Chief Executive's Upfront
Account for Carbon Over a Building’s Whole-Of-Life

While New Zealand looks to recover from the effects of COVID-19, it must also remain focussed on emissions reduction, a key aspect of which will be adopting a whole-of-life approach to determining the environmental impact of construction.

Rob Gaimster, Chief Executive

Recovery from the pandemic is the absolute priority, not just for the building and construction sector, but for all New Zealand.

Government stimulus through fast-tracked, large-scale projects, and plans to address deferred maintenance in schools, hospitals, is required to create jobs and help New Zealand emerge from recession.

At the same time however, another national priority is to remain on-track to meet our part in reducing emissions under the Paris Agreement.

A crucial mechanism to ensure net zero carbon is achieved by 2050 will be climate change regulations across all sectors, including building and construction.

While the Climate Change Response (Zero Carbon) Amendment Act offers a defined, long-term, emissions target, with an assured framework for managing the transition to a low-emissions future, decisions must be evidence-based and deliver pragmatic results.

It was therefore, concerning to hear Urban Development Minister, Phil Twyford, announce that Government procurement rules now require departments constructing new buildings to select materials (and processes) with the lowest upfront carbon emissions.

While the concrete industry acknowledges that the built environment, including infrastructure, is a significant contributor to New Zealand’s emissions, the most appropriate way to compare the environmental impact of buildings is a ‘cradle-to-grave’ (not ‘cradle- to-gate’) Life-Cycle Assessment (LCA).

An LCA from a recognised provider uses robust science and independent data to assess a building’s impact across its entire life cycle. Such a methodology considers the product, construction, use, end-of-life and recycling / recovery / reuse stages.

As with the new Government procurement rules, the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment’s (MBIE) Building for Climate Change programme appears to have adopted an upfront approach to assessing embodied carbon.

MBIE’s Whole-of-life embodied carbon emissions reduction framework, which seeks to improve the operational efficiency of buildings by reducing emissions, reducing water use and improving occupant health and wellbeing, is proposing an LCA approach that stops at the gate not the grave.

We acknowledge that extensive consultation, including with industry, is being undertaken by MBIE, and look forward to collaborating in the development of a sustainable final framework.

At the same time, Concrete NZ will continue to advocate for a whole-of-life approach with Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency (NZTA), which has just formed a partnership with the Infrastructure Sustainability Council of Australia (ISCA) to deliver sustainable outcomes.

We encourage the partnership to consider the whole-of-life, cost effective case for concrete road pavements, particularly as a review of pavement failures on the Kapiti and Waikato Expressways emphasised the need for procurement and construction to provide quality and productive outputs.

In targeting net zero carbon by 2050 New Zealand must learn the lessons of recent decades when rapid reform led to unintended consequences such as the weathertightness debacle, the costs of which will have to be met by generations to come.