NZ Architects Declare Webinar

[Shane Clarke] Kia ora, tēnā koutou everybody, welcome. Welcome to Nuralite's ninth series of our webinars. This one is on Nuralite and how we align with New Zealand architects to clear. Obviously it fills the category of sustainability which we're all very, very passionate about. So for those of you who don't know me, my name is Shane Clarke, I'm the general manager here at today. I'm lucky enough to have a couple of people with me on the panel. I have Duncan Sinclair, registered architect, director of Black Pine Architects and one of the original initiators, if you like, of New Zealand Architect Declare. I'm also very privileged to have my managing director John Simmons, my boss, to talk about Nuralite and our own sustainable journey. So just so you know, we want to try and make these webinars as interactive as possible, so you don't have to look at my face talking for half an hour. We do keep these very, very tight to 30 minutes. We appreciate that your time is very, very important to you. We run a couple of polls. I'm going to run the first one now and it's, do you make product decisions based on environmental considerations? And we're going to share these answers with you as a percentage, so it's completely anonymous. So feel free to get onto the keyboard there and use that chat function, all the Q&As. So we'll run through the panel and then towards the end there, we'll have a brief session on Q&A. If we don't have time to cover all the questions, we'll send them all out in a written document along with a recording of this incredible webinar we're about to present to you. Excellent. There you go. You see the results of the poll there. Interesting to see. Excellent. All right. Enough of me. I'm going to hand you over to John Simmons now, who's going to give us a bit of a brief, I guess, overview of Nuralite and where we are from a sustainability point of view. And yeah, we'll leave it to you, John. [John Simmons] Sure. Thanks, Shane. I guess one of the questions to ask is why is a membrane company talking about sustainability? You know, we're just selling torch on membranes. But to me, it's actually important that everyone is talking about sustainability and everyone figuring out what part they play in building New Zealand better and reducing our carbon footprint and also just the whole environmental impact of what you do every day. We really started focussing on this as a key strategic initiative about 18 months ago and decided that, yeah, we really had to step up and look at what we're doing and how what we do impacts others. And we've been on that journey for, as I say, for about 18 months now. About six months ago, Duncan will be able to tell us exactly when, we saw the Architect Declare initiative and we were really excited about that because obviously we're part of the same construction ecosystem and for us to see architects embracing that and take ownership of making change is something that we were really supportive of. So that's why one of the reasons why we've organised this presentation today is to invite our specified community along to listen to Duncan, hear where this architect clear journey started, where it's heading and also figuring out as a supplier what we can do to assist. So we're obviously doing our thing, but by cooperating and making sure we're all kind of rowing in the same direction is how we're going to make the biggest impact. Yeah, that's about it for me. I'll get into a little bit more about our carbon journey later on in the presentation, but that just gives you some context about why Nuralite's hosting this webinar on architects declare. [Shane Clarke] Yeah, and it does raise an interesting question how a membrane supply company gets involved. Have you got any examples of a physical change, just to give the viewers an example of what we've done? Just a quick one? [John Simmons] Well, I mean, we're doing a few things and they all actually, even when we just started talking about it, that created a good vibe within the company. Across the board from basically whatever role people are in, they were excited to know that they're coming to work and that what they're doing is helping to change things for the better. So although it can be a bit nerve wracking starting it, once you do start it, it's actually quite fun to jump in and start doing things. Even to the point where, and Shane, you haven't actually talked about what our charity is today. But the fact that each time we do one of these webinars, we're giving some money to charity. We got a note the other day from a group saying that they've planted 100 trees as a result of one of the presentations. And the vibe that came back from the employees is spontaneous. You go, that's great, you know, multiple thumbs up. So they're kind of getting involved as a social cause and looking outward and going, well, how else can we help others? Yeah, it just pays multiple dividends. [Shane Clarke] Yeah, you do raise a good point about the charities, John. For those of you who haven't seen all our webinars, normally when we go and see a group of architects, we'll take a plate of sausage rolls. Obviously, we're sort