BBWG’s FIRST Newsletter
The 2023 Wao Summit provided two full days of building sector focused workshops, presentations and lectures. The results were excellent! Demand for more content has led us to launch the Better Building Working Group Newsletter.
Please forward this to anyone that could be interested in jumping on board with better building. To register for the newsletter, click HERE.
BBWG Background
The Better Building Working Group (BBWG) was established after the Wao Summit in 2018. It is composed of architects, builders, tradies, developers, suppliers and mental health experts.
BBWG's mission is to inspire, educate and create positive pressures for increased sustainable, healthy homes and buildings in the Queenstown Lakes District. Priority actions include:
Better Building
Zero Waste
Mental Health and Wellbeing
To find out more visit www.wao.co.nz/better-building
2024 Strategy Setting Session
BBWG would like to invite YOU to attend our upcoming 2024 strategy setting session!
While the session will be specific for the group's core members, we'd like to invite the wider public to attend and provide any comments, feedback or advice for what the group should look forward to in the upcoming years (please note, that specific time will be given for audience feedback).
The session will take place December 13th from 4:00pm - 6:00pmatRhyme x Reason-17 Gordon Road, Wānaka. Please feel free to come along at the time that suits you.
We'll be setting the group's key goals for the upcoming year, and years to come. Come along and see what we plan to do.
BBWG NEWS UPDATE
Emission Reductions and Circular Economy in the Built Environment
BBWG members recently attended two nationwide workshops dedicated to the built environment. Here are the snapshots:
Toitū Envirocare hosted a webinar that addressed Life Cycle Assessments (LCAs) of buildings. The organisation implements new technology to understand embodied carbon and carbon emissions of any building from inception through to its end of life.
"Whole-Building Life Cycle Assessment (WB-LCA) for buildings [is] a comprehensive methodology, from raw material extraction and construction to operation and
eventual demolition."
Toitū Envirocare argues that LCAs can help "measure, manage, and ultimately reduce the carbon footprint associated with construction materials and processes."
Toitū Envirocare isn't the only group in New Zealand looking at embodied carbon and carbon emissions. Wao's Climate Action Initiative (CAI) provides similar services to assist local businesses and organisations right here in the Queenstown Lakes District reach their carbon reduction goals. Check out CAI's program HERE.
Another recent workshop titled "Circular Economy: Built Environment - A transition strategy to safeguard economic resilience" was held last month in Auckland and hosted by The Connective. Nationwide players from multiple industries attended both in-person and virtually.
The presentation started off by explaining the difference between our traditional linear economy, which takes raw materials to make products that simply end up in the landfill, and the drive toward a more circular economy that attempts to reduce or minimise the end life of products by circulating them back into the economy.
"As accumulation rates increase, the amount of human-made mass is predicted to almost triple the total amount of global living biomass by 2040"
The presentation produced some fascinating data and visuals on current waste trends in New Zealand, before then addressing ways of approaching circular solutions.
For more information on these workshops, email betterbuilding@wao.co.nz
Upcoming Events
As part of these newsletters, we'd like to share with you any upcoming local events related to the building sector.
5 December 6pm at B.Effect - 60 Anderson Road, Wānaka - Passive House at the Pub. There are no agendas, presentations, formalities, just rock up, buy yourself a drink and nibbles if you want to and head up to the upstairs mezzanine to catch-up with folks with an interest in Passive House.
13 December 4pm - 6pm at Rhyme x Reason - 17 Gordon Road, Wānaka - BBWG's Strategy Setting Session. Drop in and see what the group comes up with for the coming years. There will be given time for audience feedback, so come pop your head in and let us know what you think the group should be doing.
Thank you!
Thank you for taking the time to read the FIRST Better Building Newsletter and hopefully sharing it with other like minded individuals and groups!
We aspire to make this as best a resource as we can for the Queenstown Lakes District building community, and welcome any feedback. If you have any suggestion for content you'd like to see in this newsletter or any events that you'd like us to help promote, please email betterbuilding@wao.co.nz.
