Industrial Safety News: June - July 2022 by Media Solutions

Why are they leaving?

June - July 2022

It’s not just about money Everything you need to know about Long Covid and reinfection

JUNE - JULY 2022

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hanges to our Global Harmonisation System (GHS) chemical regime applying from 30 April 2021 require accurate and timely advice - non-compliance could prove costly. Competent staff avoid expensive and sometimes confusing compliance advice, while enabling an effective response to chemical incidents, often without requiring emergency services. Inspectors and certifiers with years of expertise warn of a declining national workplace chemical safety performance. A crucial factor is the continuing loss of onsite chemical safety advice, primarily due to replacing flawed but effective mandatory Approved Handlers with whatever employers now deem sufficient. A second major chemical incident in the same public facility is a timely reminder that safe chemical management is not receiving the attention it deserves. Competent staff are essential. Onsite Responsible Care NZ (RCNZ) Competent Chemical Handler Certification courses are tailored to reflect your chemical inventory and enable compliance. Upskill the last of your HSNO Approved Handlers, update Certified

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Essential compliance tools Ensuring staff are competent to safely manage the harmful chemicals essential to your business includes your effective response to a chemical incident. To enable a smooth, cost-effective transition to and beyond compliance, you need compliance tools: - the updated RCNZ industry Codes of Practice reflecting our revised GHS chemical management system - your 24/7 CHEMCALL® emergency response subscription; and the all-important ‘how to’ advice arising from our popular site ‘walk and talk’ assessments - replacing your Approved Handler with our Competent Chemical Handler certification These are all cost-effective measures which add value to your business. Talk to us today about compliance tools, which confirm you are a good employer, committed to safeguarding employees and our environment by safely managing your chemical inventory. Responsible Care NZ 04 499 4311 www.responsiblecarenz.com

inspectors, local authorities, health protection officers and emergency response organisations all benefit from the expertise and product safety information available 24/7 from 0800 CHEMCALL®, our industry’s unique, subscription based chemical emergency advisory service. Supported by thousands of compliant Safety Data

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JUNE - JULY 2022

Skills shortages require pragmatic response

he Russian invasion of the Ukraine is forcing millions of families to seek sanctuary throughout Europe. Many will not return to their homeland, preferring to establish new lives in countries offering safety and an improved quality of life. In return, these refugees provide their expertise and gratitude for the opportunity they are being offered – similar to other refugees who have successfully settled in New Zealand since the early 1860s. Explorers and sealers, followed by traders, farmers, tradespeople, administrators, retired military and refugees involved many ethnic groups contributing their culture and determination to achieving a more rewarding lifestyle, where their expertise and skills were an invaluable contribution to a young colony with high aspirations. These adventurous participants helped make our country what it is today. 4

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Fast forward to 2022 and a pandemic, together with a faltering infrastructure delivering sub-par results in our schools and trading establishments, combined with convoluted immigration policies and the lure of better paying jobs in neighbouring Australia, means a steady erosion of the key skills necessary to improve productivity and deliver the required services. Unfortunate natural disasters, political and military actions in many countries have created a tidal wave of migrants, particularly those fleeing war zones and not forgetting those seeking a superior lifestyle in a country with attributes we defend, as we also under-value their importance. As the “kind and friendly” nation of international repute, offering a haven and a fresh start to those who have lost everything, we should also recognise the opportunity to embrace those refugees who will repay our kindness with

their loyalty, skills and work ethic. Engineers, builders, teachers, healthcare workers, fishermen and even drivers will greatly advance our urgently needed infrastructure development. Reports of training 40,000 apprentice carpenters, electricians and plumbers is a commendable achievement which will be wasted without jobs where they also receive competent supervision and mentoring to achieve their full potential. There is also the constant threat from higher paying offshore employers, luring professionals, especially where healthcare and commercial building is rapidly expanding. Our erratic immigration policy reacts to interest groups needing to fill shortfalls in critical export sectors. Visas available to relieve short term, low skilled seasonal labour shortages such as harvesting fruit export crops while ignoring long term, higher

skilled workers desperately needed to sustain national development. The latest relaxation is another 1,500 skilled workers for farms, meat processing and forestry throughout our critical and increasingly stressed primary and food processing industries. The unfolding disaster in the Ukraine presents a mutually beneficial opportunity for both the war refugees and for New Zealand. History proves our migrants become valuable citizens, repaying our hospitality with their skills, commitment and loyalty. Increasing our population makes economic sense. As a wealthy nation with GDP per capita higher than the UK and many Asian and European countries, we can afford to increase our population by stepping up acceptance of war refugees. A growing population encourages more competition in products and services dictated by monopolies supplying increasingly ex-

JUNE - JULY 2022 pensive commodities such as energy, supermarkets, construction materials etc. The UK is an example of mainly Eastern European migrants providing the tradespeople the education and trade training system fails to provide in sufficient numbers. New Zealand has a similar need for tradespeople, technicians and the array of lower paid jobs New Zealanders are not prepared to undertake. We must, however, avoid exploiting migrants, clearly evident where employees are not receiving a fair income for their efforts, preventing them from

establishing themselves in the community. Accelerated recognition of credible foreign qualifications should be a priority, including working with mentors to confirm their expertise on the job and to assist the family’s integration into their new community Our Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment is predicting an exodus of at least 50,000 Kiwis this year, many of whom will be the very professionals and skilled workers we can ill afford to lose. A pan-political party immigration policy to complement other proven initia-

tives like overseas students in the Sciences, Engineering and IT who elect to stay and work, should be a priority, together with suitably experienced workers seeking a better quality of life, while providing tomorrow’s skilled workforce. Providing the experienced professionals and front-line workers needed to train and mentor future generations in the skills needed to keep New Zealand at the forefront of where people aspire to live. Until such political acumen and courage emerges, government should actively facilitate industry importing

the highly skilled individuals desperately needed to significantly improve productivities and accelerate national infrastructure development, while enhancing their local communities. Meanwhile, let us open our door to those needy Ukrainian refugees in a mutually beneficial act of kindness. We will all be the better for it. The views expressed by Content Partner, Responsible Care Chief Executive Barry Dyer, may not necessarily be those of Responsible Care NZ

The state of play at home As the annual Winter flu season looms, coping successfully with international and national supply chain disruption remains critical. Businesses are now required to be lateral thinkers determining how to innovate in supplying essential products and services, while upskilling employees, throughout what may ultimately come to be remembered as the “Year of the RAT” rather than the “Year of Tiger”. The enduring pandemic and disappointingly slow takeup of booster vaccinations, coinciding with the change to employer-driven Covid protection measures, emphasise the need for businesses to focus on safeguarding staff. The lockdown of three major Chinese cities, their factories and adjacent ports, including the world’s busiest container terminal of Shanghai, during a new

Omicron wave will prolong the shortage of refrigerated containers. New Zealand food exporters, hampered by the shortage of both skilled and unskilled workers, are

the final crude oil shipment has arrived in Northport, the concerns about greater self-sufficiency and security of essential commodities like fuel, deserve renewed scrutiny and will require a

facing escalating shipping charges. Freight forwarders report a TEU to Shanghai has risen from NZ$1,180 last year to $9,450; and a TEU to Europe from $1,500 to $7,380. As energy prices soar and

massive investment. We reportedly hold only 20 days stock of our 90 days strategic fuel reserves in country. To increase our local storage capability also will require a massive investment.

By comparison, the Australian government has given A$150 million to upgrade and maintain their remaining two domestic oil refineries, highlighting a pragmatic approach to greater self-sufficiency in fuels. Would a significant increase in investment in our scientific capabilities be a pragmatic contribution to our future economic wellbeing? Covid has provided opportunities for our world class scientists. Given the ‘forever’ status of the pandemic and concerns about greater selfsufficiency, it is exciting the Malaghan Institute plans trials of a locally produced vaccine later this year. In addition, this much wanted boost to our national selfsufficiency would be greatly enhanced by opening our borders to the scientists and overseas students we cannot provide ourselves.

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JUNE - JULY 2022

Content Partners McKinsey & Company

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JUNE - JULY 2022

Contents

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Editor Michael Curreen +64 21 029 20234

Publisher Mike Bishara +64 27 564 7779

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Published by Media Solutions Ltd PO Box 503, Whangaparaoa Auckland 0943 09 428 7456 Original material published online and in this magazine is copyright, but may be reproduced providing permission is obtained from the editor and acknowledgement given to Media Solutions. Opinions expressed are those of the authors and may not necessarily be those of Media Solutions Ltd. ISSN 2624-0572 (Print) ISSN 2624-0580 (Online)

Skills shortages require pragmatic response

There is no known safe level of exposure to welding fumes

Nurses not monoliths are the backbone healthcare system

One thing we all have in common is that we will all age

The great unlearning

How upskilling your staff can future-proof your business

Vocational training leader applauds budget

Why video calls are bad for brainstorming

Chemical safety relies on meaningful cooperation

What you need to know about Covid-19 reinfection

New dam safety regulations

28 30

Safer, faster, multi-purpose telehandlers

A choice to shine or be left behind

New Zealand roading project wins top engineering prize

The construction conversations we should be having

Money alone will not solve New Zealand’s infrastructure woes

Infrastructure strategy cannot wait

A start to solving our poor record on low carbon cement replacement

48 52

Hard work gets results

How to solve the problem of slumping commercial property values by acting now

Industry leader in soft fall protection on construction sites

Office market strategies changing

Site Safe congratulates 2021 construction health and safety champions

The growing importance of ESG in property

Cutting-edge solutions to handle building waste

Certification benefits to the bottom line

SiteRight – It’s the right fit for your business

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JUNE - JULY 2022

There is no known safe level of exposure to welding fumes

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key part of this programme is to raise awareness of the health risks of silica dust, organic solvents, welding fumes, wood dust, carbon monoxide and agrichemicals and how they can be eliminated or controlled. Worksafe inspectors have been trained on these airborne contaminants and are supporting workplaces to control these risks. Last year WorkSafe issued a helpful guide for PCBUs who are overseeing welding. You can find more information and download the guide here. Worksafe states that “Welding poses a range of hazards to your health. These can be obvious straight away such as electric shock or exposure to cadmium fumes, or they may show up in the long term such as lung and breathing disorders” They go on to say, “A worker is 15 times more likely to die from a work-related disease than from a work-related acute injury.” Health hazards from welding, cutting, and brazing operations can lead to both acute and chronic health conditions such as: • Chronic Respiratory health risks develop gradually into a serious disease 8

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after ongoing exposure to welding fumes. These can include cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, occupational asthma, and welder’s lung. • Acute Respiratory health risks develop soon after the exposure and include acute pneumonia, irritant-induces

asthma, irritated throat, and metal fume fever. • Other health risks from welding include arc-eye which can cause long term damage to the eye, burns, electric shock, heat stress and exhaustion, skin damage and suffocation. If the risk management protocols of elimination, minimization and mitigation

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JUNE - JULY 2022

Nurses not monoliths are the backbone of healthcare system A recent report by global management consultants McKinsey & Company on why nurses want to leave contains valuable lessons for New Zealand. It’s not all about money

ew Zealand politicians continue to prevaricate on nursing needs and concentrate on creating government-controlled health monoliths. “They pay little more than lip service to the actions they need to undertake to keep our nurses at home, safe and happy in their vital tasks,” says Industrial Safety News publisher Mike Bishara. Once cynically charged expressions are looking less and less like harbingers of doom and more and more like accurate assessments of the future, he says. “Blessed are the young, for they shall inherit the national debt, a ravaged planet and a failed health system. “A start in working on a 10 safetynews.co.nz

solution to the last item is not rocket science – we need to upgrade our nurses’ skill base, attract them here and keep them here. Few would question that they are the key for decades to come to ensure the effective implementation of patient care plus medical and technological advances. “We need to send a strong wake up call to our moribund immigration department to ditch its elitist immigration policies and get nurses to choose New Zealand in the face of intense global pressure for their services. This can’t wait for another ‘ministerial consultation’ with unnamed sources,” says Bishara. The McKinsey survey found that, while compensation and a view of total

monetary rewards are important for those who plan to stay in their jobs, they also cited reasons that go beyond salary. Factors such as feeling engaged by work, doing meaningful work, and maintaining good health were the top drivers in surveyed nurses’ decisions to stay in the profession. The survey asked frontline nurses if they want to stay in their current role. Between 28 and 38 percent indicated they were likely to leave their current role in direct patient care in the next year. The lesson for New Zealand lies in the survey findings which found “a striking degree of consistency around how nurses feel in their roles today, despite

the different healthcare systems and delivery networks in each of the six countries” they surveyed. “Sorry, no easy escape route there for politicians about different needs for different countries,” says Bishara. “The survey covered countries with diverse economies and cultures -- Brazil, Singapore , Japan, UK, France and the US. One thing is becoming clear, the survey found. A substantial population of nurses are expressing a desire to leave direct patient care which means a growing risk of nursing shortages around the world. McKinsey estimates, for example, that in the United States there may be a shortage of between 200,000 to 450,000 nurses (10 to 20 percent) by 2025. “This would seem a cost-effective opportunity for New Zealand to offer jaded and weary nurses a chance to refresh themselves and their careers by immigrating to New Zealand,” says Bishara. The report says that by learning and sharing promising paths forward across nations, stakeholders could support their clinical workforce and look to solve what has become a consequential global problem. Positive leadership initiatives—such as directors rounding once a week to show support—have been correlated in studies with higher retention, reduced medical errors and administrative efficiency. The report outlines steps employers could consider in an effort to provide nurses with better support. Nurses cited lack of recognition and being overworked and understaffed as contributing factors in their decision to leave direct patient care.

