A choice to shine or be left behind

• promote greater transparency and more accurate pricing signals in the market • incentivise lowemissions investment • create a level-playing field for businesses already considering climate change

Ultimately, it is considered that finance and insurance will be differentially priced based on action on climate issues providing the right incentives to: • the necessary investment on mitigation and adaptation (to address physical and transition risk) • ensure resilience in the face of Climate

change • reduce the risk of stranded assets

We are starting to see increasing sustainable finance and green, social and sustainability bond offerings. We also have some clear analysis from both offshore (the latest IPCC report on physical climate change is the most strident yet) and here in New Zealand (in the form of the National Climate Change Risk Assessment out of our Ministry for the Environment, advice from the New Zealand Climate Change Commission a draft Adaptation plan and now an Emission Reduction Plan) on what is required in terms of climate response.

Legislation playing catch up

Although amendments to the Local Government Act 2002 have been in place since 2019 requiring councils to promote social, economic, environmental, and cultural well-being (the four well-beings) in other areas the law is playing catch up.

Even the new RMA reform mirrors this change in approach moving from an effects to an impact based approach.

It’s become increasingly clearer what the risks are and that we need to urgently take action to adapt to and mitigate the effects of climate change.

Decision makers

Much has also been written about the responsibility of directors and decision makers.

Suffice to say there are clear conclusions reached that suggest directors’ fiduciary duties and the role of those responsible for designing, building and operating assets are quite different than they once were, with a private member’s bill making it doubly clear for company directors.

Sustainability also an opportunity

Adopting a sustainable approach is both a way to address this risk, and opportunity to shine for those that understand and get ahead of the pack. As well as an ability to win work, there are benefits in the battle for talent.

Recruitment and retention of staff will be easier for those that are on board and authentically leading with purpose.

Organisations in the sector have a choice between choosing to adjust to this new approach and shine, or where they do not, run the risk of being left behind, as other organisations seize the opportunity that sustainability represents.

Glossary for readers less familiar with Te Ao Māori

Te Ao Māori - Māori world view.

Mātauranga Māori - knowledge of all types including scientific knowledge often derived from whakapapa (lineage)- of both people and inanimate things. Knowledge and understanding were bestowed in the highest heaven to Tane via three baskets/kites of knowledge.

Kaitiakitanga - stewardship - obligations to care created by relationships and connection particularly to land. The overarching concept is the land, and the natural world remains and endures beyond a single human life and it’s life sustaining force must be protected. Concepts of te Mana o te wai (now codified) and legal personhood conferred on things like rivers are an attempt to institutionalise this concept. Tangata Whenua - people of the land. To Māori those living today are the living embodiment of their ancestors and descendants and all are connected to the land. They are the land and the land is them.

Te Tiriti - The Treaty (of Waitangi) is widely accepted to be a constitutional document that establishes and guides the relationship between the Crown in New Zealand (embodied by our government) and Māori. The Treaty promised to protect Māori culture and to enable Māori to continue to live in New Zealand as Māori. Increasingly this phrase is used in shorthand to refer not only to the document, but manifestations of co-governance and other partnership type behaviours that breathe life into those obligations.

The publishers of AsiaPacific Infrastructure, Property&Build and Industrial Safety News welcome Infrastructure Sustainability Council (ISC) as a Content Partner. General Manager, New Zealand Adrienne Miller, is a lawyer who, as well as her role at the ISC, has served on the Building Advisory Panel at MBIE, Infrastructure New Zealand’s WIN Advisory Board and is a trustee on the Board of Diversity Works New Zealand. She is involved in mentoring programmes and writes and speaks on issues facing the construction and infrastructure sector.

A version of this article was written by Adrienne Miller as part of the COP26 discourse in what she calls the “third zone” in LinkedIn and Legalwise

It won the ‘IPWEA Australasia 2022 Excellence in Asset Management’ category and the prestigious ‘IPWEA Australasia 2022 Public Works Medal for Project of the Year.’

