Call for insight: Survey to inform the future of low carbon design in construction

Calling all construction sector participants that have an interest in low-carbon design – we need your insights!

As Aotearoa moves towards a low-carbon economy, the building and construction sector (accounting for 15-20% of our total carbon emissions), must step forward and actively acknowledge its vital role.

To assist the sector in addressing this challenge, we have embarked on a project to develop a design framework to reduce construction waste, lifecycle embodied carbon, and to enhance the circular economy for construction materials, with a pilot for low-rise buildings. HERA funds this project and is also supported by BRANZ through funding from the building research levy. A key part of this project is a survey to better understand trends around sustainable design skills and interests and the barriers and initiatives to more sustainable outcomes.

Our survey is an amendment to a prior complementary survey recently distributed by SESOC (as we are working collaboratively with them on this project). Our hope being that our survey will allow wider reach from a broader range of professionals, including, but not limited to, structural engineers, architects, contractors, developers, and academics.

How can you help?

If you have 10 – 15 minutes to spare, we’d really appreciate you participating in our confidential online survey – as the more responses we get, the more understanding we can garner to inform our research. Note that if you have filled out the SESOC version of this survey, you do not need to do this one.

We would also be grateful if you could share the link with your networks to ensure we receive responses from a wide range of participants in the NZ construction/building sector!

The deadline for the survey to be completed is Friday 17 November 2023.