JUNE - JULY 2022 Surveyed nurses said they were drawn to opportunities where they could have a break from the stress and challenges of direct patient care. The reasons for leaving vary. In some countries, more than half of respondents said their decision to leave was not directly related to the Covid pandemic. While the percentage of nurses leaving may have grown in countries such as the United States, currently about half of all nurses in surveyed countries said

their likelihood to leave or stay was the same or unchanged since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Doing meaningful work is a top reason to stay, nurse respondents say. Across geographies, respondents said the most important factors keeping them in their direct-patient-care roles included doing meaningful work, a positive and engaging work environment and feeling healthy and safe. “All things New Zealand can offer at little direct cost

with a change of attitude and direction and a lot less bureaucracy. It’s an obvious direction which allows us to compete with the big money offered by some countries,” says Bishara. Japan was the only country with respondents including compensation among their top three factors. Feeling valued by a manager and efforts to create positive working environments were ranked with high importance in the report. In the United Kingdom, for

example, 63 percent of respondents said “positive interactions” were important and 49 percent said feeling “valued by manager” was important. Respondents cited recognition and more work breaks as helpful for well-being For example, US and UK respondents were more likely to list open lines of communication as an effective well-being support initiative, while France and Brazil respondents were more likely to say monitoring signs of nurse distress

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JUNE - JULY 2022

was effective Many respondents prioritise the ability to set their hours. Respondents in most countries highlighted the ability to take time off and to work specific hours or days of the week as important. The ability to work remotely was listed as more of a priority by respondents in the UK and Brazil than their cohorts. Respondents in France, the UK, and the US cited the ability to work three shifts per week while keeping full-time status as a priority. Many surveyed nurses indicated uncertainty around whether they had enough advanced clinical skills. Across all countries, nurse 12 safetynews.co.nz

respondents reported being less confident about their advanced clinical skills. Japanese respondents also listed less confidence in having enough technical skills and higher analytical skills, such as interpreting new data and analysis. If companies make a concerted effort to better understand why employees are leaving and take meaningful action to retain them, the Great Attrition could become the Great Attraction, the report says. No matter the country, examining what is important to nurses and why they leave could help organisations adjust. Healthcare stakeholders in all countries may consider strategies to recognise the

contributions of nurses, embed more breaks, create positive interactions, and build caring teams, all with the goal of boosting well-being in the workforce. In the long term, these efforts could improve retention. Health systems may find that positive environments reflecting nurses’ priorities may attract new workers or lure back those who have left direct patient care over the past two years. In the long run, investment in nurses could offer stability and support top-quality care for patients, the reports says. Nurses who responded that they were unlikely to leave their current role may be motivated by a variety

of factors, such as financial considerations, plans to retire, or plans to further their education, but more research is necessary to determine the specific factor, the report notes. The survey report was prepared by McKinsey staffers Gretchen Berlin, RN, a senior partner in McKinsey’s Washington DC office, where Faith Lyons is a consultant; Connor Essick is a consultant in the Bay Area office, where Meredith Lapointe is a partner. Catherine Wilkosz and Grace Li contributed to this article. Mike Bishara is the publisher of Media Solutions’ three titles AsiaPacific Infrastructure, Property&Build and Industrial Safety News.

JUNE - JULY 2022

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OVID-19 has threatened the health, services, living arrangements, and interactions of older adults. Across the world there have been so many accounts of illnesses, hospitalisations, and deaths impacting the older population. The pandemic has laid bare many things and it has crystallised what many of us knew but had not faced head-on before. We are left to wrestle with the question of, “How did we get here?” However, we have an opportunity to make considerable changes. We know what impacts healthy aging. We know what we now need to go back and correct. I think the cruel irony of COVID-19 will be that while there have been many losses, this will be the catalyst that helps save older lives in the future. It will require us to look at how we view older lives. It will require us to take an inventory of the services, investments, and opportunities available to provide a stronger system of longterm care for older individuals. I would want everyone to value what it means to aged. You have to value something before you will invest in it, and I think for far too long, we have accepted a view of aging as one of decline, one of loss, one of decreased value, and that is simply not true. As you age, you have opportunities to continue to contribute, you have opportunities to live longer, thrive longer, and to be a valued part of our society. We fully understand what impacts how we age throughout our life span: more investments earlier on, more often, and in the 14 safetynews.co.nz

One thing we all have in common is that we will all age The landscape of long-term care or healthy aging is ever evolving, and it has been accelerated by COVID-19 says Ursel McElroy

The cruel irony of COVID-19 will be that while there have been many losses, this will be the catalyst that helps save older lives in the future right places and spaces will make healthy aging a reality for most of us and not an aspiration. Professional lessons in terms of health equity is simply about changing the narrative and being willing to invest in long-term strategy rather than short-term fixes. I think it’s vital for people to understand that each one of us has our own lived experiences and there’s value in that. Those experiences are as unique as the fingerprints on our hands. It is more important than ever to be certain that we have long-term care providers, families, and individuals who are agile enough to adapt to the diverse needs and preferences of older individuals The emphasis on healthy

aging must not stop at the front door of a provider or a facility. Rather, our strategies have to contemplate many things such as critical-care transitions or appreciating what individuals desire in living healthy lives, understanding this will require us to be very intentional. Almost everything is possible if you maintain health into older age. However, if you don’t, many of your opportunities will be limited and the potential cost for all of us will be considerably higher. Healthy aging requires us to think about how we age across the life span. Healthy aging requires us to think about how we incorporate strategies and policies broadly and apply them often.

Old age cannot be seen as a burden because if we view it that way, we will have a natural tendency to focus on things that are limited to cost containment or to focus on things that do not necessarily allow us to be very bold and very innovative. However, if you think of old age as an opportunity for all of us to have a dignified life, then we are going to invest in those services for older individuals. McKinsey on Healthcare podcast, McKinsey partner Dr. Pooja Kumar talked to Ursel J. McElroy, director of the Ohio Department of Aging about a need to change the accepted narrative on aging

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JUNE - JULY 2022

KEEPING HOT HANDS COOL, DRY & PRODUCTIVE

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JUNE - JULY 2022

The great unlearning

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Safety News and AsiaPacific Infrastucture publisher Mike Bishara accepts an invitation from Optimum Training to join a four-hour safety training session

harboured a fervent hope that 25 years of development and refinement of Wayne Milicich’s injury prevention model might contain a few surprises. The prospect of four hours in what I suspected could be a moralising lecture about how to lift a box was not enthralling. I could see, as we shuffled into the training centre, that the rest of the class felt the same, with a range of resigned, bored and cynical faces. We were wrong. Boy, were we wrong. Participants soon learned “it was all about them” and their individual quality of life. And how 30 seconds after the training would break the harmful muscle memory that had taken over the way we did things. “The programme is about unlearning what we learned between the ages of about eight to 13 years old and restoring all the movement patterns that we learned naturally during the first five to eight years of our life,” says Milicich. For example, children all demonstrate best balance, unlike most adults. About 80 percent of the adult population “half breathe” from the apical area of the lungs as opposed to the diaphragm and lower lobes of the lungs, according to Milicich. “Children all naturally breathe from their belly, diaphragm, unless they are stressed.” The most hardened cynics in our group quickly became engaged in the programme through a series of 16 safetynews.co.nz

Click here for more information

Optimum Training manager Dwane Stewart with an eager team of learners practical truths, illustrated by a range of interactions, sometimes with a workmate. We emerged half a working day later wondering who to sue for the preventable harm I have inflicted by following instructions. Life quality did not require lifetime dedication, just a reordering of basic instincts and tossing out a few myths. For our group, the quality of life had become anchored forever around balance and the 70/30 weight split between heels and toes. We were converts to breathing out like weightlifters, sticking out our butts and letting tummies and abdominals do their thing - we discarded posture misinformation and stress and replaced it with comfort, a safe and secure back and no pain. Optimum’s programme is of suggested solutions, not imperatives. “When we do this training, it is to benefit the individual. The company

clips the ticket and gets a benefit only when the individual benefits.” “You cannot stand on a platform and tell people they are wrong. When a person’s belief is challenged, they will do anything to defend that truth as it is what they believe and know and have lived by. The only way to expose the false belief is to lead someone to find the truth for themselves. In most cases following instilled poor habits is akin to

tapping yourself lightly on the head with a hammer for years. Do it enough times and you will end up permanently damaged. You cannot separate work safety and whanau safety – they are two sides of the same coin, according to Milicich. Health and safety at home and work are just a component of our life quality. Not something that is separated out with its own rules to be applied at specific times and locations. To a person, we emerged

70/30 balance is at the core of a quality of life

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ready to retrain our misguided muscle memory with the 30-secondsa-day-worth of drills to reprogramme our muscle memory that had taken us just four hours to master. “The training empowers people to work out the truth for themselves and trust themselves. You are the only person who can determine what works best for you. Trust yourself to make a good call,” says Milicich. With no pen, paper or tables in the room, this programme is “pure adult facilitation of kinesthetic learning followed by cognitive understanding. It is simple to restore what was once in the muscle memory when we were five to eight years old. The original neural pathways just open up again,” he says. We learned and now retain what we learned. “Stress is recognized as a major cause of MSD and auto-immune disease. We help people understand how their body manifests stress and equip them with the understanding and tools to manage themselves during stressful times,” says Milicich. Optimum’s facilitation process has four specific steps. When applied correctly to the session, most often the learner has no idea of what

JUNE - JULY 2022 has happened, but they do recognise that their life has changed for the better. Our session began with participation exercises which showed the overriding importance of balance. The 70/30 rationale was enough to consign to the bin, along with a flurry of other medical myths, the long-held and totally wrong “bend your knees and keep your back straight” doctrine. It soon became apparent why Optimum’s quality of life programme is used by many of the country’s most astute corporations in an age where time “off the floor” is critical to the bottom line and many companies look only to tick the boxes of compliance. The benefits are equally cost effective, available and absorbed by SMEs. My class had only nine other participants so having a cast of thousands is not essential – or even recommended. “Move Smart Think Smart is about addressing the underlying causes of muscle and joint pain that occur as we interact with inert objects both at work and at home. Home injuries affect the workplace. Workplace injuries affect the home and family,” says Milicich. “Either way the quality

of life of a person is compromised. The traditional medical model calls the problem ‘nonspecific back pain and occupational overuse’. In fact, the pain is about inadvertent personal misuse of the body -- it is very specific.” The bio-medical model reckons back pain is normal. “No, it is not normal,” says Milicich. “It is common, and the medical model is unwittingly part of the problem. “Good posture” is nothing more than an old wives’ tale based on the military model of control and it is still believed today. A teacher tells children to sit up straight as a means of controlling the class. It is now portrayed as good posture. “The medical field is littered with information and advice that was eventually proven wrong and retracted. Some of our western cultural beliefs are based in nothing more than decades or centuries old beliefs and mores. The sad thing is that more than 80 percent of MSD's are inadvertently and unwittingly self-inflicted. People hurt themselves as they interact with inert objects, and they don't even realise it, says Milicich. “The only way a box can hurt someone is if it is flying

through the air and strikes them. Or if it is moving on a conveyor and they put their hand where they should not. A spade and the ground are both inert. To suffer pain while digging a hole is the person hurting themselves as they interact with the spade and ground. The pain is a direct result of poor skills and technique of movement -- self-inflicted pain. Most people blame something or someone for this self-inflicted injury. At that point, only the symptom can be addressed with drugs and therapy. The problem returns as they repeat their old thinking and poor technique once the symptom has eased. “No one deliberately hurts themselves. Given the opportunity, everyone makes the right choice,” says Milicich. To a person, everyone was engaged for the full duration of training, always relevant, interesting, practical and beneficial to each person. We felt equipped and empowered to take back responsibility for ourselves. I personally still muse over and apply the learnings. My years of knee pain has gone.

