflix users are doing when you face an inevitable increase of your monthly fees. You will continue to drink the Kool-Aid and pay your dues. With a cloud-based application, you've given up the control of your IT expenses to some creep in Silicon Valley who will adjust your monthly fees on the basis of his (yes HIS, because it's Silicon Valley after all) mortgage, yacht payments, and alimony. It's all about control, and Netflix raising its prices just proves that we -- the cloud customers -- have very little control over what our cloud vendors can charge us. We're stuck.

Gene Marks Owner Marks Group

@genemarks Article first published on Inc safetynews.co.nz

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April - May 2019

Australia gets underway with its first waste-to-energy plant

ustralia has been slow on the uptake of waste to energy. Now, following China’s ban on imports, a 40 MW waste to energy plant near Perth has the all-clear to proceed. It could be the first of many. With suggestions that some ancient shell middens date back as far as 60,000 years, Australia is home to some of the oldest known waste sites on Earth. But since those days of pre-history, the nature and quantity of waste has changed – a lot. In modern times, with its huge, mostly empty landmass, landfill was for decades the easy option for Australia. However,

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over recent years, the country has drastically improved its waste management systems and it now recycles over half of its waste. But this still leaves a major problem nearly 50% is still being disposed of in landfill. Now, driven by rising landfill taxes and China’s import ban, waste to energy plans which had been slow to get off the ground are gaining momentum. Following financial closure and the awarding of construction, operation and technology supply contracts in October this year, a new 400,000 tonne thermal treatment facility is to be built in Kwinana, around 40km

south of Perth in Western Australia. “After years of planning, the City is absolutely delighted to confirm Australia’s first thermal waste to energy facility will be built in Kwinana, providing huge benefits to our community by enhancing the prominence of the Kwinana Industrial Area as the premier place to invest in Western Australia, with significant flow on effects expected for our local economy,” says Mayor Carol Adams. “The facility will also realise a number of environmental benefits with the facility estimated to reduce the amount of waste going into landfill and the

amount of carbon emissions being released into the atmosphere, which is a primary goal not just for Kwinana but for all Local Governments.” Once operational, it is expected that the plant will divert almost a quarter of Perth’s residual household, commercial, and industrial waste from going to landfill - a reduction of 400,000 tonnes of carbon emissions per year.

One project, many partners

On 18 October last year, it was announced that financial close had been reached on the project. It is to be developed under

April - May 2019

a new partnership model, known as ‘assetco-opco’. The approach makes use of each partner’s complementary expertise to deliver sustainable solutions to local authorities. The project is being been co-developed by the Australia-based financial investment group, Macquarie Capital and the renewable energy firm Phoenix Energy, with co-investment by Dutch Infrastructure Fund (DIF), which has acquired a 60% shareholding in the project through two funds: DIF Infrastructure IV and DIF Infrastructure V. An Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC), contract which

includes a 36-month construction period starting in October 2018, has been secured by Spanish sustainable infrastructure firm Acciona. The plant is anticipated to be in commercial operation by October 2021. Veolia Australia & New Zealand has been selected to operate and maintain the facility, which will be the first of its kind in the country. The Kwinana project adds to Veolia’s existing Woodlawn Bioreactor Facility located in New South Wales, which currently manages around 20% of Sydney’s organic waste, capturing methane to generate clean energy for up to 30,000 homes. Under a deal worth around €70 million, Keppel Seghers will provide the core equipment, design, and technical services for the plant's furnace, boiler and flue gas treatment. “We’d been in contact with Acciona, which is the contractor for this project and we made a deal with them which was in several phases,” explains Benoit Englebert, Sales & Business Development Manager at Keppel Seghers. “First we made a budget and then a binding price. At the beginning there were several competitors, then there were two competitors, and then we were the preferred bidder. After that, we developed a contract with Acciona and Acciona with the municipality.” Meanwhile, law firm MinterEllison advised Phoenix Energy and Macquarie Capital on the land tenure arrangements with the State Government of Western Australia. Partner Lee Rossetto says that the realisation of the

project is the end result of a decade’s work and “an important step for waste management in Australia and a great boost for the WA economy and local jobs”.

