“Thanks, I really enjoyed that.” High praise indeed for an AGM, overheard from one of our wonderful members as they headed out the door last week. While they’re important for our ongoing governance and work together, it’s fair to say AGMs aren’t usually high on the list of enjoyable ways to spend your time, or something you’d rave about to your spouse when you get home.
I’m not saying the latter happened, but it’s hard not to leave buzzing after being surrounded by so many like-minded, passionate green building champions. We’re pretty damn lucky to have such an engaged community of members who continue to get involved, have their say, and ensure our network continues to thrive and transform the market for the better.
Thank you to all who could join us this month to celebrate the year that’s been, and to hear our plans for the year ahead. A warm welcome to Argosy CEO Peter Mence who was appointed to the board – we’re fortunate to have some truly outstanding, highly-respected industry members on our governing body. Thank you also to previous Future Thinker of the Year finalist Ged Finch who shared the impressive leaps and bounds he’s making with his innovative XFrame. It was great to see the network of supporters and industry players who have wrapped around him and supported his ideas.
There is appetite for innovation, for doing things differently, and for pushing the envelope to decarbonise the built environment. While many of us may be eager to leave 2024 behind and look forward to the year ahead, it's easier to do so with hope for the future thanks to our enthusiastic supporters who are leading the way and doing the mahi.
We here at the NZGBC have a few more tricks up our sleeve this side of Christmas, aimed at supporting you to keep pushing and equip you with the knowledge and tools you need. A major step is being launched at our Wellington ‘Christmas, carbon, and catchups’ event which, if you’re in the capital, I’d highly encourage you to come along to. We’re releasing three major updates for tackling the emissions associated with building products and materials: a new embodied carbon methodology for NZ buildings, a new embodied carbon database ensuring you have up to date robust data at your fingertips, and finally, we’re adding embodied carbon analysis capability to our residential modelling software ECCHO.
If you’re involved in fitouts, we’d welcome your feedback on the new version of Green Star Interiors we’re consulting on alongside our mates at Green Building Council of Australia. Called Green Star Fitouts, this key update looks to deliver more robust, accessible fitout benchmark. It’s a super step forward and we’d love your input.
Also due out imminently, our Existing Homes Roadmap plots out a key timeline of steps we need to take to tackle our woeful housing stock and lift them to a standard fit for the future.
Those will all add to the pre-Christmas noise, alongside post-COP29 developments, the Government’s release of the second Emissions Reduction Plan, and who knows what else.
Thank you for your support this year, it’s been (and still is…) a big year.