30-second daily drills to re-programme muscle memory

Wayne Milicich 07 8583040 027 291 1829 www.otl.nz Representatives NZ wide safetynews.co.nz 17

JUNE - JULY 2022

How upskilling your staff can future-proof your business Despite employers placing skills and talent shortages in their top three most urgent concerns, only half of employees feel skills development is a priority to their managers, Cornerstone research finds

he report, Thriving in the Global Skills Shortage: Your Path Through the Wilderness, found that nearly half of employers surveyed placed skills and talent shortages within their top three most urgent concerns in the next three years and identified a strong positive correlation between overall 18 safetynews.co.nz

business performance and the quality of new skilling support and development opportunities offered to employees. The two-part global research survey measured the views of 1,800 employees and more than 800 business leaders across North America, EMEA and Asia Pacific.

Similar to the questions asked in the 2020 study, the latest survey compared how each group perceived their organizations’ continued investment in skills initiatives, their ability to influence talent and business outcomes, and how well they responded to the pandemic. A significant finding from

the 2020 study uncovered a 30-percentage-point Skills Confidence Gap between employers who believed that they were delivering skills to employees and employees’ confidence in their employer’s ability to develop their skills. According to the 2022 survey data, this gap actually widened for

JUNE - JULY 2022 average and low performing organizations. While employer confidence in their ability to understand and deliver on their needs rose in the recent report, employee confidence actually decreased by five points with just 55% of employees saying that their organization’s skills development was a priority. “The latest research by the Cornerstone People Research Lab demonstrates how organizations and their people continue to see skills development as an increasingly important part of navigating their shared future successfully,” says Cornerstone Chief Executive Himanshu Palsule. “Unfortunately, there continues to be a growing gap between how organizations view their ability to deliver on skills development and how employees are experiencing it.” In many cases, the pandemic exacerbated or accelerated issues that already limited organizational ability to adapt and change. Long-term talent shortages and new challenges, like the rapid pace of digital transformation, are asserting themselves and threatening many organizations’ ability to execute, grow and innovate.

Key findings include: Employers and employees aren’t fully aligned on current skills focus There continues to be a significant Skills Confidence Gap between employers and employees when it comes to confidence in their organization’s current ability to help them develop

new skills. This gap not only persisted from 2020, but – on average – grew wider. Employees are not confident their companies are prioritizing skills in the future The research revealed that only 55% of employees are confident in their organization’s future prioritization of new skilling opportunities for them.

rated their prioritization of skill development much lower, but less than 20% of employees in those organizations also agreed that skills development is an important objective — a 42% gap. High Performing Organizations Provide a Guidepost The report showed that leading organizations are blazing the trail. Seventy-

Skills Confidence Gap and address uncertainty, the 2022 report, Thriving in the Global Skills Shortage: Your Path Through the Wilderness, outlines practical steps organizations can take to build high impact future skills, including how to: •

•

The Skills Confidence Gap narrowed or widened depending on organizational strength High-performing organizations (HPOs) had a much smaller gap between employees and employers. HPOs not only prioritized skill development at a much higher level than their peers, but their employees also agreed with them — with only an 11% gap between employer and employee perception. Meanwhile, Laggards (lowperforming organizations) not only

two percent of HPOs globally reported that they had already begun to prioritize their skills development investments within the next year. Given the trendline of HPOs outperforming their peers in organizational outcomes and employee confidence in new skilling initiatives, this increased focus provides a guidepost for other organizations globally . The Path Forward To reduce the employee-employer

Predict future skills your organization will need and identify potential skills gaps among your people Integrate intelligent skills technology into other career development tools that your organization is already using or should be using Foster a learning culture that prioritizes skill-building and empowers people to grow Strategize and deliver more relevant, modern and personalized learning content to your people Adopt an internalfirst hiring mindset to encourage skills development and career growth

“To prepare their workforce for the future, organizations increasingly need to take a skillsforward approach to learning and talent — identifying what skill gaps exist, which skills will be needed in the future and a relevant, engaging path that enables their people to more effectively build those skills,” says Cornerstone Chief Product Officer Ajay Awatramani. For more information on the 2022 report findings and to view the full version of the report, visit csod.info/ skillsresearchreport

safetynews.co.nz 19

JUNE - JULY 2022

Vocational training leader applauds budget Further investment into vocational education and training in Budget 2022 has been welcomed by the organisation leading New Zealand’s vocational training, Te Pūkenga.

e Pūkenga was established in 2020 as part of the Reform of Vocational Education (RoVE) to better meet the needs of learners, employers and communities. As the country’s largest tertiary education provider, it brings together Institutes of Technology and Polytechnics and some Transitional Industry Training Organisations to put ākonga (learners) at the centre of vocational and applied learning. Te Pūkenga Chief Executive Stephen Town says the investment announced as part of Budget 2022 would ensure the network was well placed to support its students to get the training opportunities they need and to strengthen the skilled workforces New Zealand 20 safetynews.co.nz

needs to recover from the impacts of Covid-19. “We applaud the government for further investing in vocational training, and particularly work-based learning. “Our ākonga in workbased learning are receiving critical training that is integral to build a highly skilled, thriving workforce. Recognising the effort and investment of employers in their apprentices is a key step in supporting our nation’s skills development.” Budget 2022 includes a 2.75 percent increase to tuition and training subsidiaries, as well as more than $72 million to meet the current demand including for apprenticeships. This is in addition to the $230 million investment in trades train-

ing, including the Apprenticeship Boost, announced by the Government in May. “The number of people engaged in work-based learning has increased significantly and that’s forecast to continue,” Town says. “We’ve seen a 50 per cent increase in the number of building and construction apprentices, for example. The increase will support the existing 49,875 ākonga training with Te Pūkenga in work-based learning, including 9,545 ākonga Māori. “The funding is well targeted and enables us to support our priorities of equity and driving participation. That means delivering customised learning approaches that meet the needs of learners and trainees wherever they are.”

“As a country we must strongly support that growth because skilled people, across all sectors, are desperately needed.” In addition to the workbased learning boost, Te Pūkenga has also been allocated $40 million to address leaky building issues and address urgent building repairs on campuses nationwide. Funding will be prioritised for buildings used by staff and learners. “We know our campuses are important to local communities – and they’re important to us. This budget will allow us to ensure our learning spaces are fitfor-purpose, welcoming and safe – and meet the needs of our learners and our communities,” Town says.

JUNE - JULY 2022

Why video calls are bad for brainstorming Video calls are shown to reduce the production of creative ideas, compared to in-person meetings, finds a US study published in Nature

uring the COVID-19 pandemic, millions of employees were required to work from home indefinitely and collaborate virtually using videoconferencing technologies. Studies estimate that 20% of US workdays will take place at home after the pandemic ends, with leading firms across various sectors — including Google, Microsoft, JPMorgan and Amazon — increasing the flexibility of their workfrom-home policies. However, the effects of

this shift away from inperson interaction, and how these could affect innovation, remain elusive. To investigate how using video calls may affect the generation of collaborative ideas, Melanie Brucks and Jonathan Levav recruited 1,490 people across five country sites of a telecommunications infrastructure company (in Europe, the Middle East and South Asia). The participants were randomly paired, either face-to-face or via video call, and asked to create

product ideas and choose one to submit as a future product innovation for the company. The authors found that the face-to-face pairs produced more ideas, and more creative ideas, compared to the virtual pairs. However, when selecting which idea to pursue, video call pairs were no less effective. These results confirm laboratory studies using eye-tracking data, where the authors found that virtual partners spend more time looking directly at their partner, as opposed to

gazing around the room. The authors suggest that video calls focus communication on a screen, narrowing cognitive focus and reducing creative idea generation. However, as critically evaluating creative ideas uses a different cognitive process to idea generation, it is not affected by the narrower cognitive focus. The findings suggest that creative work may benefit from in-person meetings, whereas other types of collaboration may not be affected. safetynews.co.nz 21

JUNE - JULY 2022

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JUNE - JULY 2022

Chemical safety relies on meaningful cooperation

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Expanding government-industry partnerships to help business operators should be a no brainer. Inviting enquirers to read the regulations falls well short of educational expectations Increasing community concerns about vulnerability to unwanted chemical exposure and damage to our fragile environment places additional pressure on both suppliers and users of the chemicals.

Barry Dyer Chief Executive Responsible Care NZ

oday, chemical suppliers and their customers continue to adjust to the Covid operational environment. They struggle with supply chain delays, the loss of experienced staff, frustration with unanswered queries to risk-averse authorities, inflexible and prescriptive regulations, rising compliance costs, diminishing resources and increasing public chemical safety expectations. While 130,000 businesses are reportedly captured by the Hazardous Substances and Major Hazard Facilities regulations, the official mantra of “600-900 persons seriously harmed each year by unwanted exposure to chemicals in their workplace” presumably applies to all of the country’s 530,000 workplaces.

We all need to sustain and improve our quality of life and these products must be safely managed throughout their life cycle. Downgrading the flawed but effective HSNO Certified Handler requirement has inadvertently undermined an invaluable capability. The action deprived businesses, particularly SMEs, of an immediate and recognisable source of workplace chemical safety and compliance advice -- a safe chemical handling capability and emergency response knowledge – critical when a chemical incident occurs. PCBUs and SMEs must now devise their own solutions to ensure employees are competent to safely handle the chemicals with which they work. Chemical industry leaders are moving away from relying on lagging indicators of safety performance in favour of identifying safer work practices and work-

places, by responding to workers’ suggestions about improvements. Conscientious business operators can add value by sourcing accurate, cost-effective workplace chemical safety advice and compliance tools from their suppliers, industry partners and Responsible Care NZ. A proven strategy is government agencies collaborating with proactive industry associations to best achieve workplace safety aspirations. The problem is that SMEs rarely join associations.

However, they all obtain their chemical requirements from suppliers and can benefit from product stewardship advice and cost-effective industry compliance initiatives. Responsible Care NZ extols less regulation in favour of enabling business operators to be increasingly self-sufficient, using cost-effective products and services such as site compliance assessments and specialist training. The focus is keeping people safe around the chemicals we encounter every day by adding value to businesses.

Responsible Care is a global voluntary chemical industry initiative developed autonomously by the chemical industry for the chemical industry. Chemical suppliers continue to help customers achieve workplace chemical safety aspirations through product stewardship initiatives. To help solve the in-house chemical compliance dilemma in New Zealand, Responsible Care NZ delivers specialist and cost-effective Certified Handler standard training, complete with a certificate. Responsible Care NZ site compliance assessments are non-threatening, effectively capturing and assessing chemical safety performance in a variety of workplaces. +64 4 499 4311 info@responsiblecarenz.com www.responsiblecarenz.com

safetynews.co.nz 23

JUNE - JULY 2022

s we head further from the peak of the vaccine campaign and the Omicron outbreak, people’s immunity will eventually start to wane. The coronavirus is also continuing to mutate, with subvariants like BA.4 potentially making it easier for people to be reinfected.

Does reinfection increase the risk of Long Covid?

University of Auckland Dr Anna Brooks says “we are hearing from our international partners that anecdotally, repeat infections, especially in children and adolescents may lead to a higher chance of long term health complications, including Long Covid. “We know that vaccinations are excellent at protecting against severe illness, however they aren’t great at reducing the risk of Long Covid. Protective immunity will also wane over time. Symptomatic infections, even while triple vaccinated are common. 24 safetynews.co.nz

What you need to know about Covid-19 reinfection New Covid-19 variants and waning immunity could see more New Zealanders catching the virus for a second time “In addition, surviving one infection unscathed does not mean you will be out of the woods with getting Long Covid. It might be a 2nd or 3rd exposure that triggers this illness. “Many also don’t seem to realise that there are no treatments to reverse the debilitating symptoms experienced (shortness of breath, brain fog/cognitive impairment, extreme fatigue to name a few). “Limiting exposure to the virus, even if previously infected and/or fully

vaccinated is the best way to avoid the risk of developing long term health complications.”