of moving away from that with the invention of COVID-19. So what we do instead, as John mentioned, is we're starting to donate $10 per attendee to every charity that we sponsor on the day. And today's charity is the Bird Rescue in Whanganui. They began in 1988 as a sort of a volunteer group. And when they first started, they received about 30 birds and they specialise in native New Zealand birds from around Whanganui, New Plymouth area, and falcons and hawks specifically. So when they first started, they had 30 birds and nowadays they're receiving over a thousand a year, which they're caring for injured and whatnot. So great to know that all the attendees here today have made the world a better place. That's for our charity for this one here. All right, I'm going to... [John Simmons] Just another thing, Shane. I've noticed on LinkedIn, Peddlethorp are giving food packages out post-COVID with, I don't know, there was something, an event that was cancelled. And so instead of kind of just throwing that food away, they're actually using it and turning it into a social good. And so there's lots of opportunities if we just change our thinking. [Shane Clarke] So yeah. Yeah, I think it's great. Everyone's showing their social responsibility, no matter where you are in the sector. I don't think it really matters. I think it's great to see. All right, we'll now have the pleasure of introducing Duncan Sinclair. Like I said earlier, he's the Director of Black Pine Architects and one of the instigators of New Zealand Architects Declare. He's going to talk to us about, I guess, why he felt so empowered and motivated to look at Architect Declare. And he's going to tell us what it is. Which is probably really important as well. All right, over to you, Duncan. [Duncan Sinclair] Thanks for that Shane. Yeah, what I thought I'd do is tell you a bit about why we got involved and why we brought it to New Zealand. A little bit about what it is and what it's not. And then just cover four or five things that we've done at Black Pine over the last 12 months, changes that we've made on a small scale, but it all helps. So I first came across Architects Declare in April last year, April, May last year, and read about it in the UK. And I was really, really inspired that these were leading architects from Europe that were putting their hand up and saying, we acknowledge that there's a climate emergency and that there's a biodiversity loss emergency. And we're actually going to do something about it. But we're going to put our company name up there and put our name on the line, essentially. And say, yeah, we're going to do something about it. We're not just going to sit back and mumble about it in the corner over our coffee. We'll get out there. And yeah, I was just really inspired. So I tried to sign up from here. And they said, oh, no, you can't do that because you're not from the UK, which I was a bit gutted about. And then they said, actually, you know, there's another architect from New Zealand as well that's contacted us. And that was Sian Taylor from Team Green Architects in Queenstown. And they said, you want us to put you in contact with each other? And I was like, yeah, that'd be great. So we did that. And then Sian and I ended up sort of bringing Architects Declare to New Zealand. And we thought it was a worthwhile thing. So from a global perspective, we were, I think, the third country in the world to start this. There's over 22 countries now that have got their own Architects Declare or versions of it. So it's really caught on. You know, there's a lot of inspired architects out there and construction-related folk that are, you know, keen to do a bit within the area that we're doing. So what it is, it's an open letter, essentially. It's an open letter on the internet where you can sign up and say, okay, our practise, we acknowledge that and we want to do something about it. So we really didn't want it to be a group or another institution or something that you have to pay membership to or anything like that. We're not going to follow you around and make sure that you do what you said you're going to do. It's up there for public scrutiny. So, you know, if you put your name to it, then it's up to you to take it on. The 11 key items on there, some of them are quite challenging. And to be fair, I find them a bit daunting myself. And, you know, it takes a little bit to sort of work through them. When we were trying to decide whether we should just adopt it wholesale from the UK or not, there's always a bit of debate about whether it applies overseas or whether it applies here. I looked around the New Zealand architectural community and I realised that each one of those 11 items was being done by some practise somewhere in New Zealand. And it was like, well, if they can be doing it, then, you know, we could all be doing those things. So we did change it a little bit, but predominantly it's the same thing. Sorry, Shane. [Shane Clarke] No, no, no, that's great. It's been slightly adapted to, you know, slot within the New Zealand pocket. It's great. [Duncan Sinclair] Yeah, pretty much. So, as I say, it can be pretty daunting. Black Pine Architects