Sustaining a smaller environment footprint

Speech to the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) Asia Pacific International Conference.

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The International President of the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE), Quentin Lieper; ICE New Zealand representative Tim Warren; my former colleague Hon. David Caygill; invited guests; ladies and gentlemen.

I would like to wish you all a very warm welcome, especially to those who have come here from countries throughout the Asia Pacific region - our neighbours.

Thank you for the opportunity to speak with you today about New Zealand's environmental sustainability initiatives - or keeping our environmental footprint at the smallest possible size.

Environmental sustainability is without a doubt an increasingly international focus.

However, I note a quote by 19th century American author and naturalist Henry Thoreau who said, perhaps some 150 years ago now, "What is the point of having a nice house without a decent planet to put it on?"

We cannot claim to be the first generation to be concerned about the future of our planet but perhaps we have more to answer for than all previous generations in terms of what we have done to our planet.

At least we are now, to differing degrees internationally, addressing the issue and I am proud of what we are doing in our small corner of the world to take care of our environment, in the interest of tomorrow's generations.

Just yesterday our government made a major announcement about the next step in our plan to fight climate change. We launched an emissions trading scheme, which puts a price on emissions to create the right incentives across the economy to use fuel and energy more efficiently, and to think about how we use resources and manage our land.

In simple terms, an emissions trading system will put a price on carbon dioxide and the five other greenhouse gases specified in the Kyoto Protocol. Putting a price on emissions will, over time, change investment and consumption patterns, so that we develop an economy and lifestyle with lower emissions.

This is big, bold step forward for a country which is neither an economic giant nor a global superpower. What we are, however, is a country which realises the importance and urgency of tackling the issue of climate change both in order to protect our international reputation as a clean, green country, and to do our bit to deal with a global problem.

Your profession has been at the forefront of the sustainability drive in New Zealand for many years. You were among those looking for better ways of managing our resources and environment as far back as the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992.

I commend you on that, because you, as engineers have the ability through innovation to make a major contribution to the aspects of infrastructure that contribute to environmental sustainability.

Our aim is to be the world's first sustainable nation and we are putting our money where our mouth is in terms of ensuring we achieve this aim.

This year we committed more than $800 million to make New Zealand more sustainable - the biggest investment a New Zealand government has ever made in putting our country on the path to greater sustainability.

Of that amount $650 million is going on rail infrastructure improvements in Auckland and Wellington, as well as national rail improvements.

We are putting the rest into:

. household sustainability - for example, encouraging consumers to use more sustainable and energy-efficient household and building products and to recycle
. public recycling facilities - reducing and better managing waste
. business partnerships for sustainability
. sustainable government procurement and enhanced eco-verification - that is, using the Government's collective purchasing power to demand and encourage the supply of innovative, environmentally friendly products and services
. shifting our public service towards carbon neutrality
. a wide range of home energy efficiency measures, including a major information campaign to provide consumers with clear, practical advice on actions they can take to improve their homes.

Becoming more sustainable will give us an opportunity to improve our quality of life and the prosperity of our businesses.

I will focus now on some of the things we are doing towards environmental sustainability in my area of responsibility - building and construction.

Government buildings and practices

In our drive for environmental sustainability we are leading by example in the way we conduct government business.

Since 1 July 2007 all new government office buildings have been required to meet at least the best-practice standards for green buildings.

All new A-grade office buildings being constructed to house government staff in central business districts must have a minimum five-star Green Star New Zealand rating, which represents "excellence".

A four-star rating is required for B and other grades of office building, signifying "best practice".

Office buildings designed using the Green Star rating system will be able to:

. use significantly less energy of a conventional building
. reuse or recycle much of their construction and demolition waste
. reduce their water use from the town supply
. improve the indoor quality of the air and offer more natural lighting.

Our recently completed Department of Conservation headquarters was designed to achieve the 5-star standard, and could be our first government building to get an as-built Green Star rating.

Conservation House, as it is known, has reduced water use from the town supply by 60 percent and already achieved a 40 percent reduction in energy use.

We are currently investigating a series of green building rating tools for schools, housing and commercial office building fit-outs.

Through a programme known as Govt3, public service agencies have already taken great strides in improving their sustainability and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

This programme encourages government agencies to be more energy efficient, save water, reduce waste and recycle, and make environmentally sound transport decisions.

We have instituted annual awards as part of promotion of the programme.

Many government agencies have introduced recycling schemes, encouraged staff to leave their cars at home and switched to buying green office supplies among their varied initiatives.

In addition to this initiative, six government departments are committed to becoming carbon neutral from 2012, and by then all core government departments will be on the path to carbon neutrality.

At the same time, a sustainable government procurement and enhanced eco-verification initiatives that we are putting in place will introduce a single government procurement policy that requires sustainably produced goods and services to be used where possible.