If you’ve already had Covid-19, how well are you protected from getting it again?

The figure of three months of immunity is largely a generalisation, Brooks says. “Cases of reinfection are definitely occurring within this time frame. Even if you’ve had Covid, you may have fairly decent immunity for at least a month or

so, but you’re certainly not immune to further infections in the near future. The best approach is to avoid exposure, regardless of your vaccination or preinfection status.” University of Otago Dr Dianne Sika-Paotonu says many who’ve recovered from Covid-19 will have developed immunity at least for the initial months following infection, however re-infection risk with the SARS-CoV-2 virus remains. “Although previous infection with the SARS-

JUNE - JULY 2022

Long Covid Long Covid presents a considerable challenge for employers because key workers may have difficulty returning to their normal jobs within usual timescales. There remain important questions for workers, employers and their occupational health advisors: • What are the functional limitations of an individual worker with any condition including Long Covid? • What are the task requirements of their job? • What are their specific limitations in relation to their job? • What is the likely trajectory of their recovery? • What flexibility, adjustments or modifications can be made to the job or the working hours? • Does the work organisation provide access to occupational health and rehabilitation services such as physiotherapy or mental health support? • Are there any safety-critical issues to be considered? CoV-2 virus does offer some immune protection, this does wane over time. “Importantly, recent evidence is indicating re-infections have been increasing with the Omicron variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.”

Will a second infection make someone more, less, or just as sick as the first time?

In the UK, Covid-19 reinfection estimates from their Office for National Statistics indicated that reinfections with the Alpha variant produced symptomatic Covid-19 in 20% of cases, while reinfections with the Delta variant caused symptoms in 44% of cases. For Omicron, 46%

If a worker with Long Covid has complex health issues that are preventing their return to work, an occupational health assessment will be necessary to identify their work ability and their limitations. This may involve communication with the worker’s personal physician, providing there is consent given to do so. Employing organisations normally have sickness absence policies that have various triggers and thresholds for the level of absence from work, or incapacity that can be accommodated. For workers with Long Covid, these triggers may however not be appropriate as recovery may be very slow because of fatigue or other symptoms, and modification of these policies may need to be considered and timescales extended. Most workers recovering from Long Covid will require a slow, phased return to work, beginning with a small amount of work every day and every week, and gradually extending working hours over a period of one to two months or longer.

of cases had symptomatic Covid-19 (-reinfections were defined as 120 days between positive tests or 4 subsequent negative PCR tests between infections). “This data showed that people reinfected with the Alpha variant were much less likely to get symptoms the second time, when compared to their primary infection. Delta and Omicron reinfections however were more likely to cause people to experience symptoms,” Sika-Paotonu says. “One study from Qatar looking at the re-infection severity after initial infection with the Alpha and Beta variants indicated that overall, SARS-CoV-2 reinfections (i.e. another infection occurring at least 90 days after the 1st

To reduce the risk of relapses, workers should not be doing more than 70% of what they feel capable of doing at any time in order to avoid fatigue. Becoming fatigued can cause relapses in their condition and further delay their recovery. The worker is the person who can best assess their own level of fatigue and regular discussion between worker and manager is important to guide the successful rehabilitation of workers affected by Long Covid. As in any positive working relationship, trust between employees and managers plays a significant role for effective adaptation of work. This will not always be successful and a small number of Long Covid workers have had to retire from work on the grounds of ill health. However, a number of individuals have also been retired by their employers, who with more time may have been rehabilitated for work. osha.europa.eu

infection), tended to be less severe when compared with the primary infection. “Ongoing work will be needed to understand more about whether re-infections for Omicron and all its subvariants are more or less severe, when compared to the primary infection. It is still important that those who may have already had a Covid-19 infection, strengthen their immunity with vaccination as well.”

Do variants and subvariants increase the chance of reinfection?

“A study from Imperial College London based on the UK Health Security Agency and National Health Service data showed that the risk of re-infection with Omicron was more

than 5 times higher when compared with Delta,” SikaPaotonu says. “Monitoring for new variants will be important moving forward particularly with further easing of border restrictions, and will be especially important for managing potential future outbreaks caused by any new variants arising overseas. Community spread in Aotearoa New Zealand will be rapid if any new variants appear that are resistant to current Covid-19 vaccines. “While issues with unequal global Covid-19 vaccine coverage, availability, accessibility and distribution persist, and remain unaddressed, new variants will continue to emerge, develop and spread.” safetynews.co.nz 25

JUNE - JULY 2022

New dam safety regulations New rules will provide a nationally consistent approach to dam safety

ntil now, New Zealand was one of the few countries in the OECD that did not have an operative dam safety framework. The lack of a consistent framework posed a risk to people, property and the environment. The regulations will come into effect in May 2024, and once in force dam owners will have a further 1-2 years to undertake the necessary work to classify their dam and put in place a dam safety assurance programme. “From 13 May 2024, the owners of dams that meet the height and volume requirements will need to confirm the potential risk their dam poses, put in place safety plans and undertake regular dam inspections,”says Amy Moorhead, Manager Building Policy at MBIE. “This will help to 26 safetynews.co.nz

ensure that an essential part of New Zealand’s infrastructure remains safe and reliable. “The new regulatory framework will reduce the likelihood of dam failures which have the potential to cause significant harm a great distance downstream.” Dams that fall within the scope of the regulations will be given a potential impact classification based on their potential to cause harm in the event of failure. Medium and high potential impact dams will be required to have a dam safety assurance programme. These dams will be required have regular monitoring and surveillance practices in place for the safe operation of dams. Low potential impact dams will have no ongoing requirements except for their initial classifications

and then regular classification reviews every five years. “Most small farm dams and ponds and weirs will be excluded from the regulatory framework as they are unlikely to meet the minimum size or storage volume thresholds,” says Moorhead. Engineering New Zealand Te Ao Rangahau is developing a programme for assessing and registering Recognised Engineers. Recognised Engineers will be required to determine potential impact classifications and to certify and audit dam safety assurance programmes. Those engineers who complete the relevant assessment requirements will be able to conduct these tasks. The new dam safety regulations also require dam owners to review

their dams against flood performance criteria every five years as part of a comprehensive safety review. “Our understanding of the effects of climate change is continuing to improve with time. We want to ensure the new safety provisions remain fit for purpose in a changing environment,” says Moorhead. The regulations will apply to dams that are: • 4 metres or higher with a volume of 20,000m3 (8 Olympicsized swimming pools) or greater, or • 1 metre or higher with a volume of 40,000m3 (16 Olympic-sized swimming pools) or greater. Guidance for dam owners is available on the Building Performance website.

June - July 2022

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BUILDING MORE THAN JUST AN ASSET

JUNE - JULY 2022

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he days of needing on site a mobile crane, a boom lift or other types of elevated work platforms, a forklift and an excavator are numbered - one machine can do it all. Rotating telehandlers may look a lot like their conventional cousins, but they are very different. Their arrival on New Zealand work sites has completely changed the way project management is planned and the way on28 infrastructurenews.co.nz

site work is completed in a safer and faster manner. They load material, pick it up, drive to where it’s needed and then unload. The rotating telehandler can then pick the load, rotate and place the materials where needed. The concept originated in Europe, where the majority of urban construction sites are very compact and do not allow room for traditional telehandlers. “Rotating telehandlers have taken North Ameri-

The world’s highest rotating telehandler – RTH6.51 (six-ton lift) has an impressive 51-metre reach (not pictured) ca by storm and over the past 18 months have been attracting a lot of attention in New Zealand,” says APS general manager Darren Boon, agents for Magni, one of the most technologically advanced brands of rotating telehandlers in the world. “As technology has improved so has the reach and lifting capacity of these

type of machines. On a multi-level construction site, a machine with a five-tonne lift and 26-metre reach would usually have been the standard,” says Boon. “Now machines are available for bigger projects with heavy lift capability up to 13 tonnes and machines with a reach of 51 metres.”

JUNE - JULY 2022

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n Auckland private building company has purchased a Magni rotating telehandler in favour of hiring a tower crane for the construction of a four storey apartment block in West Auckland. The rotating telehandler meets most of their lifting requirements for the crane work, with a larger mobile crane only being bought in to lift the heavy pre-cast panels. Having the ability

to easily swap attachments between winch and a set of forks the machine can pick and carry around the building site for more efficient lifting or the unloading of trucks. All deliveries from the building supplier can be ordered on flat-deck trucks which means quicker delivers and savings of up to $150 per delivery by not waiting for Hiab/crane truck to become available.

MAGNI ROTATING TELEHANDLERS - SAFETY

The safety of the operator and people nearby is paramount The Load Movement Indicator (LMI) system is a load limit device. It is fitted as standard on all Magni telescopic handlers (RTH, TH and HTH ranges). It is made up of a rotation sensor, stabiliser cable reel, lifting cylinder pressure sensors and the LMI safety control board. Together, these components provide the operator with the best real-time load chart. This system continuously analyses the spatial positioning of the load and stores specific load charts for each attachment, displaying the correct load chart based on the machine’s working configuration. The LMI system constantly monitors the movements of the machine to avoid any type of overload. If the system detects operating inconsistencies, it interrupts all aggravating movements, allowing only safe maneuvers (boom retraction and load release). This prevents operator error causing serious injury to themselves and nearby staff. Every telehandler is equipped with the R.F.ID automatic attachment recognition system on the boom head. Whenever a new attachment is fitted to the machine it is recognised automatically and the display shows the corresponding load chart.

infrastructurenews.co.nz 29

JUNE - JULY 2022

Certification benefits to the bottom line Bottom line benefits from certification can be significant or non-existent. It depends on who you talk to says Telarc CEO Philip Cryer. You need to understand the sample or proxy they have utilised to extrapolate their opinion or results.

ather than take your time trying to debate the profit/ cost benefits of certification I thought I would take a different tack. As the world continues to evolve, business is being encouraged to move to a more balanced view of what constitutes a good bottom line result. This is increasingly coming in the form of what is referred to as the “triple bottom line”. This type of bottom line benefit mindset takes into account Profit as well as People (workers) and the Planet (Environment). I will focus on the benefits of certification for the 30 infrastructurenews.co.nz

workers in an organisation, and then the benefits of certification to the planet rather than enter into the time old debate of the benefits of certification from a profitability perspective -- which there are clearly a number.

Recap and create context In an article published in this magazine in June 2021 I talked about the Annex SL framework. This is the structure under which all ISO audits are undertaken and, within the physical audit process, the first step an auditor takes is to look at the organisations strategies

and policies. They then assess the organisations procedures to ensure there is a clear correlation back to the Strategies and Policies. Then, and lastly, the auditor will evaluate work done by front-line workers to ensure that the procedures provided are being applied to tasks and activities. This is known as the Think, Plan, Do part of the continuous improvement operating cycle. The auditor will then evaluate the Check and Act parts of the cycle. This is where the continuous improvement mind-set of the business is assessed to establish that actual activity

is being measured to identify areas needing focus and improvement. This in turn leads to corrective actions being developed and then put in place. From there, the cycle of improvement continues as the enhanced process is measured to show benefits realised and to continue with ongoing improvement activity.

The triple standard The benefits of certification are widespread and can depend on the standard/s that has/ have been adopted by the organisation. Increasingly, Telarc’s clients are adopting a triple standard approach towards development and improvement of their management system. A triple standard, or integrated, management system, results in businesses being assessed for their performance against Quality (ISO9001), Environmental (ISO14001) and Health & Safety (ISO45001). In an operational context all three standards are inextricably linked and, more importantly, they bring discreet as well as

JUNE - JULY 2022 integrated bottom-line benefits to an organisation. To provide pragmatic examples of bottom line benefit I will utilise our experience from clients who have embraced certification through the implementation and continued refinement and improvement of an integrated management system.

Certified against integrated standards i. Certification provides workers with a voice in the overall design and improvement of “work as done”. • Having top management, team leaders and front line workers actively involved in the audit process ensures that workers are being engaged in the operating and

improvement of processes. The engagement is at both a task / activity learning and

purpose. This then correlates to product being produced in the manner specified. And for those

"The triple bottom line takes into account Profit, People and the Planet" understanding level. The certification process also requires workers to be involved at a continuous improvement level.

