Pictured above: Chief executive Andrew Eagles speaking at this month's National Māori Housing Conference
The sun is really starting to shine and it feels like summer is definitely on the way!
It’s got me thinking hard about building on our efforts to bring in much needed changes to the Building Code, requiring the overheating risks of new residential builds to be properly checked and controlled– particularly in terraced homes and apartments.
There’s a connection here to this month’s big Government news, with the announcement of plans to expand fast-track consents pathways to include sustainable buildings, to be defined in the Building Act.
It’s a great step forward — and I want to make sure it leads to the best possible outcomes for New Zealand buildings, communities, and our climate. We will be working hard in 2026 to ensure this definition is based on solid, independent certification.
See our response to the announcement here:
NZGBC welcomes Government step toward sustainable buildings.
At our Housing Summit last May, Minister Chris Penk said New Zealanders are being “cooked alive” in their new homes. As summer approaches, these voices will be growing louder.
The NZGBC, NZ Construction Industry Council NZ Institute of Architects, Architectural Designers NZ, BRANZ and others are calling for a check at the design stage to ensure homes do not overheat. This allows designers to improve the design, reducing overheating risks - a critical step toward improving the liveability of our homes and future-proofing our housing stock.
I was able to have some great conversations about this under the sun in Waitangi last week, when I was invited to speak the National Māori Housing Conference.
The conference’s kaupapa was Kotahitanga – unity in Māori leadership, innovation, and collaboration as a mechanism for co-creating transformative solutions for the future of Māori housing. I spoke on “reducing risks and improving financial returns when building homes.”
It was great for us to connect with many doing amazing mahi across Aotearoa New Zealand, including smaller iwi led projects right up to larger scale commercial property developments.
Having good air quality, low moisture and no overheating can make a big difference on both sides of this equation – healthier people in homes that are cheaper to run, while also helping access lower cost development funding and lower cost mortgages, meaning better financial returns and families having more money in their pockets.
Iwi are showing real leadership on building to healthier, Homestar and Green Star- rated developments throughout Aotearoa. I look forward to working on many more.
I also had the pleasure of attending the national Property Managers Conference, where I got the real sense of the business value of independent, certified performance certificates.
One highlight was asking the crowd whether they would like to have an energy performance certificate – (perhaps an A to G rating?) before buying or leasing. More than 80 per cent of those attending thought this would be a great idea.
Why? because any investor buying a home wants to have useful information about how efficient it is and how much it will take to improve. Around 26 OECD countries – including Australia and the UK - already have such schemes.
And finally a big congratulations to NZGBC member Precinct on its achievement in the GRESB latest global Real Estate Assessment, where it retained its position in the top 20 % of funds globally.
GRESB is the global benchmark for real assets, driving transparency, accountability, and long-term value. These results reflect a genuine commitment to sustainability, climate resilience and excellence from Precinct, which has earned a 5-star rating, placing it in the top 20% of funds worldwide for the second year running. Well done!
Read more on the achievement here:
Events
We have two exciting Green Speak events coming up – one later this week in Hastings where we’ll share practical insights, inspiring case studies, and regional perspectives on how we can design and build in ways that are resilient, cost-effective, and future-ready.
More on this event here
Then later in November we’ll be in Wellington to hear we’ll hear about sustainable finance solutions from the BNZ, a case study by Dexus on the ‘most resilient’ seismic building in New Zealand – Te Rua archives, and a discussion on the role buildings can play in improving energy resilience for NZ followed by networking.
More on this event here