On 23 June 2022, Property Council submitted on te hau mārohi ki anamata, towards a productive, sustainable and inclusive economy – Aotearoa New Zealand’s first Emissions Reduction Plan (“the Plan”).
Why this matters to our members
Property Council advocates for the creation and retention of a well-designed, functional and sustainable built environment. The Plan outlines the actions to be taken to help the sector achieve reductions and meet our 2050 net-zero greenhouse gas emissions goal.
Our view
While we support the Government’s overall objectives in the Plan, we made the following recommendations to Government:
- Take a leadership role within the building and construction space to work closely with the sector and develop and provide incentives to shift behavioural changes;
- Investigate the gap in the market for crucial materials that are low in carbon such as concrete and reinforced steel;
- Investigate options of seed funding and support to businesses with viable ideas and concepts;
- Investigate ways to create better alignment between the use of low carbon materials and methods with urban intensification;
- Change current risk and liability settings by capping council liability at 20 per cent;
- Establish an educational and information sharing group to create consistency, and allow for better understanding of the market; and
- Create a database to ensure we have an accurate understanding of New Zealand buildings performance and how we can best build on this. This in turn will help drive behavioural change.