Benefit = increased levels of worker engagement and fit for purpose process.

ii. Certification helps workers to understand and better perform their roles. • Having workers who are engaged and understand what they are required to do gives them a sense of belonging and

organisations who provide services it creates confidence for buyers of services that their suppliers are adhering to the agreed to a delivery approach that complies with contractual service level agreements.

Benefit = increasing

worker skill levels creates confidence and job satisfaction while also reducing risk for buyers of services – service delivery and compliance aspects. iii. Regular assessments provide an annual review

mechanism by workers and managers • The annual review cycle required under ISO certification provides opportunities for all levels of the organisation to review the in scope activities of the audit for performance and compliance.

Benefit = renewed worker commitment, increased motivation levels and a sense of responsibility

iv. Workers see top management actively fixing areas identified as non-conforming (needing improvement) • To maintain Certification an organisation is required to resolve non-conformance that may have been identified within the

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JUNE - JULY 2022 management system. The plan to fix or the activity undertaken predominantly occurs through identification of a break down between “work as planned” and “work as done”.

Risk comes in many forms and certification helps over a variety of levels

Benefit = workers see management “walking the talk” through active involvement in the audit process and supporting resolution of nonconformances.

Benefits for the planet In looking at how certification benefits the planet, the most logical step would be to review ISO14001 and the impact the incorporation of this standard has on an organisations management system. Before diving into this area it should be noted that ISO 9001, the Quality standard, has significant foundational implications for deployment of a successful environmental management system. Having a strong Quality ethos within a business is foundational to successfully handling, operating and disposing of raw materials, plant, equipment, biproducts and waste. All of these areas have the potential to significantly impact the planet if not managed or operated within a defined and agreed management system. Understanding and embracing the core principles of Quality Management create a very strong foundation from which a successful organisation-wide environmental management system can be added. As detailed earlier the 32 infrastructurenews.co.nz

Telarc is a Jas-anz Accredited Certification Body which provides qualified, competent, New Zealand auditors, who are industry coded to provide relevant and impartial intervention for a large range of New Zealand business regardless of the business size. The body is able to provide New Zealand business with an individual or a team of auditors capable of assessing one or multiple standards across one or multiple sites. While the key priority of any commercial relationship is to deliver a product or a service, there is an increasing need from businesses to have confidence that their tendering parties and suppliers are managing their business in a manner that won’t negatively impact the supply relationship. There are increasing demands from buyers for their suppliers to provide confidence that they are operating their business in a manner that is delivering good quality and environmentally aware products (ISO 9001 and ISO 14001) while

linkage between Quality, Environment and Health & Safety are all inextricably linked. With Quality being the foundational cornerstone around which the 3 coexist and

managing workers in a way that protects worker well-being and safety (ISO 45001). There is more demand across other areas such as ethical work practices, Asset Management (ISO 55001) and IT Management (ISO 27001). Accredited Certification looks for gaps, risks and improvements in the way that work is actually done versus the way it is planned and communicated. This provides visibility of where work practice and or documentation anomalies lie in all levels of the business. This then leads to improvement activity so Certification can be granted. The second growing area that is driving minimisation of risk through Certification is through board and senior leader directives. Over the last decade, legislation and regulations have looked to push culpability for sub-optimal work practices towards senior leaders and boards.

become successful.

Environmental management system (EMS)

EMS enables the development and ongoing

management of end-to-end procedures and processes for training of personnel, measuring and reporting of environmental performance data to both internal and external parties.

JUNE - JULY 2022 i. Certification provides structure and consistency to address environmental concerns • EMS Certification provides a framework to allow an organisation to create and operate an end to end mind-set towards the way in which; -resources are allocated -responsibility is assigned -activity and procedures are to be monitored, measured and reported.

Benefit = the organisation and its people clearly understand the organisations aspirations and the method by which these will be achieved.

and internal interested parties as well clients enhancing overall brand perception and value.

also see the organisation living out its environmental ambitions through the suppliers it works with.

iii. Certification assists organisations to clarify legislative requirements and potential impacts • EMS certification supports better understanding the possible environmental impacts of designing, enhancing and or delivering a product, and or a service

Challenges and successes

Benefit = the organisation better understands its legal environmental responsibilities and to integrate activities or

“Provide very simple evidence that business cares about Quality, People and the Planet.” ii. Certification provides a systematic method to holistically manage an organisation’s environmental aspirations • EMS Certification provides an endto-end operating framework to improve environmental performance. This is driven through a Design, Do and Improve mindset across the business focussed on areas such as pollution control, waste minimization, training in priority areas, performance measurement and reporting performance to top management.

procedures into its various processes that minimise or mitigate the potential for a legal or consumer challenge. iv. Certification encourages organisations suppliers to understand the needs of their client and align environmental objectives • EMS certification looks at the interrelationships of organisations to ensure that services or materials supplied are aligned to the organisations overall environmental ambitions.

Benefit = value chain

partners provide consumers

Benefit = the organisation with confidence the product

can point to actions and results that provide benefit to the planet. This can then be communicated in a positive manner to external

and its component parts have been delivered via an aligned environmental mind-set and activities. Staff, and future employees,

The areas covered above represent a sample of the benefits that certification can provide organisations. Being involved and engaging an organisation on the value of making the time and effort to design and deliver an aligned management system is challenging. Historically certification has been seen as more of a compliance exercise. Taking the leap towards placing more structure around a business and relying on the strength of the collective is challenging in New Zealand. Historically, businesses in this country and, for that matter globally, have relied on strong leadership and direction from the top. In a world where people and planet are becoming as important as profit, running a business in an autocratic manner is becoming increasingly challenging. Telarc is now seeing a very different group of clients with great stories about how they recreated their business through whole-heartedly embracing certification and the framework it provides to manage a business. They strongly reinforce that being certified has allowed them to access

increased numbers of larger opportunities for their business to provide products or services. This is occurring by being able to come to the table and provide very simple evidence that their business cares about Quality, People and the Planet. And to show it they have the independent certification to endorse that their business is operating against a globally recognised set of management system standards. The biggest and most encouraging feedback has been the impact of certification on workers. A lot of businesses see their people owning the problems at hand and solving them within the confines of the management system. Having this type of mindset visibly on show for co-workers and clients has allowed trust to be built and, as importantly, loyalty. Loyalty is coming back onto the table after years of price and cost focus. Of course loyalty is still being built on delivery at a competitive price, but as importantly nowadays delivering the outcome in a risk minimised or mitigated manner is very important. This is no more prevalent than in the areas of worker well-being and the way impact the environment is being impacted.

Philip Cryer is CEO of Telarc, a Crown Entity subsidiary with a vision to provide its clients with end to end, impartially audited Food & Wine and Management Systems Certification and Training services. www.telarc.org | 0800 004 004 infrastructurenews.co.nz 33

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A choice to shine or be left behind The global stimulus spend on infrastructure has led to a call for it to do more than create an asset The Paradigm shift – assets to impact There’s quite a change in thinking required, but we are already equipped with a lot of what we need to succeed in the new paradigm. The first and most important point is that the traditional “cost, time, quality triangle” has a number of elements that have flipped. Take time and cost for example. Traditionally we’ve only looked at cost, but now the concept is economic and we look at return on investment. We also look beyond the project construction phase. When we focus only on the construction phase. Time is a multiplier for construction costs (a bad thing) and so we want time to be as short as possible. Under this revised thinking where outcomes are key, and we are looking at the entire life cycle of the asset and ROI, 34 infrastructurenews.co.nz

time becomes a multiplier for good. Quality isn’t about the thing, the asset, but the experience of it by the community it’s designed to serve and the impact the project and asset can have in that community, not only physically, but culturally, environmentally and socially. To be able to deliver on social licence and stakeholder concerns, we need to overlay a second triangle over our old cost, time, quality triangle. The new triangle contains three further points representing cultural, social and environmental considerations. Finally, to fully embrace sustainability and hold it all together, we need good, inclusive and transparent governance practices. The two triangles together make a star - a chance to shine held together by the rigor of good governance

he call represents both a risk and an opportunity for the sector. “It’s less about the what – the physical or engineering solutions – and more about how that infrastructure is delivered and how it will perform across the life cycle of the asset for the communities it serves,” says Infrastructure Sustainability Council GM Adrienne Miller. The shift from asset to impact outcomes is much more apparent in our post Covid world driven by the stimulus spend, much- heralded changes in the physical world creating a need to consider asset resilience in the face of climate change and increasingly frequent natural disasters. “We are also seeing vast changes in terms of human expectations and social licence,” she says. Stakeholders are discerning consumers Customers and the purchasers of services increasingly are not just the passive recipients of goods and services. They are more discerning “consumers” with expectations of both the goods and services they buy and the organisations that produce them. Taxpayers, ratepayers and shareholders have started to develop a conscience about what they pay for and invest in and to hold organisations to account where they stray from those expectations. Staff too have expectations. They want their companies to do more than provide a pay check --they want them to do good and act with purpose. Stakeholders care about the immediate and far flung reaches of an organisation’s supply chain. And that’s not

JUNE - JULY 2022 just a source of goods and services. It’s the impact every single linkage in the supply chain has on environment, carbon emissions, the way they treat their staff, communities in which they work and cultures they encounter along the way. Indigenous perspectives As well as environmental and ecological considerations, there’s a need to be applying an ethical and human centric lens and one that is also respectful of other cultures and their world views. There’s seemingly a greater acceptance that indigenous cultures may have insights about the horizons and the interconnections required when we take a big picture, system based, approach. Here in Aotearoa we are already starting to see greater recognition for

the role of Te Ao Māori and Mātauranga Māori in informing approaches and a mainstreaming of the concept of kaitiakitanga or stewardship. There’s also a growing

following a similar maturity curve to what the sector has seen with health and safety. It’s becoming less about compliance with rules and more about culture and

analysis and data collection (it is possible to know pretty much anything) and has raised the bar on expectations on what can be done and by when. Its 24/7 immediacy.

Stakeholders care about the immediate and far reaches of an organisation’s supply chain

Legal and regulatory There’s a pincer movement in play between procurer and stakeholder demand (a pull factor) and regulatory, reform and reporting change (a push factor) playing out --particularly in the context of climate change response. We have climate-related financial disclosures regime that will be mandatory for publicly listed companies and large insurers, banks and investment managers implementing a Mark Carney, TCFD-like, approach. The goal of these mandatory climate-related financial disclosures is to:

demand to recognise partnering with Tangata Whenua at a project governance level to honour Te Tiriti. This is a change in maturity to “inclusion of”, rather than a “consulting with” approach. Sustainability maturity curve Sustainability is about viability and social licence, not just environmental considerations and is

approach and acting in a values-aligned and purpose-driven way. All this stakeholder expectation is amplified by social media – a democratised and easy access platform for good and bad, skewing views inside echo chambers that makes it hard to distinguish between fact and fiction. Consumer experience of technology too is a driver – it has both enabled

infrastructurenews.co.nz 35

JUNE - JULY 2022 •

promote greater transparency and more accurate pricing signals in the market • incentivise lowemissions investment • create a level-playing field for businesses already considering climate change Ultimately, it is considered that finance and insurance will be differentially priced based on action on climate issues providing the right incentives to: • the necessary investment on mitigation and adaptation (to address physical and transition risk) • ensure resilience in the face of Climate

change • reduce the risk of stranded assets We are starting to see increasing sustainable finance and green, social and sustainability bond offerings. We also have some clear analysis from both offshore (the latest IPCC report on physical climate change is the most strident yet) and here in New Zealand (in the form of the National Climate Change Risk Assessment out of our Ministry for the Environment, advice from the New Zealand Climate Change Commission a draft Adaptation plan and now an Emission Reduction Plan) on what is required in terms of climate response.

Legislation playing catch up Although amendments to the Local Government Act 2002 have been in place since 2019 requiring councils to promote social, economic, environmental, and cultural well-being (the four well-beings) in other areas the law is playing catch up. Even the new RMA reform mirrors this change in approach moving from an effects to an impact based approach. It’s become increasingly clearer what the risks are and that we need to urgently take action to adapt to and mitigate the effects of climate change.

Glossary for readers less familiar with Te Ao Māori Te Ao Māori - Māori world view. Mātauranga Māori - knowledge of all types including scientific knowledge often derived from whakapapa (lineage)of both people and inanimate things. Knowledge and understanding were bestowed in the highest heaven to Tane via three baskets/kites of knowledge. Kaitiakitanga - stewardship - obligations to care created by relationships and connection particularly to land. The overarching concept is the land, and the natural world remains and endures beyond a single human life and it’s life sustaining force must be protected. Concepts of te Mana o te wai (now codified) and legal personhood conferred on things like rivers are an attempt to institutionalise this concept.