Finance

Macquarie Capital and DIF will provide AU$275 million of equity finance, and Macquarie Capital will also continue to be responsible for delivery of the facility. A group of financial institutions and the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) will provide AU400 million debt finance for the facility. The CEFC will commit up to AU$90 million as part of its Sustainable Cities Investment program, which invests in clean energy and energy efficient technology solutions in cities and the built environment. The Australian Government’s Renewable Energy Agency, ARENA, will also provide a grant of AU$23 million. This project builds on around AU$270 million mobilised for waste to energy and bioenergy projects through ARENA and the CEFC, as part of a suite of industry growth initiatives. The facility is to be located in the Kwinana Industrial Area, 40 kilometres south of Perth. Support from the Western Australian Government includes the provision of the land for the facility through a long-term lease from its land and development agency, LandCorp. The necessary environmental and development approvals have also been received, allowing construction to commence. Veolia will perform operations and maintenance services for Kwinana Proj-

ect for an initial 25-year term, with an estimated contract value of AU$450 million (~€278 million). “This project is an example of the private and government sectors coming together to resolve community issues, in this instance dealing with ever-growing demands on landfill and generating reliable baseload renewable energy to Australia’s overall energy mix,” comments the project’s newly-appointed CEO, Frank Smith. The project is also supported by 20-year waste supply agreements with Rivers Regional Council, which represents seven Local Government Authorities, and the City of Kwinana. It also has a fiveyear waste supply agreement with Veolia. Additionally, the Western Australia Local Government Association (WALGA) has appointed the Kwinana Waste to Energy facility as a preferred supplier of baseload renewable energy, representing a reliable source of baseload power to WALGA members.

Technology

According to consultants to the project, Ramboll, the facility is the first in Australia to utilise well-proven grate technology – a solution that uses thermally treated waste to turn water into steam in order to produce electricity. That technology includes Keppel Seghers' grates and boiler, which are designed to achieve efficient energy recovery and operational reliability. When completed in 2021, the facility will effectively reduce the volume of waste that goes to landsafetynews.co.nz

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April - May 2019

fills by over 90%. “The plant will process around 400,000 tonnes of waste per year, with a calorific value of between 7 and 14 with a recovery of 10 MJ/Kg of waste, as it passes through two lines using Keppel Seghers air cooled grate technology, which is suited to the thermal treatment of municipal and industrial waste of low to middle calorific values,” explains Englebert. “It uses a vertical boiler for the production of steam and then flue gas treatment. We also have metal recovery from the bottom ash including ferrous and non-ferrous and we will reuse the ash itself in construction materials.”

Future

In 2017, a report by PricewaterhouseCoopers, ‘Energy from Waste in Australia Delivering

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projects in an emerging sector,’ said that “it is encouraging that a number of states now have formal Energy from Waste policies and recognise energy recovery within their waste hierarchy… The appetite from the market is evident, but these projects also suggest a willingness within the public sector to use pathfinder projects to help move the industry forward.” The idea that Kwinana could be just such a pathfinder is not hard to imagine for Nick Houldsworth, Senior Managing Consultant at Ramboll in Australia. “This project required strong intercompany collaboration between Ramboll’s Energy and Environment & Health teams in Europe and Australia, and we are confident it will pave the way for future Australian waste to

energy projects,” he says. Managing Director of DIF Australia, Marko Kremer, also looks forward to the development of the sector in Australia. “European countries have long embraced the conversion of waste into energy, which has proven to deliver multiple benefits in terms of managing waste and contributing to a sustainable and secure energy supply,” comments Kremer. Englebert also supports the view that there is strong potential for additional development in the near future, and tells WMW: “We think Australia is promising. You see there is strong support with the landfill tax increasing. While the country is making a big effort to recycle, there is still a large amount of waste ending up in landfill – we’re talking about 10

million tonnes per year. At the end we see that the countries with the most advanced waste management policies have a combination of a high recycling rate and energy from waste from the non-recyclable waste.” “It’s a good match because of course it’s good to recycle as much as possible, but as it is, it’s not possible to recycle infinitely. For example, you can only recycle paper five or so times, plastics 10 or 12 times, depending on the plastic, so there has to be a solution. Waste to energy is a good solution to remove toxic substances from the cycle,” he concludes. Article first published on Waste Management World by Ben Messenger

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April - May 2019

Local Government has mixed views on Urban Development Authority The New Zealand government has formally announced its plan to form an Urban Development Authority but is it a solution or just more of the government kicking the can, asks Dave Cull

hough the move is not new, it has provoked a range of media commentary, with some hailing the Urban Development Authority (UDA) as the saviour of New Zealand’s housing woes and others branding it a lumbering giant out to bulldoze local government. Having been involved in the formation of the UDA, Local Government NZ holds the view that it does have the potential to speed up housing development by dealing with our housing supply issues, a classic ‘wicked’ problem that is defined by contradictory and changing issues that resist resolution. These existing issues include high building material costs, inadequate labour supply, an overly prescriptive Resource Management Act (RMA), a lack of incentives for

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ratepayers to invest in housing infrastructure and high urban population growth. However, it may add end up adding more threads to the knotty rats-nest of housing issues confronting New Zealand. Under the framework launched by Minister of Building and Housing Phil Twyford, the UDA will seek to partner with local councils to deliver infra-

RMA is no longer fit-forpurpose. And it is potentially creating a two-tier resource use system in New Zealand. Given that it took many decades to create New Zealand’s housing crisis, we can appreciate the Government’s desire for a big bang solution to the problem.