Waka Kotahi engaged IDS in May 2019 to answer the “billion-dollar” question around how much investment is needed to maintain the roads and road surfaces within the New Zealand State Highway network over a three-year funding period.

This information was vital to support the 2021-2024 National Land Transport Programme (NLTP) and inform the long-term strategic 10-year and 30-year investment horizons.

The NLTP is a three-yearly investment package that ensures transport can be delivered nationally, regionally and on a local authority level.

Just three months ago, this project also won the ‘2021 Excellence in Asset Management’ category at the IPWEA New Zealand Asset Management Excellence Awards.

IDS used the dTIMS (Deighton Total Infrastructure Management System) modelling that forecasts road condition, maintenance and renewal needs into the future to provide Waka Kotahi with assurance and confidence of a nationally consistent focus of investment.

This ensured the appropriate amounts of money were provided in the right locations whilst ensuring a functional, reliable state highway roading network that is well maintained and protected for generations to come.

Dr Theuns Henning, CEO of IDS and Senior Lecturer at Auckland University says “we were thrilled to have won the New Zealand

New Zealand roading project wins top engineering prize

Infrastructure Decision Support (IDS), WSP and Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency’s Strategic Maintenance Investment Justification Project won big at the 2022 Institute of Public Works Engineering Australasia (IPWEA) Excellence Awards in Adelaide

award a few months ago, but to also win the same for Australasia and then the overall project award is very humbling.

“The project was a huge undertaking. So many within the industry were involved every step of the way, and it is something that everyone who was involved can be immensely proud of.”

Vanessa Browne, Waka Kotahi National Manager – Programme & Standards, says asset management is a very specialised field, and recognition doesn’t come any higher than this.

“The state highway network is New Zealand’s largest asset, valued at more than $50 billion, and responsibility for that asset is not something that Waka Kotahi takes lightly.

“Thanks to the work of this project, Waka Kotahi can have greater trust and confidence in our processes. What it helps us achieve is a more consistent approach, which ensures we’re investing in the right places, and delivering the best transport outcomes for New Zealand.

“We congratulate our team on this success and the work they are doing on behalf and for the benefit of the New Zealand public.”

MBIE’s Building for Climate Change programme heralds an exciting and substantial change from the regulator in terms of planned requirements for carbon reporting and carbon caps in building regulation, including the Building Code.

There is no doubt that we are in a climate crisis and we need to reduce carbon emissions immediately. That requires some hard conversations that we are not yet having.

The construction conversations we should be having

HERA chief executive Troy Coyle with suggestions on how to generate the discussion and solutions we need ahead of tough decisions around the climate crisis

Carbon emissions now or later?

Over the past few years there have been misinformed and unhelpful assertions around the relative environmental benefits of concrete, steel, and timber. Every material has its place and determining the relative performance of each is complex.

Small studies are often not appropriately extrapolated to make broad claims, particularly as such comparisons need to be robust, impartial, and evidence based.

Some of this debate has been focused on the relative benefits of reducing carbon now (where timber has an advantage) versus reducing carbon for all time (steel has an advantage here because of its infinite recyclability). Timber releases all of its stored carbon back into the atmosphere at the end of the building’s life.

To meet our national carbon reduction targets and to secure intergenerational wellbeing, we need to find a balance of both short and sustained reductions.

There is no point reducing the upfront carbon emissions now if they are only going to be released back into the atmosphere in our children’s lifetimes. That doesn’t make sense, and there is no national conversation about putting greater weight on adequately considering Module D (end of life) in the assessment of sustainable, #greenconstruction. We need sector leadership on end of life issues so that materials aren't simply ticking a box when it comes to addressing decarbonising 'now', but rather realising this issue means future proofing and thinking what that looks like for our generations to come.

There is no meaningful national discussion about how we change the way we think about our homes, and the choices we make when building or renovating.

Where is the conversation about the trade-offs between spending more money on luxury or nice-tohave-items (for those who can afford them) versus spending that money on making our building stock zero or low-carbon?

Hopefully, the changes in regulation will stimulate those conversations more.