Tangata Whenua - people of the land. To Māori those living today are the living embodiment of their ancestors and descendants and all are connected to the land. They are the land and the land is them. Te Tiriti - The Treaty (of Waitangi) is widely accepted to be a constitutional document that establishes and guides the relationship between the Crown in New Zealand (embodied by our government) and Māori. The Treaty promised to protect Māori culture and to enable Māori to continue to live in New Zealand as Māori. Increasingly this phrase is used in shorthand to refer not only to the document, but manifestations of co-governance and other partnership type behaviours that breathe life into those obligations.

Decision makers Much has also been written about the responsibility of directors and decision makers. Suffice to say there are clear conclusions reached that suggest directors’ fiduciary duties and the role of those responsible for designing, building and operating assets are quite different than they once were, with a private member’s bill making it doubly clear for company directors. Sustainability also an opportunity Adopting a sustainable approach is both a way to address this risk, and opportunity to shine for those that understand and get ahead of the pack. As well as an ability to win work, there are benefits in the battle for talent. Recruitment and retention of staff will be easier for those that are on board and authentically leading with purpose. Organisations in the sector have a choice between choosing to adjust to this new approach and shine, or where they do not, run the risk of being left behind, as other organisations seize the opportunity that sustainability represents. A version of this article was written by Adrienne Miller as part of the COP26 discourse in what she calls the “third zone” in LinkedIn and Legalwise

The publishers of AsiaPacific Infrastructure, Property&Build and Industrial Safety News welcome Infrastructure Sustainability Council (ISC) as a Content Partner. General Manager, New Zealand Adrienne Miller, is a lawyer who, as well as her role at the ISC, has served on the Building Advisory Panel at MBIE, Infrastructure New Zealand’s WIN Advisory Board and is a trustee on the Board of Diversity Works New Zealand. She is involved in mentoring programmes and writes and speaks on issues facing the construction and infrastructure sector. Adrienne.Miller@iscouncil.org +64 27 693 9753 LinkedIn. 36 infrastructurenews.co.nz

t won the ‘IPWEA Australasia 2022 Excellence in Asset Management’ category and the prestigious ‘IPWEA Australasia 2022 Public Works Medal for Project of the Year.’ Waka Kotahi engaged IDS in May 2019 to answer the “billion-dollar” question around how much investment is needed to maintain the roads and road surfaces within the New Zealand State Highway network over a three-year funding period. This information was vital to support the 2021-2024 National Land Transport Programme (NLTP) and inform the long-term strategic 10-year and 30-year investment horizons. The NLTP is a three-yearly investment package that ensures transport can be delivered nationally, regionally and on a local authority level. Just three months ago, this project also won the ‘2021 Excellence in Asset Management’ category at the IPWEA New Zealand Asset Management Excellence Awards. IDS used the dTIMS (Deighton Total Infrastructure Management System) modelling that forecasts road condition, maintenance and renewal needs into the future to provide Waka Kotahi with assurance and confidence of a nationally consistent focus of investment. This ensured the appropriate amounts of money were provided in the right locations whilst ensuring a functional, reliable state highway roading network that is well maintained and protected for generations to come. Dr Theuns Henning, CEO of IDS and Senior Lecturer at Auckland University says “we were thrilled to have won the New Zealand

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New Zealand roading project wins top engineering prize

Infrastructure Decision Support (IDS), WSP and Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency’s Strategic Maintenance Investment Justification Project won big at the 2022 Institute of Public Works Engineering Australasia (IPWEA) Excellence Awards in Adelaide

award a few months ago, but to also win the same for Australasia and then the overall project award is very humbling. “The project was a huge undertaking. So many within the industry were involved every step of the way, and it is something that everyone who was involved can be immensely proud of.” Vanessa Browne, Waka Kotahi National Manager –

Programme & Standards, says asset management is a very specialised field, and recognition doesn’t come any higher than this. “The state highway network is New Zealand’s largest asset, valued at more than $50 billion, and responsibility for that asset is not something that Waka Kotahi takes lightly. “Thanks to the work of this project, Waka Kotahi can have greater trust and

confidence in our processes. What it helps us achieve is a more consistent approach, which ensures we’re investing in the right places, and delivering the best transport outcomes for New Zealand. “We congratulate our team on this success and the work they are doing on behalf and for the benefit of the New Zealand public.”

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BIE’s Building for Climate Change programme heralds an exciting and substantial change from the regulator in terms of planned requirements for carbon reporting and carbon caps in building regulation, including the Building Code. There is no doubt that we are in a climate crisis and we need to reduce carbon emissions immediately. That requires some hard conversations that we are not yet having.

Carbon emissions now or later?

Over the past few years there have been misinformed and unhelpful assertions around the relative environmental benefits of concrete, steel, and timber. Every material has its place and determining the relative performance of each is

The construction conversations we should be having HERA chief executive Troy Coyle with suggestions on how to generate the discussion and solutions we need ahead of tough decisions around the climate crisis complex. Small studies are often not appropriately extrapolated to make broad claims, particularly as such comparisons need to be robust, impartial, and evidence based. Some of this debate has been focused on the relative benefits of reducing carbon now (where timber has an

advantage) versus reducing carbon for all time (steel has an advantage here because of its infinite recyclability). Timber releases all of its stored carbon back into the atmosphere at the end of the building’s life. To meet our national carbon reduction targets and to secure intergenerational wellbeing, we need to find

Source; SCNZ (Steel Construction New Zealand)

38 infrastructurenews.co.nz

a balance of both short and sustained reductions. There is no point reducing the upfront carbon emissions now if they are only going to be released back into the atmosphere in our children’s lifetimes. That doesn’t make sense, and there is no national conversation about putting greater weight on adequately considering Module D (end of life) in the assessment of sustainable, #greenconstruction. We need sector leadership on end of life issues so that materials aren't simply ticking a box when it comes to addressing decarbonising 'now', but rather realising this issue means future proofing and thinking what that looks like for our generations to come. There is no meaningful national discussion about how we change the way we think about our homes, and the choices we make when building or renovating. Where is the conversation about the trade-offs between spending more money on luxury or nice-tohave-items (for those who can afford them) versus spending that money on making our building stock zero or low-carbon? Hopefully, the changes in regulation will stimulate those conversations more.

JUNE - JULY 2022 How carbon is calculated on steel products

Zero carbon is within our grasp

Ten years ago, any conversation might have been about whether a zero carbon steel industry was even possible. Now we have proved it is, with the launch of Hōtaka Whakakore Puhanga Waro marking a global first for the construction sector, which can now offer a zero carbon steel option for most steel products used in New Zealand. The offsetting programme includes a robust set of programme rules to determine the underlying requirements for calculating the emissions for offsetting to ensure integrity of the programme. Emissions are offset via Ekos, a leader in carbon management and environmental financing, through the calculator; the offsets are sourced from native forest projects. These projects deliver multiple biological, ecological and social co-benefits

beyond simply carbon sequestration. This programme can be expected to change the conversation around the carbon performance of steel, with the sector knowing that a reliable option for net zero carbon steel now exists. In general the construction industry is having a lot of conversations around

economy benefits that steel offers through its reuse and recycling, noting that 85 percent of all steel waste from construction in New Zealand is recycled. But the reduction of the steel industry's emission to meet the 2050 net zero carbon target is only part of the challenge. Steel and iron produc-

To meet our national carbon reduction targets . . . we need to find a balance of both short and sustained reductions carbon in steel, with MBIE having developed two emissions mitigation frameworks under the Building for Climate Change. Hōtaka Whakakore Puhanga Waro, the zero carbon steel programme, is a game changer for steel, a known hard-to-abate product. It provides a carbon neutral steel option now, to build upon all of the circular

tion is the single largest industrial source of CO2 emissions in New Zealand, representing 55 percent of industrial emissions and around five percent of total gross emissions. Carbon is primarily used in the steel-making process as a reductant, rather than an energy source. There are many research projects looking at green

steel options using alternative reductants, including work supported by New Zealand Steel, at Victoria University of Wellington, looking at hydrogen as an alternative reductant. While that technology is not yet available, it is important for the industry to utilise carbon offsetting as a mechanism to reduce net emissions. The novelty of the zero carbon programme is that it covers a number of different steel products. It includes painted steel used in roofing and cladding, rebar used in concrete, light-gauge steel framing, heavy structural steel and stainless steel. We are not aware that a programme of this type, at this level of detail, exists anywhere else in the world at this time. The main users of the programme will be either the building product suppliers or fabricators, who may decide to bring it into their front end to offer infrastructurenews.co.nz 39

JUNE - JULY 2022 zero-carbon options to their customers or end-users (building owners). Suppliers can use the programme to bid for projects offering a zero-carbon option (with the anticipated offsets included in the quoted fee), leaving the end-user to pull an affordability lever or a carbon lever. Returning to the earlier point about homeowners and renovators, this programme can be a tool to prompt broader conversations around consumer decisions and finding the right balance between ‘building beautiful’ versus ‘building sustainable’.

Minister for Manufacturing

It is not the role of Government to choose building materials. The required performance should be specified, so there is an incentive for all materials to be mea-

If there were a pan-material Minister for Manufacturing who could represent broadly across all building materials, we could expect an improvement in outcomes for all involved in the manufacturing sector and those downstream who rely on its products and services, and associated upside for the national economy.

Role of innovation

There are significant opportunities for advancement in the form of new materials. However, the advancement opportunities offered by traditional building materials and hybrids should not go unrecognised. We need to expand the conversation about Industry 4.0 applications in the construction sector. HERA has previously reported the significant productivity

If there were a pan-material Minister for Manufacturing who could represent broadly across all building materials, we could expect an improvement in outcomes sured and to perform well against that criterion. It also requires a set of rules to be established for how carbon calculation occurs – something MBIE will need to develop in order for Building for Climate Change to operate effectively and with integrity. With timber having an industry advocate within Government in the form of a Minister for Forestry, there is a lot of material-specific support for timber. There is no equivalent Minister for Steel or Concrete. 40 infrastructurenews.co.nz

benefits this offers in our published report. There are also significant sustainability gains to be had from the more holistic decision-making approach that Industry 4.0 offers. The Construction Accord has a concerning lack of focus on innovation, certainly as it pertains to new technologies. This is particularly worrying if the Accord is intended to be a transformation plan for the construction industry, alongside other key sectoral guiding documents,

such as the Advanced Manufacturing Industry Transformation Plan. Hopefully, this is something that will be addressed in the planned updates to the Construction Accord.

flights to choosing to install a solar hot water system instead of a higher-spec oven or dishwasher, and then committing to a more major step such as going zero carbon operations in

There is no point reducing the upfront carbon emissions now if they are only going to be released back into the atmosphere in our children’s lifetimes Behaviour change

Why are we still focused on beauty versus brains? No one wants to spend large amounts of money on their home build or renovation, but people seem willing to spend to make their kitchen more beautiful rather than more sustainable. In general we seem to spend more of our discretionary funds on luxury items versus functionality in terms of sustainability. There is a necessary behaviour change here that must be underpinned by massive sociological change that may be little impacted by regulatory change. It is great to see so many beautiful, functional, sustainable, and innovative design solutions being conceived and realised, and more are emerging all the time. Now we need to make personal and professional changes (and what may be seen as personal sacrifices) to better support these designs, so our consumer and leadership decisions align with our urgent need to decarbonise. For many people it will be a staged process, from recycling to paying to offset

their business. These are the changes we need to make, and they aren’t without cost in a time when building and construction costs are already high. The process, the costs, and the trade-offs for each of us, our households, our communities and our businesses – this is a critical conversation we need to have at a national level.

Dr Troy Coyle brings more than 20 years’ experience in innovation management across a range of industries including materials science, medical radiation physics, biotechnology, sustainable building products, renewable energy and steel. She is a scientist with a PhD (University of NSW) with training in journalism and communications.