"Local governments act as a moderator for the many groups, businesses and individuals that make up our communities" structure and housing projects that have proven too difficult to get off the ground under the previous regulatory settings. By creating the UDA, the Government is doing two things. It is tacitly acknowledging that the

However, we’re concerned that it may create an uneven playing field in the long term, where central government gets the benefits of the UDA, while local government is left to limp along with a broken planning and

building system. To put it another way: on one hand local government will be restricted to using a twenty-ounce RMA claw hammer between the hours of 8am and 6pm, while central government will get a pneumatic Makita GN900SE gas framing nailer in the form of the UDA, and is free to run it around the clock. Government also faces other risks by giving itself a free pass from the parts of the current planning regime it doesn’t like. Councils know better than anyone how onerous its over-consultation requirements are. But as place makers, local government knows that one person’s regulatory logjam is another’s due diligence, and citizens need to have a real meaningful

April - May 2019

say in the development of their communities. The proposed UDA structure moves government further from promises of engagement with the public and local government at the local level. Previous iterations included multiple UDAs in different locations. The current plan is to create only one centrally controlled body. Yet all politics, environmental impacts and housing are in essence “local”. Local governments act as a moderator for the many groups, businesses and individuals that make up our communities. We maintain and support local democracy, so that everyone has a say in the areas they live, to promote social, economic and environmental wellbeing. While the UDA presents

opportunity, we’re against it completely bulldozing community opinion in the process. To counter the potential effects of a two-tier planning system and a centralised UDA, LGNZ is working closely with the minister on this reform package to ensure that we can kick-start development in a way that works best for our communities. Furthermore, we have told the Government that their job doesn’t end with the UDA legislation, but when the reform of the current planning system is complete. Local government acknowledge a UDA can achieve things that councils can’t. Councils aren’t geared to spend massive sums on property or deliver major projects better

"The proposed UDA structure moves government further from promises of engagement with the public and local government at the local level" pursued by a dedicated commercial function. That’s where a UDA can be beneficial, through strategic site acquisition and development, de-risking these sites, procuring and managing development partners, driving medium-density housing and leading large-scale urban renewal projects. For our regions with

solid growth, the Tauranga and Hamiltons of the world, reforming the RMA would better enable development in more areas, while leaving the UDA to attack the big end of town. The formation of the UDA shows that RMA reform can’t come soon enough.

Dave Cull

President of Local Government New Zealand and mayor of Dunedin City. safetynews.co.nz

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April - May 2019

The greening of global sourcing integrating sustainability into supply chains

his phenomenon is being driven by a range of factors including the adoption of corporate social responsibility practices and standards; growing stakeholder pressure; company image and reputation risk; and the increasing scarcity of natural resources. The current evolution of supply chains from linear models to next-generation ecosystems is also resulting in the greater

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alignment of businesses goals with environmental and social objectives. Besides, supply chains are becoming more complex with increasing global and regional geo-political and climate events, thus companies need to know their supply base and ensure to mitigate risks of sourcing. This ViewPoint by CBRE provides an overview of the role of sustainability in global sourcing oper-

ations and explains how multinationals can integrate sustainability into their supplier base.

What is sustainable sourcing?

Sustainable sourcing is the integration of corporate social responsibility standards into sourcing processes and decisions, while ensuring these meet business requirements. The four main areas of sustainable sourcing are

financial, environmental, social and governance.

Financial

Financial stability of suppliers is fundamental to a sustainable sourcing process. Unhealthy financial situation of suppliers may result of disruption of supplies or quality issues. Examples of supplier appraisal normally includes audit of financial statements, capital flows, cash positions, debts and

April - May 2019

Recent years have seen multinational corporations make great strides towards integrating sustainability into their supply chains, particularly their global sourcing operations

GHG protocol across the supply chain Scope 1: Direct GHG emissions from sources that are owned or controlled by the company

• Company facilities • Company vehicles

Scope 2: Energy Indirect GHG resulting from the generation of electricity, steam or heat purchased by the company

• Purchased electricity, stream, heating & cooling for own use

Scope 3: Other Indirect GHG emissions from sources not owned or direct controlled by a company but related to the company’s activities

Table 1

equity and related party transactions etc.

