Ensuring Tomorrow Trumps Today

Chelydra Percy - CEO, BRANZ

There’s a line from Dr Seuss’s environmental parable, The Lorax, that has stayed with me since childhood and continues to resonate ... “Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.” That book was published in 1971, but the message remains relevant – and ever more urgent – 50 years on.

Throughout human history, the needs of “me, today” have trumped those of “us, tomorrow”. What point in worrying about next week when right now you are hungry, cold and have no shelter? Millenia of short-term thinking and self-interest has led to the current global sustainability and climate crises.

The environmental penny has dropped for many of us and there is increasing urgency to address these challenges. However, experience to date suggests that humanity remains hard-wired to focus on what’s directly in front of us and wait for others to lead the way. The burning platform of climate change and our literal survival as a species still does not seem sufficient to galvanise everyone to act.

To me, understanding and responding to the foibles of human behaviour is the biggest challenge we face in trying to meet Aotearoa New Zealand’s 2050 climate change targets and environmental priorities. It’s not about the development of ideas, solutions, or strategy to meet those objectives – I am confident that we can achieve those answers – it’s about successful implementation.

For example, each sector can design a system-wide strategy to achieve transformation, but ultimately it is up to the individual businesses to ring in the changes. And while it is easy to commit to something at a pan-industry level, the realities of applying and implementing a ‘one size fits all’ strategy are far more daunting. It is here that commitment can simply unravel when it proves too difficult to translate into meaningful action.

 Similarly, consumer demand – and an ability and willingness to pay – for the new look, sustainable products and services transformation creates, is required to incentivise change.

 So, how do we motivate enough people and businesses to care and commit to act? How do we ensure the sacrifices that we inevitably have to make are sufficiently palatable to achieve wide acceptance and buy-in?

Alternatively, should we consider strategies that rely on self-interest to propel outliers to “get on board” in much the same way as COVID-19 vaccine certificates are being touted as a passport to freedom?

 The value of the Aotearoa Circle – and the reason that BRANZ is a partner – is its ability to collaborate, share, and promote a commitment to the future, despite what’s going on around us today.

 It is a vital forum for public and private sector leaders to discuss those big questions, to learn from each other and join the dots between industries and sectors. I think of the Circle as a coalition of the willing and wise – those who are committed to leading the charge, championing change, and demonstrating action.

In the building and construction sector, BRANZ has a unique role and perspective in that our knowledge traverses the entire building system – from design to end-use experience. And, as a science-led organisation using independent research, systems knowledge, and our broad industry networks to identify practical solutions, BRANZ sees itself as a sector facilitator and catalyst for change. 

We understand the impact of decisions made now reach long into the future and permeate every aspect of a building. We’re focused on how our work can help the building sector change its behaviours and the ways it works – for the better.

BRANZ has commissioned and undertaken research, developed technology and adopted strategies to address the risks posed by climate change and decrease carbon emissions. Our mission is to turn that amazing body of research into actionable and accessible tools and information.

That includes designing tools that can be used right at the start of the construction process when key decisions are being made with long-term impacts. LCAQuick is one such tool –

It helps building practitioners assess the environmental impact of a building over its life cycle. Another is BRANZ CO₂NSTRUCT which provides embodied carbon and energy values for building materials.

And increasingly we are researching ideas that go beyond adaptation for survival and consideration of natural capital. Our view is that “do no harm” won’t be good enough; we need to do more ... ultimately, our actions need to leave the environment in better shape than we found it.

Fulfilling Aotearoa New Zealand’s climate change ambitions will require the construction and building sector to make wholesale change, the size and scale of which is unprecedented. The sector is being asked to put the environment front and centre. Given its size and scale, it has the opportunity to make a significant contribution to Aotearoa New Zealand’s 2050 goals.

But herein lies the rub ... how do we motivate people to act?  It’s going to be incredibly challenging when in a recent nationwide survey of building companies, only 4% of respondents acknowledged climate change as an issue facing their business. That’s a massive hurdle to overcome.

The Environmental Workstream, which I lead for the Construction Sector Accord, is about to publish a Construction Sector Environment Roadmap For Action to 2050. It is a starting point, providing a clear, cohesive assessment of the thinking and actions required to reimagine all aspects of the building system.

Importantly, the Roadmap acknowledges that transformation of this magnitude won’t be achieved if it is only driven top down or relies on a singular strategy to be implemented across the building system. It is nuanced; encouraging individual businesses to adapt and flex the strategy to ensure it is fit for purpose and its proposed actions, achievable.

Ultimately, successful transformation in our sector – and indeed meeting Aotearoa New Zealand’s 2050 climate change targets and environmental priorities – will depend on the ability of leaders across government, industry, businesses, and communities to act and galvanise action.  

Our collective challenge remains our ability to flick that switch; to spark a revolution whereby people are prepared to let go of “me, today” in favour of “us, tomorrow”. 

By 2050, it would be good to see The Lorax message had been heeded after all.