is a really small practise here in Whanganui, so we don't have a whole lot of resources. So when I looked at the list of things, it was like, oh crikey, where do we start? And one of the first things really was about communication and sharing that. So we've started to do that through our newsletters, which we were doing anyway, through our website. So little things really. But I guess the five things, probably the most important ones for us have been, firstly, to bring Architects to Clare to New Zealand and get it started. Team Green Architects, which is a smaller practise in Queenstown as well, you know, between the two of us, it's basically been Shane and myself driving it so far. Although we've had some really, really good support from others that have been in this field for a long time and key advice. So that was the first thing, bringing it to New Zealand. The second thing we've done at Black Pine is measuring our carbon. That's been a bit daunting. We haven't quite made it as far as near light getting carbon zero, which is a really impressive thing to do. I know there's a couple of architecture firms out there that have done that also, which is awesome. But for the scale of our project, of our company rather, we've used a sustainable business network template. And essentially, we just record that each month and make sure that at the end of 12 months that we're coming in close to zero as we can. So that's the way that we've been dealing with it. [Shane Clarke] Yeah, I think that's a really great first step to actually start, actually, you know, we're not just signing up for something, you're actually measuring, you know. So it's a great place to start. [Duncan Sinclair] Yeah, it really is. It totally helps you focus on those things. If you don't measure it, it's like something you just sort of talk about. It's, you know, I hear you're doing something about it, but when you measure it, you know, and then it's hard to ignore. So that's what it came about, actually, as a suggestion from Architects Declare in Australia, and they put it out as a challenge. They said, you know, to the signees, rather than try and focus on your projects, why don't you just, first of all, just look at your own practise. And over 12 months, try and become carbon neutral yourselves. It's like, okay, yeah, I mean, if we can't do it ourselves, then we probably shouldn't be telling others to do it. [Shane Clarke] Yeah, no, definitely sounds like a challenge, doesn't it? A challenge to everybody. [Duncan Sinclair] Yes, yes, yes, you can do it. The third thing we do is, obviously, or similar to everyone else, I guess we have reps from different companies phoning us up and coming to see us and showing their products. And the first question we try and ask them is, do they have a declare label for their products? And it's great to see that Nuralite have got on board with that as well. It just makes it a lot easier for us to know that the products that we're specifying are better for the planet than others. So it saves us a lot of legwork, and it's a really simple question to ask. And the fourth thing, we have swapped our electricity supply to a carbon zero electricity supply. So even though we are using energy from another company, we know that it's coming through as sustainably as we can. And the fifth thing, which is probably the largest thing for us actually, has been introducing regenerative thinking into both our designs and our business practise. So what we've done in that regard is taken a few courses with Regenesis that have been run here in New Zealand. They are quite challenging from how you think about your practise, how you think about your projects, and really looking further at the impact we have on the planet that we live on. So that's probably been the most significant thing. But I'd highly recommend the course and thinking about that as a broader thing. So those are five easy things that we've managed to do as a small practise, with fairly limited resources, and why we brought Architects to New Zealand and what it is. [Shane Clarke] Ah, excellent. I think that's a really good example. Just on the NZ Architects Declare, how many signatories do you guys currently have? [Duncan Sinclair] At the moment, we're about 102 different practises in New Zealand. So when you look down the list, there's some of New Zealand's biggest practises in there, and certainly a good number of those that are most concerned about sustainability. But there's also a lot of single person practises. So it works for everyone. One of the things we were really fortunate to have at the beginning was every single one of the gold medal winners, the NZIA gold medal winners that's still alive, has signed up to it, which was just extraordinary. They were really keen. So we really appreciate their support too. [Shane Clarke] Oh, that's a great result. [Duncan Sinclair] Excellent. [Shane Clarke] Good stuff. Right now I'm going to throw back to John, who's going to give us a bit of a rundown on how Nuralite's responded to the principles behind New Zealand Architects Declare, and talk to you all about our carbon zero journey, and a few examples. So over to