Environmental

Reducing Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions, water and waste is a key objective of sustainable sourcing. The GHG Protocol, a global organisation that sets measuring standards, defines direct GHG emissions as emissions from sources that are owned or controlled by the company, and

indirect GHG emissions as emissions that are a consequence of the activities of the company but occur at the sources owned or controlled by another entity. Indirect emissions are further categorised into two scopes: energy indirect and other indirect (Table 1). Most multinationals’ GHG emissions and related cost reduction opportunities relate to their supply chain partners.

Source: Greenhouse Gas Protocol, 2011

By measuring Scope 3 emissions, companies can assess where emission hotspots are in the supply chain; identify resource and energy risks in the supply chain; identify which suppliers are leaders or laggards in terms of sustainability performance; identify energy efficiency and cost reduction opportunities; and engage with suppliers and assist them to implement sustainability initiatives.

Social

• Transport energy • Waste from operations • Business travel • Water • Waste generated in operations • Sourcing (Purchased office supplies, services and capital goods)

Sustainable sourcing also relates to social

issues such as human rights, equality and international labour standards. Examples include prohibiting the use of child and bonded labour and investing in community development programmes.

Governance

Corporate governance focuses on the rights and responsibilities of the company, covering its management, shareholders and various stakeholders in the company. Companies need to ensure their anti-bribery and anti-corruption policies safetynews.co.nz

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April - May 2019

Figure 1: Sustainable Sourcing Process

are in place and regulate the provision of gifts, or anything of value directly or indirectly to government officials and private third parties.

Explaining the sustainable sourcing process

The sustainable sourcing process can be separated into four main stages (Figure 1). Stages 1 and 4 are relatively straightforward but Stages 2 and 3 require additional explanation. Stage 2: Online portal The online portal provides pre-qualification and screening of suppliers which can be provided by integrated technology to your Procure to Pay or Finance application or as a stand-alone platform. Third party service providers can provide additional assessments for screening (Refinitiv WorldCheck), HSE (Avetta, GRMS, Achilles, ISNetwork), sustainability (EcoVadis) or Financial assessment providers (Experian, D&B). CBRE has developed a

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standalone Online Portal which requires vendors to provide three years of financial statements and enter financial data points to predict the likelihood of them entering bankruptcy within two years (utilizing the Altman-Z Score) as a minimum or bring in their scores from external financial assessment providers. The Online Portal also requires vendors to answer several Yes/No questions relating to a short sustainable assessment covering areas such as labour, codes of conduct, bribery and corruption, and environment. Companies with higher scores are considered to have better internal processes and monitoring and therefore lower operational and reputational risk. 1 Data from CBRE’s sustainability assessment show that the Preferred and Strategic vendors in Greater China and the Pacific lead sustainability practices in Asia Pacific. Over 80% of respondents in these two regions have already established codes

Source: CBRE Research, 2019

of conduct that adhere to basic social, economic and environmental guidelines. Areas for improvement include the measurement and reduction of GHG emissions. Less than 25% of the vendors in Asia Pacific have programmes in place to evaluate corporate GHG emissions, making them reluctant to set corresponding reduction targets. Stage 3: Supplier Management & Assessments Supplier management and assessments involve regular site visits and field assessments to ensure suppliers adhere to clients’ codes of conduct and local laws. Nike has set a 2020 target to source only from factories that achieve a bronze rating on its Sustainable Manufacturing & Sourcing Index. Company representatives conduct regular visits to suppliers’ factories to assess progress. Many multinationals also provide support to suppliers seeking to im-

prove their sustainability performance. Measures may include advising senior management on corporate governance reviews; suggesting green equipment and devices; benchmarking green standards; and providing recommendations on compliance with labour and social standards.

Best practices in supply chain sustainability

While cost, speed, reliability and connectivity have traditionally been prioritised in supply chains, sustainability is a relatively new objective. Nevertheless, several multinationals with supply chain operations in Asia Pacific have already made significant progress towards integrating sustainability into their supply chains to balance economic gains with social and environmental pursuits. Leading examples include HSBC, whose initiatives include introducing commercial viable sustainable supply chain solutions to clients;

April - May 2019 helping garment factories adopt sustainability practices; and partnering with NGOs, industry bodies and customers to increase demand for certified and sustainable palm oil. HSBC will also require providers of highrisk products and services to complete self-assessments by 2020. 2 Apple is also engaging with its suppliers to support sustainability initiatives. Examples include expanding its Zero Waste to Landfill scheme to India and encouraging major suppliers to switch to renewable energy, an initiative that helped to save 320,000 metric tons of CO2 in 2017. The company has also provided labour rights training to 3 million of its suppliersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; employees and launched health programmes for female staff. In the real estate sector, Prologis requires suppliers to use materials that are either recycled or contain a high level of recycled content. In addition, all property managers in major markets such as the U.S. and China must be LEED certified.

