Opinion

By Richard Michael, chief executive, New Zealand Construction Industry Council

The Government may have deferred its carbon emissions trading scheme for transport until 2011 – but that is no reason for the construction industry to become complacent.

While seeing the date recede from January 2009, will have resulted in a collective sigh of relief, we need to fully use this extra time to maximise reduction of fuel emissions. While the Government may have given us two years’ breathing space, increasing numbers of clients – many aiming for carbon neutral status – will be demanding accountability around emissions and the industry needs to be proactive in its approach at all levels.

While an increase in fuel prices as a result of emissions trading is still some way off, it will be interesting to see the make-up of Parliament after the next election. A strong Green Party component is likely to be a powerful advocate for the scheme.

High use of fuel is unavoidable for our industry, and economic considerations
have already driven reductions in consumption because of the impact of costs on the bottom line.

Contractors today are very conscientious about fuel consumption and, realistically, the scope of further reduction is relatively small. Changes will be marginal rather than a grand transformation but that does not make them any less important.

Many of the improvements will be brought about by better use of technology. The high tech’ computer technology now going into machinery helps to ensure accuracy of manoeuvres, substantially reducing the amount of rework needing to be done.

The long run up to off-highway emissions legislation, particularly in the United States, Europe, Canada and Japan – such as the US Environmental Protection Agency’s Interim/ European Tier 4i standards, due to be introduced in 2011 – means major machinery manufacturers have already been working on updating emissions technology for over a decade.

We are now seeing the fruits of these labours appearing on the market – including new versions of excavators moving from six cylinder engines to fourcylinder turbo motors.

Of course, carbon emissions will not be the only client-driven issue. We are already seeing much greater expectations in terms of widespread environmental awareness on work sites.

The concept of doing things in a more sustainable way has been round for the past few years and, while standards vary across the country, there is no longer any excuse for not having policies on waste water disposal, silt movement and minimisation of waste.

This is an industry which does not have a public image as being environmentally friendly because it involves big noisy machines which dig up dirt and knock down buildings – which makes it all the more important to be proactive.

The reality, of course, is that many companies have already instigated excellent environmental procedures.

Just one recent example is the Alpurt Northern Gateway project where extensive planning and consultation has been undertaken to ensure outstanding environmental outcomes.
While the environment initiatives which have been included will have substantially increased the cost, this is a good example of a client, in this case the Government, putting their money where their mouth is. However, far smaller projects are also trailblazing excellent environmental solutions.

Thelin Construction Limited won last year’s category one sect ion of the NZCF Hirepool Construction Awards, for projects below $500,000, for design and build of a multi span pedestrian bridge at Kaikoura.

Steps taken to mitigate effects on the sensitive environmental area included precasting the entire structure offsite before transporting it to Kaikoura for erection.

Recyling will also become an increasingly client-driven issue. While the scope for recycling is not high for the civil construction industry, it is for all levels of the building sector.

Future expectat ions will be for the whole life cost of a building to be taken into consideration from the outset including maintenance and running expenses and, ultimately, the cost of refurbishment or demolition.

We are increasingly seeing examples of this. Meridian’s new Wellington office was the first New Zealand office building designed and constructed using ecologically sustainable development principles – and the first building to win a New Zealand Green Building Council Green Five Star rating.

It was designed to use 60 per cent less energy and 70 per cent less water than comparable office buildings Winners in the recent New Zealand Institute of Architects Resene Supreme Awards for Architecture included the Hills Clubhouse at Arrowtown, which incorporates natural thermal insulation and natural ventilation and DOC’s Conservation House, in Wellington, regarded as one of the country’s greenest buildings.

The new Telecom Tower in Auckland recently became the first refurbished building in New Zealand to win four-star Green Building Council Award status.

As well as installing energy efficient features, developers recycled a huge bulk of materials, including 15,000 tonnes of glass, 14,000 tonnes of steel 15,000 tonnes of aluminum along with copper, wood, insulation, cardboard, plastic, wallboard and other materials.

Threadbare carpets were put to use as farm weed mats and insulation was reused in low-cost housing in the Far North. If such results can be achieved for a building originally constructed when recyclability would not have been high on the list of priorities then we should be able to do much better in the future.

Those contractors who have yet to give due attention to their environmental planning do have ready access to options. The Green Building Council provides information and resources to enable the industry to deliver tangible building performance improvements and also offers training courses. The GreenBuild initiative is also a valuable online resource enabling contractors to compare the environmental and technical characteristics of building materials. Regional councils are also a good source of information both on standards and how certain problems may be mitigated.

The reality is that clients’ expectations of environmentally friendly construction methods and sustainability are going to get higher and higher and it will be the contractors who are proactive and invest time and money in improving their performance in this area who will see the advantages when it comes to tender time.

DOC’s Conservation House, Wellington