Published June 23, 2010
by iris_author
Today I got to experience an outsider's perspective of the Green Star NZ world, New Zealand's green building rating tool (not to be confused with Green Star period, Australia's green building tool - on which the NZ tool was based) and I must say, it was quite unexpected.
This morning about 40 people (including myself) gathered on the top floor of the Hyatt Hotel in downtown Auckland, overlooking the beautiful and green (thank you evergreens!) University of Auckland campus, to take part in a full day training course on the Green Star NZ tool. Our lovely presenters were Liz Root, Green Star Technical Manager at the NZGBC, and Quinton, a NZGBC Green Star assessor and assistant creator of the tool itself. The room was packed with would-be Green Star New Zealand Accredited Professionals (refer to the above acronym), from Energy Analysts, to contractors and engineers to property valuers and building services managers, all keen to be initiated into the world of green building and supportive of the steps to get there.
Or so that's what I assumed.
In reality, our presenters were met with what could politely be described as distrust but in fact sometimes seemed to simply be outright hostility. I am told this is specific to the Auckland crowd.
My perspective going into this day of training, which is a precursor to sitting the Green Star NZ Accredited Professional exam (NZ's counterpart to the LEED AP exam), was that everyone was a convert and saw the intrinsic value of creating a more sustainable and less harmful built environment. However, a few (too many) of the participants seemed completely jaded and mistrusting of the tool apparently only seeking a soap-box platform for venting their frustrations instead.
I completely understand cynicism, but not the (misdirected) hostility. Take the case of the waste contractor who explained the dichotomy of waste managers in NZ:
In one camp there are those who DO own landfills and thereby make their money collecting waste and then chucking it into the landfill
On the other side are those who DON'T own landfills and make money collecting waste but must spend more to dump it (thereby giving money to their competitors).
The latter group clearly have a much larger incentive to divert waste (in fact they would be bad business men - let's face it, they're all men here - if they didn't) whereas the former do not. This creates problems, as the gentleman pointed out, when the former are the ones contracted to remove waste from a Green Star building site under the presumption that they will be diverting the waste when in fact they are not. This is a legitimate and extremely troubling concept, unfortunately one that has now been added to my already-too-large repertoire of examples of how hard it will be to get everyone to sign up to join the Green Train (i just made that up, want to hop aboard?).
What was completely inappropriate was the way it was broached. His tirade went on for perhaps 10 minutes, his voice was loud and his tone accusatory. This type of interaction has no place in a constructive space like this training sessions. Our presenters support their tool 100% and believe in its efficacy while still being very aware and realistic of its limitations. Green Star NZ has been developed to the best that it can be at this point and of course will continue to grow and improve as time goes by. Obviously there are things that could be better, this will always be the case as the world's standards on green building keep rising. But as a non-profit organisation with very limited staff, not that any excuses need to be made as it is an excellent tool, the NZGBC cannot take the role of a third party auditor as well. We can only rely on the integrity of those who sign the reports stating that waste has been diverted. It is what it is and NZ is the better for it since 2007 (when the first version of the tool was released).
So to those who criticise so loudly and readily, I say give your time, give your energy and help us make it a truly strong and all-encompassing tool. It's the job of many and the only way we can ever get there.
And my utmost thanks to Liz and Quinton for responding to the "attacks" with such tact and respect!
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