strategy. Benchmarking and market analysis should be conducted to understand where clients are positioned in relation to their peers, followed by stakeholder engagement programmes utilising internationally recognised standards to determine issues of materiality for sustainability strategy development. Tools from third party service providers including Avetta and Refinitiv World-Check can then plug into benchmarking and stakeholder engagement results to help develop a sustainability strategy and formulate implementation plans that provide clear guidance. Frameworks that establish meaningful sustainability performance goals and roadmaps to ensure targets are met within the given timeframes can then be drawn up. This

stage of the process may also involve customising sustainability policies and practices to suit the individual organisation. Finally, employee training is conducted to create awareness among staff and ensure they understand, engage and buy into the companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s sustainability goals. Bringing this together into a digital platform and using a sustainability lens to improve vendor risk management through increased compliance and efficiencies creates a solid foundation to build on. CBRE is leveraging what it does itself, from having a global environmental policies and reporting to training to being involved in industry initiatives. And what it does for their Clients such assustainability strategy solutions based on best practice guides (engagement, policies, benchmarking, tools,

training, frameworks / scorecards, etc), measurement and reporting, green building services including energy audits and building certification, greening portfolios for sustained performance and provides dedicated Energy staff on Accounts. This allows CBRE to move past Business / Supplier Code of Conducts and audits to giving clear actionable advice and working with those vendors that are interested to improve their companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s sustainability programs, benefiting vendors and CBRE. The Impact of Corporate Sustainability on Organizational Processes and Performance, R.G. Eccles, I. Ioannou & G. Serafeim, 2014

www.hsbc.com/our-approach/building-a-sustainable-future/sustainable-supply-chains

Conclusion - Integrated sustainability sourcing strategy

The coming years will see multinationals accelerate the integration of sustainability into their supplier network. This will involve significant collaboration and transparency with supply chain partners and may require specialised services provided by external providers. CBRE believes that the complexity of supply chains and increasing need for flexibility requires an integrated sustainability sourcing

Mat Langley Vice President Global Head Supply Chain Operations and Technology

George Wang Senior Analyst Research Asia Pacific

Felix Lee

Analyst Research Asia Pacific

CBRE Global Research

This report was prepared by the Asia Pacific research team which forms part of CBRE Global Research - a network of preeminent researchers who collaborate to provide real estate market research and econometric forecasting to real estate. Click here to read full report, conditions, references and disclaimers. safetynews.co.nz

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elestino and the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) met with transport and infrastructure experts along with technology providers on Friday to discuss how autonomous vehicle use can be built into greenfield smart cities. Spanning a 280-hectare rural site, Sydney Science Park is a $5 billion project which aims to deliver a centre for scientific research and development in the fields of food, energy and health, along the route of the proposed South West Rail Link. The thinktank, supported by Transport for NSW Smart Innovation Centre, is part of an expression of interest process that aims to deliver autonomous mobility solutions for the sprawling development. Pegged as Australia’s “first smart city”, the greenfield development is expected to become home to more than

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Developer on track to build $5b Smart City Developer Celestino’s plans are on track to develop Australia’s first smart city, Sydney Science Park in Western Sydney 100,000 people, with its first residents expected to move in by 2021. The Luddenham site, which sits roughly eight kilometres from Penrith is owned and being delivered by property group Celestino. Celestino chief executive John Vassallo said more than 35 companies were registered to participate in Friday’s planning event, including the likes of Hyundai, Bosch and Westfield. “Our intention is that Sydney Science Park will become an internationally recognised epicentre for autonomous vehicles re-

search and development and commercialisation,” Vassallo said. “We’ve been overwhelmed with interest from some of the greatest autonomous transport innovators in the country and are delighted to see the level of enthusiasm and interest to co-develop with industry, government and academia an autonomous vehicles solution for SSP.” Sydney Science park is located within Greater Sydney Commission’s western city with proximity to major infrastructure Aerotropolis. Construction officially

kicked off in August last year. Its first stage of development includes a mix of commercial, residential, education, and a one-acre park. This includes 3400 homes, 340,000sq m of commercial space and 100,000sq m dedicated to education. It will also have its own STEM school, which is slated for operation come 2021. By Dina Lewis Boucher first published by The Urban Developer

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