That involves, for example - energy-efficient light bulbs and recycled paper - while the enhanced eco-verification initiative aims to improve information about standards and certifications relating to reducing the environmental impacts of products and businesses.

Building Code review

As Minister for Building and Construction I am overseeing the reforms of the Building Act 2004, which seek to ensure that our buildings are designed, built and inspected right the first time.

Those reforms include:

. licensing of building practitioners, to ensure that people working in the sector are competent and accountable
. the development of a product certification scheme
. the accreditation and registration of local authorities as building consent authorities, to strengthen building control at the critical consent processing and inspection stages
. a top-to-bottom review of our Building Code - the document that sets out performance requirements in our buildings.

I am expecting to receive recommendations from the Department of Building and Housing in November on how we might change the Code to improve building performance and, particularly, make our homes and buildings more environmentally sustainable.

The engineering profession has made a significant contribution to the review of the Code.

I don't need to tell a group such as yours about the importance of getting our Building Code right, or the importance of making sure that it is forward looking so that it meets emerging as well as current needs.

Public feedback on the review's first discussion document found there is widespread support among New Zealanders for a more sustainable and energy efficient approach to building.

We released a second discussion document in August. One of the most important sections in that document relates to the "embodied energy" in buildings.

Embodied energy means the energy we use to create the building - the materials that go into it, and the energy used to construct it. It means the total amount of energy used to produce a final product from raw materials.

The second discussion document raises the idea of factoring into the design of new buildings the greenhouse gas impact of producing the building's components, as well as the building's lifetime energy use, as a requirement of our Building Code.

This approach would also take into account energy and water efficiency, construction materials and construction waste.

I am not suggesting that it will be easy to turn these concepts into daily practice and the discussion document acknowledges that the ideas carry with them complexity and technical challenge - although you, as a group, have never shirked from technical complexity.

Such an approach could hold the potential to substantially reduce the 'whole of life' costs of buildings and deliver significant environmental benefits, all of which is in line with the government's announcement yesterday of an emissions trading scheme.

This is big picture stuff, and no decisions will be made over whether we should go down this path until all the necessary in-depth analysis has been done. Housing affordability, for example, is a key consideration, because it is no use having houses that Kiwis can't afford to buy. But I believe that using the projected lifetime CO2 emissions of buildings as the principal measure of resource efficiency under the new Building Code is worth considering and New Zealand needs to be exploring these issues in-depth to ensure it is on the best possible path.

Other energy efficiency initiatives

Separate to, but complementing, the Building Code review, we have introduced major changes to the existing Building Code and building compliance documents that will result in the most significant improvements to the energy efficiency of buildings in 30 years.

These include more stringent insulation requirements for housing, including double glazing likely to be used in many regions that will result in new homes using about 30 percent less energy to achieve healthy indoor temperatures.

From this November new houses in the South Island and the North Island's Central Plateau will need more insulation and double-glazing. Improvements to house insulation will take effect in most of the North Island in July 2008 and for Auckland and further north from October next year.

We are also making it easier to install solar water heating systems across New Zealand.

A home built under the new standards will save between $760 and $1,800 a year on power bills, quickly making up the additional costs.

New requirements for energy efficient lighting in new and refitted commercial buildings will also save building owners around $8 million a year in energy costs nationally.

We are also consulting on a proposal that would make hot water systems in homes more energy efficient, and proposals for new energy efficiency standards to heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems in commercial buildings.

These building-related initiatives sit alongside the government's broader sustainability work programme, which also includes better managing water use, waste management and improving air quality.

Business and sustainability

Measuring and reducing our carbon footprint has to be good for business.

In the future, businesses across all sectors will need to be sustainable to make money, and there will be money to be made from being sustainable.

Increasingly, consumers are looking for products and services that match their values.

Positive impacts on health and the environment are becoming significant selling points for New Zealand products overseas.

But there is a domestic market as well.

Recent research shows that 26 per cent of New Zealanders want to purchase products which are good for the environment. These consumers want to buy sustainable products that don't have an impact on the environment.

It is important for business to act now to secure their future success, because those that don't face the risk that their market will be constrained if they cannot show their environmental credentials.

New Zealand trades off our clean green image - 100 Percent Pure New Zealand.

It adds value to our products, we have to protect it, not only through marketing, but by making sure our reputation is based on reality, not myth.

We live in a rapidly changing world.

Nowhere is this more evident than in our environment, where the very real need to develop more sustainable ways of living is becoming starkly obvious.

Indeed, it is becoming indisputable that sustainability is not only the right thing to do, both for New Zealand and in terms of our international responsibilities, but it is also the smart thing to do.

The more we introduce sustainable practices, the more we reap the benefits of a stronger performing economy, a much better environment and the improved quality of life that comes with that.

Thank you.