you, John. [John Simmons] Sure. For those who are really interested, we've got the full webinar. So this is just a subset of the full webinar, but we'll take you quickly through the journey. So as I say, about 18 months ago, we decided that we had to start, we literally had to start doing something, you know, just sitting around asking my daughter to go on the student strikes wasn't kind of cutting it, you know. And so we had to start figuring out what do you do? And just like what Duncan said, was the first thing you have to kind of figure out where, what is your carbon emissions yourself? Because you don't have any authority to talk about it until you've started doing something yourself. So again, I'm just reinforcing what Duncan said, but it's hard to talk to your clients and encourage them to build better, if you're not behaving better. And so we were exactly the same. For us, we had to start looking at what we're doing. So the first step was slashing our fossil fuel purchases. And that's our direct fossil fuel purchases. So that's primarily fuel and gas. And so we've had to go and swap out our cars to electric vehicles. And we've swapped out our forklifts to electric forklifts. And so that we've really, and so that's relatively simple to measure. You just look at your statement and see how much you're spending at BP or Shell and go, right, we've got to stop doing that. And then you've got to look up and down your supply chain. And that's actually a tougher one, because you're trying to figure out. So for us, a large part of our carbon footprint is the shipping, which we can't avoid. But road freight we can do stuff about. So we looked at our road freight within the country and we decided to upscale our warehouse in Christchurch and ship directly into Christchurch, because the fuel on a container ship is a lot less than the fuel on a truck to drive it from Auckland to Christchurch. So although it's quite daunting at start, if you actually put your mind to it, you can make changes. Another one which was significant, in fact, it's reduced our carbon footprint by more than the cars is by increasing our stockholding so that we don't use air freight. And so we've literally tried to eliminate using any air freight at all. And so we're shipping more stuff in and holding it here. And that is the equivalent of our whole car fleet, you know. Air freight is an incredible, well just air travel is an incredible contribution. So really thinking about do we need to make that journey? We can't actually make any overseas journeys now. So Covid's been a wonderful thing in that respect, because it's taken away all temptation. But the reality is actually being much more calculated about the trips you do and do you need to do them, even within country. Doing these webinars enable us to talk to the architectural community without actually having to drive around the country doing big road shows and standing on stands. So again, our footprint in a number of cases has been reduced just because of over the last six months. But that's coming through from looking at our supply chain. The next one, each step of these actually makes means you can make a bigger impact, ironically, because the impact from the fuel purchase is relatively minor than the impact we can make by encouraging our clients to build better. Because the buildings that we build today are going to last for 100 years. And so anything we can do to make them more energy efficient is going to have a magnified impact. And so for us, as I say, you step along each stepping stone, you're making a bigger impact. And that was actually one of the, let me say, enlightening moments of this journey was, actually, you can be a bit disheartened and go, well, I can't make that much difference. You know, a single electric car is not really making an impact, but it's actually the ripples that you can make. And so, you know, like Duncan's architect in Whanganui, but he's actually managed to make a change for a lot of practises just from his actions. And so it is really about, and that's actually the fourth stepping stone is actually talking about it and encouraging others to change, being transparent about what you're doing, showing the journey that you're doing, so that others can go, well, actually, it's not so daunting. I shouldn't just sit here and do nothing. I should start doing stuff, you know. So that's what we're trying to encourage. [Duncan Sinclair] I think really the easiest first step there, John, is just to measure what you're already doing. Absolutely. Otherwise, it can just be a bit overwhelming, really. Yeah. But just working out what you do now, that's a great start. [John Simmons] Yep. Absolutely agree. So what's our next slide there? So there we go. There's our nice electric cars. I actually love my car. I love it better than the car. I drove Subaru Legacy wagons for 15 years, and I'm now in a Nissan Leaf, and boy, they go really well round town. So I've got, to me, it's not a backward step, and it's not like I'm having to make a huge sacrifice. So yeah, I actually don't understand why everyone's not driving them now. They're just brilliant. So there you are. If anyone wants a test