Leadership in construction

The Living Pā is the bold redevelopment of Te Herenga Waka Marae, on Kelburn Parade at Victoria University of Wellington, into one of the world’s most environmentally responsible hubs.

This 3-storied, timber mega structure on high-profile 980sqm urban, mixed-use site on steep excavated land, adjacent to several multi-storey institutional buildings that restrict solar access is targeting Living Building certification under the LBC framework which requires the pā to be net positive in energy, carbon, water, and waste, and demonstrably give back to the local ecology and community.

The Living Pā one of the largest-scale buildings to work towards Living Building certification. This comes with many firsts for Aotearoa, each bringing a unique suite of challenges. It is the first mass timber building to target the Living Building Challenge, and the first mass timber building undertaken by the contractor. It is one of only a few mass timber buildings in Aotearoa.

Beacon case studies showcase examples of good practice and innovation in the construction sector.

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Design Community of Practise quickfire presentation:  short version of a presentation by principal geotechnical engineer Natasha Jokhan at the NZ Geotechnical Society Symposium on Climate Change. Natasha talks about a range of ground improvement options and the embodied carbon associated with those options.

Legacy CCTV and timelapse systems provided detailed information, but there were challenges. User interfaces and the speed of timelapse video generation did not meet the site team and client requirements. Recognising the need for improved technology for faster access and turnaround, we explored alternative solutions.

Design Community of Practise quickfire presentation:  A presentation from our Environmental Manager Alex Bees, on the digital approach to environmental management taken at the Eastern Busway Project. Alex discusses how the project has made great use of ArcGIS layers and newly released embedded tools to assist with managing the environmental effects of earthworks, runoff and construction works in a suburban environment.

Design Community of Practise quickfire presentation: A presentation from our BIM Manager Joyal Jerry and SPE Ryan Clifton on the use of 4D design at the Eastern Busway Project. Joyal and Ryan discuss how they have used 4D planning in the development of the installation methodology for the Reeves Road Flyover.

Design Community of Practise quickfire presentation:  A presentation from our Delivery Outcomes Manager, Matt Findlay outlining the New Zealand Upgrade Programme (NZUP).

This case study showcases how a multi-storey timber frame apartment complex across three six-storey buildings containing 216 modules is being constructed with offsite manufacturing.

After seeing a market demand for suppliers who could deliver quality housing at pace and scale, Property Partners decided to investigate offsite-manufacturing. They started researching offsite manufacturing methods around the world, and ultimately decided that the Swedish model was the best approach for them to bring to the New Zealand market.

Beacon case studies showcase examples of good practice and innovation in the construction sector.

Read the case study

While the use of offsite manufacturing techniques is becoming increasingly popular around New Zealand for small-scale builds, Property Partners wanted to use timber volumetric modular construction, a form of offsite manufacturing in which buildings are put together by connecting a series of pre-built modules and stacking them vertically to build apartments. This offsite manufacturing method is common in Sweden and globally.

Winstone Aggregates is committed to kaitiakitanga - and being excellent custodians of the planet - both now and for generations to come.

Winstone Aggregates has bold ambitions for rehabilitating the environments and ecosystems they work in, supporting local people and communities, and constantly resetting the standard for sustainability that others will aspire to.

Winstone Aggregates' goal is to positively impact our environment, through restoring our already existing forest ecosystems around Aotearoa. To do this they've developed a framework with Nature Positive that is consistent with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and have adopted the Biodiversity Indicator & Reporting System (BIRS). They’re also working with Mana Whenua to weave in Mātauranga Māori frameworks, which will further strengthen the strategy.

Anglian Water is a world leader in reducing carbon emissions. As an early starter, the big UK water utility embarked on its carbon zero journey in 2006 and is now on track to generate 45 percent of energy from its own renewable resources by 2025 and become a full net zero carbon business by 2030.

In this Spotify podcast Jon Reed and Hannah Edmond from the Water New Zealand climate change group talk to Anglian Water’s head of carbon neutrality, David Riley about the water utility’s bold approach to tackling climate change and the carbon reduction lens covering all aspects of its operation.

Click here to go to the podcast.

Last August, Aotearoa New Zealand’s concrete industry launched its roadmap to net zero carbon by 2050.

Concrete New Zealand (NZ) chief executive Rob Gaimster says the publication of the roadmap is a pivotal moment for the concrete industry and the country’s built environment.

“We must provide adaptive solutions that address and help ease the impacts of climate change in a country that is also at risk of earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanoes.

“As well as contributing to our nation’s resilience, the concrete industry is committed to being part of efforts to mitigate climate change.