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Money alone will not solve New Zealand’s infrastructure woes Additional infrastructure funding from Budget 2022 is just catching up on years of underinvestment – the sector is calling for the Government to do more about New Zealand’s $210b infrastructure deficit

udget 2022 lifts infrastructure investment over the next four years from $57.3b to $61.9b, representing an increase of $4.6b. Infrastructure New Zealand welcomes this additional investment, but recognises that much of it is aimed at addressing historic underspending on ageing health, education and transport infrastructure. Civil Contractors New Zealand Chief Executive Alan Pollard says the budget is a good start, but far more will be required to solve the civil construction industry’s worker short-

42 infrastructurenews.co.nz

age, upgrade and maintain transport and water networks and help communities mitigate the impacts of climate change. “The Government investment in trades training, rail and telecommunications infrastructure and the Construction Sector Accord initiatives is very positive but it doesn’t go far enough. As a country we are missing a trick when it comes to dealing with other key infrastructure issues.” The infrastructure sector was facing immense challenges, including a lack of workers, uncertainty around future projects, and

spiralling expenses caused by supply chain disruption and rising fuel and materials costs, he says. “Treasury’s 2022 Investment Statement has put our combined infrastructure gap at a whopping $210 billion. If we are going to make headway and create a thriving New Zealand for future generations we need a lasting commitment, from all political parties, to building and maintaining the transport, water, energy, and communications infrastructure that’s desperately needed.” Significant infrastructure funding was announced in the 2020 and 2021 budgets but some of the ‘shovel-ready’ projects outlined over the past few years are still to begin. Delays have been exacerbated by inefficient consenting processes and insufficient funding to cope with inflation and rising costs. “We must continue to innovate, look for efficiencies and work smarter, but we can’t build our nation on the smell of an oily rag. The $37 million to progress Construction Sector Accord Transformation Plan initiatives will help foster smarter and more efficient ways of working.” Construction Sector Accord Transformation Director Dean Kimpton says

the funding will support its Construction Sector Transformation Plan 2022-2025. “This new funding is a significant step forward for the Accord and we are determined that it will help unlock the sector’s potential to transform its productivity, its innovation, its sustainability, and its health and safety record.” The funding supports the sector to achieve a renewed set of transformational goals under the new plan, to be launched in July. The new Transformation Plan has a greater focus on: • the Māori construction ecosystem • strengthening capability and productivity across small to medium enterprises • driving innovation • reducing carbon emissions. These initiatives are aimed at achieving the Construction Sector Accord’s vision of a thriving, fair, and sustainable construction sector that enables the wellbeing of Aotearoa New Zealand’s people and its environment, Kimpton says. “In its first three years of progress towards industry transformation goals, the Accord has become the ‘go to’ forum for industry to engage with government and vice versa. It proved its worth during the first

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Covid-19 lockdown and has continued to bring leadership to a notoriously fragmented sector. “This new funding is a significant step up for the Accord and will allow us to support a greater range of initiatives to transform the sector.” However Pollard says without additional funding, it will be difficult to make progress against a rising tide of escalating costs. Lack of workers is another key challenge faced by the industry. The New Zealand Infrastructure Commission strategy forecasts that New Zealand will have a shortfall of approximately 118,500 construction workers in 2024, he says. “The civil infrastructure and construction workforce shortage is acute. Australia has launched a major international attraction campaign for infrastructure workers and New Zealand must do the same to attract people to our country and dispel the myth we are not open for business. “We also need to do more to remove the barriers pre-

venting people from being able to work in New Zealand. That means investing in more resources for Immigration NZ to process the number of applications we will need, as well as broadening visa eligibility criteria – we need engineers and planners, but we also need people out in the field doing the work required.” Taking action on climate change was another big

should be given to the role infrastructure can play in risk management, community protection and mitigating the impacts of the climate crisis. “There’s an urgent need for more central government support for sea walls, and river- and lakesideflood protection for vital transport networks and vulnerable communities.” Infrastructure New Zea-

More consideration should be given to the role infrastructure can play in risk management, community protection and mitigating the impacts of the climate crisis focus of Budget 2022. Pollard says there is broad agreement across New Zealand and within the civil construction industry that more needed to be done on this front, but investment in reducing vehicle emissions was only part of the solution. “More consideration

land Chief Executive Claire Edmondson says many initiatives in Budget 2022 are a good start, however the question remains whether there are sufficient resources in New Zealand to deliver on our infrastructure pipeline – including people and materials like GIB and steel.

“The sector remains constrained by global supply chain issues and the rising cost of fuel, compounded by the effects of Covid-19 and the conflict in Ukraine. Housing affordability and the rising cost of living is also a factor in attracting and retaining the talent our sector needs to deliver projects. “The $37m investment in the Construction Sector Accord transformation plan should see increased productivity, capability and resilience of the construction sector.” We know that we will not be able to build our way out of the infrastructure deficit we face, which is why the Government needs to genuinely consider alternative infrastructure funding, financing and delivery arrangements, including by working with the private sector. Leaving this opportunity on the table will continue to force successive governments to prioritise and stage projects as we have seen through this latest budget, Edmondson says. infrastructurenews.co.nz 43

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Infrastructure strategy cannot wait While the Government is not obliged to formally respond to the New Zealand Infrastructure Commission’s 30-year Strategy until September, it would be negligent not to act now with urgency, Civil Contractors Chief Executive Alan Pollard says

Breakdown of the strategy's 68 recommendations •

3 recommendations to strengthen partnerships with and opportunities for Māori

•

4 recommendations to enable a net-zero carbon emissions Aotearoa

•

4 recommendations to support towns and regions to flourish

•

13 recommendations to build attractive and inclusive cities

•

4 recommendations to strengthen resilience to shocks and stresses

•

9 recommendations to move to a circular economy

•

9 recommendations to enable better decision making

•

10 recommendations to improve funding and financing

•

4 recommendations for an enabling planning and consenting framework

•

3 recommendations to accelerate technology use

•

5 recommendations to build workforce capacity and capability

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ew Zealand’s civil contractors have welcomed Rautaki Hanganga o Aotearoa – New Zealand Infrastructure Strategy 2022–2052 as ‘a new beginning’ and look forward to working to address the country’s massive infrastructure deficit with increased support, better planning, and targeted investment from government. The strategy provides vital vision and direction for the country’s infrastructure networks, framing challenges and solutions in a way that gave ‘much-needed clarity’. This national blueprint shows us how much work we have to do to get where we need to be, laying out the challenges and proposing solutions from an objective viewpoint, providing avenues for consensus and setting a coherent plan that can adapt to our future needs. The Strategy lays bare the huge task in bringing the country’s infrastructure up to date, with a massive construction worker shortfall projected to reach 118,500 by 2024, construction costs rising 60 per cent faster than the rest of the economy, an infrastructure deficit of $210 billion, and a need for infrastructure spending

at $31 billion a year. As well as challenges, the Strategy also explores potential solutions and ways to work smarter, as opposed to simply spending more. Of particular significance is where spending would have the most positive effect. Balancing the need to maintain existing infrastructure as well as build new is important, as is the need for government, support agencies and industry to partner on the implementation of the strategy. We now have a shared direction we all need to get behind long-term. Not just infrastructure constructors, who have been aware of and working to resolve these challenges for some time, but Government, opposition parties, iwi, local government, and everyday New Zealanders. This applies on a massive scale such as through State Highways, major projects and urban centres; but is just as relevant at the smaller scale of a community or individuals. We need to change our thinking about infrastructure. It’s important we consider more than just major projects, but also think of the road or public transport

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that takes us where we need to go, the pipe that brings water to our house, and the people that make the system work. The strategy calls for systemic change to better construct, support and maintain the essential infrastructure the country needs over coming decades, as well as the resource to maintain and support existing transport, water, energy, and other infrastructure networks. The Government is required to respond to the 68 recommendations provided in the strategy by September. There are key investments required if the country is to step up to meet its infrastructure needs. However the modest Budget 2022 allocation for infrastructure could delay action on many of the report’s recommendations –

and many critical infrastructure projects – until 2023 or beyond. The Government has a golden opportunity to re-align its infrastructure investment when it issues

they are to have any chance on delivering on New Zealand’s multi-faceted future infrastructure needs. Not just to overcome the deficit on deferred new capital works, but also to replace

The Strategy explores potential solutions and ways to work smarter, as opposed to simply spending more its response to the recommendations. It is our hope that the Government takes this report seriously and moves quickly to ensure New Zealand’s infrastructure needs are given the attention, and funding, they deserve. We know contractors need more people and the confidence they will get the funding they need to invest in plant and equipment if

and repair our existing well-worn water, transport and other infrastructure networks. It’s not all about spending more either. The Strategy also sets out ways to address our challenges. There are better ways to work and big wins to be had through reform of the Resource Management Act and consenting process, investment in vocational

education for infrastructure trades on-shore and talent attraction offshore, and easing pressure on supply chains. CCNZ has urged Government and opposition to commit to infrastructure and support the investment needed to get the work done building and maintaining NZ’s transport, water, energy, and communications networks. Not just for big projects (although those are important), but also for the work that goes into repairing and maintaining our roads, water networks and other infrastructure every day. Any loss of momentum now will create serious resourcing and delivery risks downstream, and most of all we need confidence, leadership and investment from clients to meet the challenge head-on. infrastructurenews.co.nz 45

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A start to solving our poor record on low carbon cement replacement Swiss based building industry giant Holcim plans to import and distribute lower carbon cement replacement products from a new Low Carbon Cement Replacement Facility currently under construction in Auckland

he initiative was started well before the New Zealand government released an Emissions Reduction Plan in mid-May this year. Holcim New Zealand was quick to show support for the government plans to pilot the end of industrial allocation within the cement industry, in favour of transparent pricing of carbon combined with a border 46 infrastructurenews.co.nz

adjustment mechanism. “New Zealand is an exciting market. Construction has gone from strength to strength despite the challenges of the pandemic. And the New Zealand construction industry understands the importance of decarbonisation,” says CEO for Australia and New Zealand George Agriogiannis. Concrete is the most-commonly used

building material in the world and a key component is cement, which has high embodied carbon due to its manufacturing process. Currently, every year around 1.6 million tonnes of traditional cement is used in New Zealand, equivalent to approximately 1.3 million tonnes of CO2. By replacing cement with a product which has lower embodied carbon, but similar proper-

ties, construction-related embodied carbon can be significantly reduced. “Unfortunately, New Zealand's concrete industry is coming off a low base. Due to a lack of access historically to low carbon cement alternatives, New Zealand's carbon intensity in ready mix is high relative to its peers,” says Executive General Manager, New Zealand Kevin Larcombe. “In similar markets like Australia and the UK, replacement of normal cements with low carbon cement replacements averages 26 percent. In New Zealand it is more like two percent” Holcim is working with the construction industry with the aim to achieve 25 percent replacement by 2025. “At 25 percent replacement, we estimate embodied carbon in the New Zealand construction industry will reduce by around 300,000 tonnes per annum - equivalent to taking well over 100,000 petrol cars off the road each year,” says Agriogiannis. For Holcim in our part of the world, this involves the use of local and Australian fly ash and ground granulated blast furnace slag from Japan. “We will be offering blended low carbon cements, consistent with our global EcoPlanet range as well as Supplementary Cementitious Materials such as Ground Granulated Blast Furnace Slag, recycled from by-products of the iron making process,” says Larcombe. “Every part of the construction industry has been challenged by the supply chain disruptions induced by the global pandemic. Crucially, Holcim has been able to leverage off its global capability to not only ensure Holcim's usual

JUNE - JULY 2022 customers have been able to continue building, but also ensured the whole construction industry could continue to grow as domestic demand has exceeded local manufacturing capability,” says Agriogiannis. The new product range look certain to help maintain that edge. “These new products will absolutely deliver much lower embodied carbon,” says Larcombe. “They also offer superior performance over standard cement. Depending on application there are significant benefits. “In precast, they produce a superior, whiter finish. In marine and wastewater applications, they offer a more resilient concrete. In mass concrete they can reduce issues with heat generation during hydration. The benefits of these new products goes on and on,” The new facility is scheduled to commence operation in late 2022. “This initiative will enable progress toward the New Zealand government’s Zero Carbon ambitions and Holcim’s Net Zero climate pledge . . . it will create downward pressure on carbon emissions emanating from construction of the built environment,” says Agriogiannis