drive, you can come around to Nuralite, and we'll take you for a hoon. Five minutes on the southern motorway, and you'll be wanting to buy one, I can assure you. Shane's a big advocate as well, aren't you, mate? [Shane Clarke] Yeah, no, absolutely. I got told I had a new car one Sunday to come and pick it up. I knew nothing about them. We'd done a little bit of research into e-cars and stuff before we looked at purchasing them, and yeah, no, it's a really interesting, I guess, change, because I'm sure people that haven't driven them have this perception of them, and it's quite funny looking at the different groups of people have different perceptions of the electric vehicles, and then they drive them, and it is a real mind-changer. It really is. [John Simmons] Yeah, and I mean, ultimately, when you look at New Zealand's carbon footprint, private transport is a huge impact, or, you know, single-person transport is a huge thing, and we're supposed to be in an emergency, we're going to have to act dramatically and make changes dramatically, and so something like this electric vehicle is something that literally every one of us can do pretty seamlessly. [Shane Clarke] Yeah, yeah. So, I mean, speaking for myself, you know, as an employee of Nuralite and seeing these steps unfold and becoming part of this carbon zero journey and, you know, start off by measuring what we did, and then we've actually made some physical changes. I mean, the car is just one example, but you, as an employee, you do feel quite proud and quite, I guess, maybe a little smug that, you know, you are doing the right thing. And, John, have you seen that sort of reflect through other members of the staff here, and how have we sort of run them through? [John Simmons] Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I mean, I honestly believe that people do get in and embrace it, and they can see what you're doing and see that it's being done for the right reasons. And so then you're actually getting the staff coming through and proposing changes. Now, the next big step is with regard to construction waste and how do we actually cut that down and make good use of the construction materials. Anyway, I actually do rave when I go on this subject, and I see that I've actually gone over time. So, on my last slide, I'm going to spend about 30 seconds, and I apologise for that. What we have done, and we actually have this on our website as well, is we took the Carbon Architects Declare principles and tried to align what we're doing with it. And the reason for that is to, a, to kind of support what's happening with Architecture Declare, but also to help architects who have signed up to look at what we're doing and figure out whether that's reinforcing what they're trying to achieve. And to be honest, it would be great if other suppliers or all suppliers did the same thing, so that as an architect, it was quite relatively, it gave you some direction, should we say. The short answer is, for us anyway, because I've only got about 30 seconds, is warm roofs actually solve a lot of the problems. So, for example, you can put a warm roof on an existing property and upgrade that property so it's thermally insulated. You're not allowing airflow out of your building, so that aligns with Passive House principles as well, that you're actually trying to build a full encapsulation system. You can obviously put solar panels on your, on your warm roof, and you can put a green roof on your warm roof, so you've got regenerative principles coming in there as well. But the main thing is that fully encapsulating your building envelope with a thermal wrap. That's a big change in New Zealand, culturally, we've kind of just told people to put an extra jersey on. And then, you know, we've, we've tried to waterproof our buildings, but we haven't really got down to the nitty gritty about air and about thermal. And you look overseas and America and Europe and they're literally a decade or more ahead of our thinking. So for us, when we're looking at these principles, we're saying a warm roof is actually the solution for the multiple of the challenges there. [Shane Clarke] Yeah, it ticks lots of boxes, doesn't it? Yeah. All right, well, we are lucky enough, we've got about four minutes left for our Q&A. So I've got a few questions here, which is great. So feel free to jump on the keyboard and send your questions in. So I've got one here for Duncan. How do you join Architects Declare? [Duncan Sinclair] It's pretty simple. You go to the Architects Declare website in New Zealand. I think there's a link in the chat there. Fill out the form at the bottom and send and then we'll send you an email just to confirm that it's okay with the principle of the practise and you're on. It's pretty painless. [Shane Clarke] Yep, that sounds pretty, pretty easy. Now, okay, there's a link just popped up on the chat function there, folks, if you can see that there. I'm just going to run our second poll here. While we're all still here. So the question is, do you have difficulty understanding any of the New Zealand architects' principles? We would like to know if you do. Again, it's anonymous and that will