“This roadmap represents a collective effort, combining the expertise, ingenuity, and commitment of the concrete industry and wider construction sector, to meeting our environmental responsibilities. It builds on global cement and concrete industry progress to achieve net zero carbon emissions which has been recognised by the United Nations.”

Te Ao Māori values support successful outcomes for the Client, project team and the planet through The Te Wānanga o Raukawa Living Building Project in Ōtaki.

Four new buildings were recently completed at the Ōtaki campus of Te Wānanga o Raukawa. Led by tohunga, the buildings were named and dedicated in May 2023 by members of Te Āti Awa, Ngāti Raukawa and Ngāti Toa Rangatira. They were joined by workers and contractors from McMillan Lockwood, Pritchards Civil Engineers, Tennent Brown Architects, and students, kaiāwhina and staff.

The buildings are named Waitapu, Rangataua, Miria te Kakara, and Te Moana o Raukawa. The names are taken from the whakatauki (saying): "Mai i Waitapu ki Rangataua, mai i Miria te Kakara ki Whitireia, whakawhitia Te Moana o Raukawa ki Wairau ki Whakatū," which describes the rohe of the three iwi.

The naming of these buildings is the culmination of a project which began prior to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and has faced all the challenges that have arisen since then. From early fears of recession through to cost escalations and supply chain issues, the client, architect, quantity surveyor, contractor and sub-contractors have worked collaboratively to achieve an outcome which they all agree has been a huge success on many levels.

Beacon case studies showcase examples of good practice and innovation in the construction sector.

Read the case study

Fletcher Morobe Construction's Joinery Workshop has found ways to reuse the wood waste they produce. In 2012 the manager of the workshop received a sustainability award from Fletcher Building for their innovation around reusing wood waste, saving cost and decreasing their environmental impact. Over 11 years later, the team at the Joinery Workshop is still doing amazing, sustainable work.

When houses are removed to make way for major infrastructure projects, they’re usually sent to landfill. With big goals for sustainability, the Eastern Busway Alliance team was determined to divert as much of these materials as possible from landfill.

Looking after our people is about more than just their physical safety. Increasingly, we are focused on how we can support the overall wellbeing of our teams, which has led us to partner with Groov and MATES in Construction.

To explore the idea of wellbeing in construction even further, we held an event with the AUT School of Future Environments. We hosted a panel discussion to look at what we can do to support the wellbeing of our teams, and what we can do as individuals too. Thanks to Kent Johns, Carla Tonks, Fiona Crichton and facilitator Charles Walker for sharing their insights.

MJH Engineering developed a unique in-house training programme to train skilled welders that met the businesses unique needs. The training programme was launched as a pilot in 2022 and is now currently complete with 100% success/pass rate.

The Construction sector has a chronic skills shortage which has been exacerbated further in current times. MJH Engineering has taken matters into their own hands by developing an inhouse training programme to recruit, train, and employ skilled welders.

The Accord is partnering, supporting, and working with the sector towards the big vision of a 'Thriving, fair and sustainable construction sector for a better Aotearoa New Zealand'. With construction contributing to the economy by representing 10.7% of the current workforce (302,800) year ending March 2022 and being responsible for around 6.7% of GDP ($18.1 bil) year ending March 2022, addressing the skilled labour shortage through initiatives like this and others in the sector will be an essential part of the solution and way forward.

Despite the changes to the Immigration settings, to date there remains a national, and international, skilled labour shortage in some specialised areas of the sector.

Beacon case studies showcase examples of good practice and innovation in the construction sector.

Read the case study

We’re using a remote control roller in our work to repair one of the major slips in Coromandel (McBeth-Opoutere). We’ve built a retaining wall to support the road above, backfilled it, and the roller has just finished levelling.

The remote control roller is used in areas where we need to flatten ground near any steep drop-offs. This means if something did go wrong and the roller tipped off the edge, none of our people would be hurt in the process.

Nothing’s more important than keeping our people safe, but with a very diverse team, sometimes it's hard to know whether safety messages are being understood. That's why our EHS team is making safety videos available in multiple languages.

Learning Experience Designer Modi Chen produced the videos, and sourced translators from within the business. “As someone with English as a second language, I know that technical information like safety messages can be hard to understand. Working in EHS, it was really important to me to remove all barriers to understanding them.”

The first translated video, which features Puawai Waipouri, has Chinese, Hindi and Fijian subtitles, and Modi has plans to add more languages soon. You can watch the video here.

ViDoc is the combination of the iPhone Lidar scanning and a GPS antenna mounted on the phone cover. This allows us to scan our work and georeference the scans with high accuracy.