What were your early career intentions and what led you to study engineering?
I haven’t got a story of growing up always wanting to be an engineer – it was more just trial and error. At school, the careers adviser suggested I looked engineering as I was studying maths and this led me to study engineering at university. I wouldn't say I particularly enjoyed the course, in fact it wasn't until my third job after graduating when I started working for a mechanical contractor that I decided it was actually the career path I wanted to follow.
What piqued your interest in sustainability?
Growing up in England back in the late 80s and early 90s you’d always hear stories about CFCs (greenhouse gases) damaging the ozone layer and how acid rain was polluting the lakes. So, I suppose there was always an awareness of the impact that we've had on the environment. But my interest in sustainability in the built environment wasn't triggered until I did a working holiday in Australia 2007. I was working for a consultancy who were working on Green Star projects, at a time when it had only been going for a few years. Although I wasn't directly involved in the projects, I would always find it very interesting when people talked about what was involved. I went back to the UK and signed up to do my master’s in building services engineering with a focus on sustainable engineering and renewable energy.
How has studying and working in England informed your work in Aotearoa? What do you think we could learn from the UK regarding sustainability?
When I moved to New Zealand in 2016 one of the most noticeable things for me was how far ahead the UK was in terms of building thermal insulation requirements. I would be working on designs and calculating heat losses that were over two times higher than what I used the UK five years prior to that. At first, I’d size something and think, this doesn't look right, but I soon realised that actually it that was. Even with the recent revisions to the building code, New Zealand still has a long way to go to catch up with where they are overseas.
Back in 2010 solar PV, solar thermal, air to water heat pumps rainwater harvesting systems were all common technologies in the UK. When I came to New Zealand I was surprised that there wasn’t the same level of interest, especially given the climate here. Although this is now changing with regards to solar PV and air to water heat pumps.
Part of the reason for the strong uptake in the UK was because UK Government offered financial incentives. At the time there were feed-in tariffs where you would be paid for the power you generated, later there was the renewable heat incentive which provided payments over several years, and there was also funding available so that you didn’t have to pay for the full cost of an installation upfront. I think incentives like this are important to drive changes.
What are the biggest challenges and opportunities we face to decarbonise our built environment?
New Zealand is in a very good position, when you look at how clean our electricity is compared to other countries.
Probably the biggest challenge will be with decarbonising our existing commercial buildings - partly because currently there isn’t the electrical infrastructure and capacity in place if every building was to switch from gas heating to heat pumps. We are likely going to need gas in commercial buildings for some time yet. Space can be an issue, and also the different operating temperatures between boiler systems and heat pumps can make upgrades more challenging, though hopefully with the continued development in heat pump technologies this will be less of a challenge in the future.
A more practical approach would be looking at how we can minimize gas usage by improving the performance of existing systems and then using heat pumps to replace as much load as practical or as the budget allows, but with the capacity to expand in the future, and if needed maintain gas for the coldest days or to assist with the morning warm up.
What global trends and drivers are you seeing in the sustainability and business space?
In New Zealand I’ve seen a real uptake of NABERS and Green Star tools in the past few years, and a growing awareness amongst managers and landlords about sustainability.
In the UK and Europe there's a lot more focus on the collection and analysis of data to improve the operation of the building services, and how it can identify faults early which is great. Over here we’re seeing a lot more companies installing metering and we’re seeing better trending on BMS’s. At the moment I’m working with companies on how we can improve the day-to-day operation of equipment and I one of the biggest opportunities I see is how we can make better use of the data being collected.
What changes do you hope to see in Aotearoa to meet our decarbonisation targets?
The Government Investment in Decarbonising Industry (GIDI) Fund was a great incentive for businesses to uptake decarbonisation projects. I can see both sides of the argument of why the government chose not to continue with it at the same scale, but it would be nice if there was some form of financial support or something else offered by the government to encourage the continued uptake of decarbonisation projects and fill the gap left by the GIDI fund. From speaking to people in the industry, the lack of financial assistance or incentive is one of the biggest stumbling blocks as decarbonisation is usually a huge capital investment.
Do you have a favourite green building?
My favourite building would have to be Kiwi Property Groups ANZ Raranga Buildings, it’s a great example of an owner working to provide a good building to their tenants while continually improving its efficiency.