“We need to crack on”

There can be no doubt that our industry is changing. That the way we build our homes and buildings is evolving to consider the climate and our impact. With that comes challenges to old methods, products and perceptions. Importantly, it offers huge opportunity for the industry, for our environment, and for improving the lives of every New Zealander.

Key steps are already being taken. As the country’s leading advocates for sustainable building, the New Zealand Green Building Council [NZGBC] has seen support grow year on year and with it the use of our third-party certifications like Green Star, Homestar and NABERSNZ. More developers, architects, builders, contractors, plumbers, are on to it— actively taking responsibility for the way they design and build and backing up their sustainability claims.

On a consumer level there is growing demand as businesses recognise the benefits for staff working in a green, healthy office, the benefits of lower energy bills from better efficiency, and homeowners are increasingly demanding warm, dry, healthy homes to rent and buy.

Running alongside those industry developments is increasing regulatory pressure to build better. In the last year or so we’ve seen MBIE finally look to improve the Building Code around basic things like our incredibly inadequate insulation requirements. We’ve seen landlords held to account for the condition of their rentals and forced to get them to a semi-decent standard.

We’ve also seen the launch of MBIE’s Building for Climate Change programme—a hugely important step towards transforming our sector’s understanding and approach to embodied carbon and building performance over the next decade. Among the proposals, they’re considering adding water efficiency measures into the Building Code.

“WE NEED TO CRACK ON”

New Zealand Green Building Council Chief Executive Andrew Eagles outlines progress for sustainable building and what this means for the plumbing industry.

AUTHOR: ANDREW EAGLES, CHIEF EXECUTIVE, NZGBC

Energy benchmarking through NABERSNZ is now required for new Government tenancies, Green Star is being rolled out across Government procurement and Kāinga Ora has committed to building to Homestar standards.

There’s pressure now from the top to get on board, and increasingly there’s interest and demand from industry and everyday New Zealanders to tackle buildings’ alarming 20% contribution to our emissions. Anyone dragging their feet, regardless of where they fit in the supply chain, risks being left behind.

So, what does all that mean for plumbers? Plumbers will increasingly need to know about how water efficient aspects like fixtures, taps, toilets and showers can contribute to the likes of Homestar and Green Star. This will help secure projects already building to these standards and means you can advise clients to make more sustainable choices. Water heating is a big one, so it’s important to understand how we can decarbonise our systems. Those who best understand the alternatives and how they work will do well in the coming years.

Droughts and water shortages are already prevalent in parts of the country so it’s no surprise we’re increasingly seeing people consider greywater recycling or rainwater harvesting. We need better resilience when it comes to these types of events and plumbers are in a prime position to offer advice on how to deal with them, and support the use of WELS ratings, flow restrictors etc.

There is work to do across the board, not just in the houses and buildings we’re building now. How can we best retrofit our existing stock? There’s a huge opportunity to decarbonise by transforming our current homes and buildings into efficient, low carbon versions simply by changing the systems they use every day.

I’m excited about the role our sector can have in transforming Aotearoa. We just need to crack on and get stuck in.