sort of help, I guess, shape it. And we'll also give the opportunity to reach out for a follow up where we can, or Duncan can assist with any of the issues there. So feel free to drop in your answers there. Right, I've got a question here. This one might be for you, John. Can you just, someone said, can you just define what you mean by wrapping the building? What does, what do you mean by wrapping? [John Simmons] Oh, okay. So that's talking about fully encapsulating the building. The simplest way should be, is usually I put a red pen on your plan at the thermal layer and go continuously without lifting it from one side to the other. In fact, go all the way around. We get a lot of plans in the office. I've never actually seen it achieved. So, but for me, I spend a lot of evenings on YouTube watching Matt Rissinger talking away and he actually builds monopoly buildings. He calls them monopoly houses. So he actually fully wraps them and then he will actually put the safiqs out and turn them into a normal house. And so it is, it is perfectly possible to achieve fully wrapped building that's got zero airflow through the structure. Condensation is accounted for. Water flow is kept out of the building and kept well away from the structure. And you've got a continuous insulation, no thermal bridging. And so, yeah, it's not, it's not the stuff of science fiction or fantasy. It's, it is achievable and buildable and aligns with passive house type principles, really. I mean, one thing on that, I mean, passive house is great. And I don't know if Duncan designs along those, but, but, but to me, it's actually a, it's a continuum and to get to pass it out would be great, but it's the principles and moving people along towards that is, is, is really critical in understanding the rationale. So for us, a cold roof, where like we used to do last century is how I like to describe it. You're actually putting holes in the structure and allowing air to pass. So, so for the next hundred years in that building, you're going to heat it and allow all that hot air to escape. It makes no sense. It really makes no sense. [Duncan Sinclair] I think, I think John, the, the, the ideas of the passive house are fantastic for the same reasons that architects declare is, and that's that just starting to measure what you're, what you're designing now is the best, best step. You know, it is a long continuum to get to pass about standard, cause it's a pretty high standard, but it does provide you with an awesome environment when you're finished. But as soon as you, as soon as you start to measure what you're doing now, then you just, you realise what can be done. [John Simmons] Yeah. Yeah. On that note, we did an Abodo webinar about two months ago, which is a building where it's fully encapsulated and, and that had a sustainability report attached to it and we can send it to anyone who wants to see it. And that actually talked about, it looked at what the building code level, the level that was built at, which was very high to what we've done in the past. And then a high energy building and a passive building. So you actually got the three levels of insulation plus how that would impact the energy use of the building, which from a client perspective, it's actually a really interesting discussion because you're talking about facts and not just gut feel anymore. You know? So I totally agree with you Duncan around the idea of measuring and getting a sustainable, sorry, energy report commissioned. [Shane Clarke] Yeah. Yep. No, it's, right. We are getting towards the end of our time. I've got a question here about my shirt. So it looks like we've reached the bottom of the barrel as far as questions go. We'll leave that there. Look, I'd like to thank the panellists for their time today, particularly Duncan. It was great. We just got the third poll to run, which is a nice and simple one. Just, would you like a follow up on any of the comments and stuff today? We can reach out to you privately after this and either, you know, on the New Zealand architects declare topic or anything that Nuralite's brought up. We can, we can reach out to you after this. So yeah, no, great. Thanks for your time today. Thanks for the panellists. Thanks for your contribution towards that wonderful charity. So we've got some up and coming webinars. The next one we're going to be talking to is with Jane, sorry, with Gerard Roofing and Thermacore Warm Roof. So this is how we basically promote the principle of a warm roof into a skillion or a pitched roof. So we'll be talking about that with Gerard. The next webinar after that will be Waterproofing Myth Busting. Probably won't be quite as dramatic as the TV show. I don't think there'll be any explosions. But we will be debunking five of our favourite myths we get challenged on. The next one after that, we'll be talking about below ground waterproofing and what our approach is, which we believe is best practise for below ground waterproofing. And I think that is it for us. I appreciate your time. We are one and a half minutes over time. So I do appreciate that. And stay tuned and we'll see you on the next webinar. Thanks very much. See ya.