Green Building Solutions Half of Holcim’s innovation projects aim at finding building solutions that work for people and the planet, whether they are digital tools to empower sustainability and circular economy, breakthroughs in the chemical processes or shaping the future construction industry through 3D-printing. ECOPlanet, is a global green cement range which reduces CO2 emissions from 30 percent up to 100 percent. ECOPlanet Zero is Holcim’s carbon neutral cement range. The company is able to offset the embodied carbon of its blended cement range ECOPlanetZERO on behalf of its customers on an opt-in basis, through a transparent, third party-assured process resulting in carbon neutral cement. Holcim has launched EcoLabel to transparently communicate the environmental “I’m pleased Holcim is progressing to the building phase of a facility that will import and distribute low carbon cement replacement products. Once operational, the site will enable reduction of carbon emissions via a cement replacement which can be used for applications such as infrastructure, commercial and residential projects. The facility will be adjacent to the company’s existing cement import terminal

benefits of its green building solutions. The label will apply to all its products that comply with its green criteria, including lower CO2 footprint and recycled content. Holcim will only source offsets from international projects that comply with international best practice. Holcim will only purchase Offsets linked to validated Projects which are aligned with Holcim’s decarbonisation objectives. Projects may include those related to renewable energy and land use improvements. The company uses a third party to help source real, measurable, transparent and verified carbon credits. How does carbon offsetting work? Is carbon offsetting expensive? What happens to offsets once they have been purchased?

at Ports of Auckland and, at peak operation, is expected to enable replacement of just under 100,000 tonnes of Ordinary Portland Cement, which will substantially reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Annually, this is the equivalent of removing approximately 78,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) or 40,000 cars from the roads. Holcim was the first global building materials company to sign the United Nations

Global Compact “Business Ambition for 1.5°C” initiative, with 2030 targets validated by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi). The company says sustainabilty is at the core of its strategy as to the make transition towards low carbon construction and driving a circular economy. The company recently announced its 2050 goals, the first long-term targets in the building materials sector to be validated by SBTi.

infrastructurenews.co.nz 47

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Hard work gets results

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The success of Rapid Facility Services is driven by a team that combines experience, commitment and a professional skillset that covers every aspect of facilities management with personal service

he team was forged by three friends working in the industry who realised that the key thing stressed building managers, business owners and landlords needed was to make a single call and get a reliable and qualified support team that would cover any aspect of facilities management. The Rapid trio set down a business philosophy that “we will do what others can’t or won’t do “ and set about assembling a highly trained, efficient and safety-conscious team of professionals who get the job done right, the first time. Today that service stretches from food manufacturers’ audit cleaning, all aspects of industrial cleaning, painting, building and floor safety management to anti-microbial and moss

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Having worked in the industry for many years, three friends, Paul Schoch, Robyn Schoch and Andrew Chan realised that by combining their skills, they could create a company unlike any other and mould treatments to prevent surface damage to roofs, ceilings, walls, floors and specialised equipment.

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OFFICE OF TODAY Enhance space to hold value

June- July 2022

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SiteRight – It’s the right fit for your business Site Safe is excited to announce the rebrand of Site Safe Reviews to SiteRight an enhanced take on site reviews.

iteRight is designed to provide your business with the assurance that the right health and safety practices are in place. SiteRight reviews, which some clients like to refer to as audits, will continue to be delivered by expert safety advisors across New Zealand and powered by the ecoPortal platform. Site Safe worked with the industry to deliver improvements that will best meet their needs. This includes providing

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clients with their own online user-friendly and personalised dashboard to find and manage all their review information, an improved set of review questions, accurate and anonymous benchmarking of your performance against similar projects and types of companies and Safety Improvement reports are included for follow up and documenting close out of corrective actions. Users also benefit from a scoring structure which highlights any concerning

observations relating to high-risk activities whilst at the same time knowing that they will have been made safe whilst the auditor remained on-site. SiteRight provides peace of mind when engaging with staff, contractors and management. Completing a review not only measures level of compliance, but also provides evidence of due diligence and peace of mind that everything is working as it should. Woolworth’s New Zealand has been receiving reviews

for about seven years. Head of construction, Rob Jones, said he was “glad” the advisors auditing safety were overseeing projects from a “fresh set of eyes”. "I don't want to hear just the good news you know I want to hear the bad news but I have been seeing reports recently of a couple of jobs that have been coming in at 65 per cent opposed to 90 so I'm glad to see that when it is actually a low score that [way] we can address it.” SiteRight was a “useful” tool and having external reviewers viewing their live construction projects provided “comfort” to both himself and the health and safety department, Jones said. “The reports are very useful from my point of view and Woolworths having the knowledge that we have all our construction projects reviewed monthly is certainly of comfort to me.” It also helped Woolworths with “raising awareness of safety” and reaching their goals to zero harm in the workplace, he said. “They’ve got this external sort of independent audit happening on a monthly basis which I think it … just keeps [health and safety] front of mind for the live construction project and all those supervisors. You can find more about SiteRight’s many enhancements and how to request a review here.

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IT’S THE RIGHT FIT FOR YOU! Powered by ecoPortal, our site review platform provides assurance the right health and safety practices are in place. Designed with you and your site review/audit requirements in mind, our platform offers:

Benchmarking of your performance against similar projects/companies. A user friendly dashboard for accessing all your review information. Safety Improvement Reports. Peace of mind when engaging with staff, contractors and management. Continual support post review. National coverage.

TO FIND OUT MORE GO TO SITESAFE.ORG.NZ OR CALL 0800 SITE SAFE

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How to solve the problem of slumping commercial property values by acting now Global reports highlight the risk to commercial property values based on the decrease in office occupancy over the past two years. It is clear this is a problem for New Zealand as well but is not unsolvable, says Studio DB Head of Research Pierre Ferrandon

report in US based Bisnow claims that US$1.1 trillion in American office properties are at risk of complete obsolescence. This represents about 30 percent of US office building inventory, and according to the study, another 40 percent is “marginal”, with capital expenditure necessary to raise many properties’ energy efficiency and health standards. There is a way forward for New Zealand that protects current investment and future-proofs the sector – one that builds on the global decarbonisation movement, local innovation and 54 propertyandbuild.com

a fleshed-out hybrid work model. Landlords and business leaders benefit from the adoption of workplace strategies that focus on efficiencies and value.

Within two years from the start of 2020, building utilisation – when a space is actively used -- dropped from 52 percent before the pandemic to as low as 20 percent for some. Alongside

The top companies to work for – globally and locally – focus heavily on the workplace as a driver of engagement Experience-led real estate

Our situation is as vulnerable, relatively speaking, as that outlined in the US.

project budgeting, this is the top challenge for businesses. With around $1 billion per year paid in commercial

rent by companies in Auckland alone, there is a need to significantly improve utilisation for occupiers while protecting the overall economic benefit of returns to property owners. Doing so in New Zealand will bring us in line with a trend towards “experience-led” real estate. This acknowledges that the underlying issue that is driving devaluation is that employees now have real choice about their workspaces and are reluctant to travel to a workplace that provides an experience that is inferior to what they have at home. This is where investment

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Major trends among workspace innovators 1. Technology is the enabler, but the workspace is the glue. People are looking for inclusion and connection. Working from home (WFH) makes elements of life easier but can foment a sense of disconnection from colleagues and teams. The companies that are managing this contradiction best are those focused on long-term productivity and supporting the new generation entering the workforce, who will need special attention to ensure they get the upskilling previous generations have taken for granted. Many leaders, especially in knowledge-based industries such as the legal sector, are focusing in particular on generational and institutional knowledge, pairing graduates with seniors to learn the company and industry; younger folk will leave for competitors if their more established, experienced counterparts do not come to the office to educate, coach and mentor. The best at doing this have recognised that the workplace is a key component of differentiation in the war for talent.

accrued over the past two years, progressive managers are proactively setting rules for teams and providing digital tools for people to connect with each other and manage agendas, so when people do come to the office they have maximum opportunity to connect with others in person and get the best out of the workspace. If the in-office/WFH schedule is set well in advance and coordinated between teams, people can have all the respective advantages of working in the office (interpersonal collaboration and conversation, change of scene) and at home (avoiding the commute, quiet and space to concentrate on deep work). 3. Thinking of ‘workspace’ in more fluid terms.

To retain the benefits of flexible working that have

For many companies the “office” is no longer a single centralised location that is occupied five days a week. Innovative leaders are creating a network of workspaces where people work one day at a location convenient for some, another day at a different location convenient for others. They are also being creative with the use of space; research shows single workstations in open-plan settings are the least used, and they are

is required, especially given we are no longer in a low-vacancy market and there are more competitive propositions available to tenants. We are also still waiting

to see real estate align with hybrid working models and truly flexible, optimised workspaces. The country’s commercial zones are still mostly optimised on leases and are not structured for

2. Schedules are set deliberately, not casually.

steadily being replaced with purpose-built facilities for yoga practices or gym equipment, video gaming, or crèches or playrooms for children or pets. This follows the theme of allowing people to bring the best of working from home back into the shared workspace. In considering the use of space, human-centric design is increasingly important. This aligns workplace design with the work being performed, and away from bums-on-seats for line-of-sight management to spaces that are specifically designed for socialising, learning and collaboration. It is also possible to monitor occupancy in the current space (technology exists to support this) and feed this data into future iterations of office space that are suitable for long-term business HR planning and real-estate investment. 4. Centring purpose and sustainability. Workers increasingly want to see evidence of how their companies are operating more responsibly and sustainably, from both a social and climate standpoint. These points go to purpose – why people want to work for a company – as an important driver of happiness at work, while 91 percent of Gen Z how people engage with their workspace. At present, after the twoyear pandemic phase and many more years of underinvestment, New Zealand commercial real estate is

workers put sustainability as their top priority. Companies that are making office moves and communicating on the results (i.e. they can measure and discuss the sustainable impact of their choices of building and interior fit-out processes and materials) will reap the rewards of staff feeling heard and validated. 5. Treating time and attention as the most valuable elements. These days people should be “earning the commute”, meaning there needs to be a purpose in travelling to work other than doing the job you can do from home. The commuting time should be justified by learning new skills, getting specialist training, or collective actions such as a sales team getting together to do calling sessions, managers and direct reports working together, coaching or strategy sessions, team-building sessions, special speakers and so on. When people are together, make it rewarding outside the focus on work. Many businesses that are changing premises are looking for locations that provide amenities, so people can use the commute to shop, dine or see a movie or show on “office days”. falling further and further behind in terms of being ready for the future.

The carbon factor

Soon, carbon neutrality will be not just a nice-topropertyandbuild.com 55

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The flow-on effects from good data driven design are both economic and environmental. More efficient workspaces use less resources and yield a lower carbon footprint have but a necessity, with impending legislation which will affect the bottom lines of businesses that are not currently working towards a carbon-neutral footprint. On average, green buildings command rents that are eight percent higher than average. Many boards of large companies are making being neutral a governance agenda point. This signals that buildings that don’t comply will be left behind. Many commercial buildings are privately owned, but are aging, with many dating back to the postWorld War II era, and most, especially in Wellington, needing some degree of remediation to comply with earthquake strengthening obligations. The work done to date has been expensive and signals what will be a complete loss-running exercise.

Goodbye to sitting on land values

As with residential property, in the commercial sector New Zealand is one of only a few countries where the 56 propertyandbuild.com

majority of the value sits in the land. This factor, along with low competition and low availability of land, means there has not been a strict economic case for commercial owners to consistently invest in looking after their buildings. With this massive capital appreciation, cash-rich commercial owners some-

coming to an end. As with many industries, we can expect what we are seeing in commercial real estate offshore to hit New Zealand, albeit with some delay This puts the onus on property owners and the business leaders who rent their premises to start innovating now if they want to dodge the worst of the body blow that is coming

Part of the decarbonisation movement involves finding new efficiencies and preserving those savings that have been hard-won through the pandemic times haven’t even needed to tenant their buildings – they have just waited for the values to keep rising. But there are signs this era is

for the sector. The upside of establishing comprehensive workplace strategies in response to these threats is that it

gives businesses space to advance sustainability measures that are meaningful and measurable and can feed into talent recruitment and retention strategies.

Changing the financial mindset

At a business level, much of the change must be driven by CFOs or other financial decision-makers, who need to move their mindset from cost to value. No longer can cost be assessed just by the dollar figure on the lease agreement. Innovating businesses are thinking about the impact on people, based on the calculation that for service businesses, payroll is 50 percent of operating costs and lease or rent just seven. Those who are focusing primarily on real estate cost savings might fall into the false economy trap: for example, a 20 percent saving on the lease would equal a 1.4 percent saving in overall costs, but if staff engagement or retention drops because of a decrease in office quality or location, the negative impact on the

JUNE - JULY 2022 business could outweigh that modest cost saving. The top companies to work for – globally and locally – focus heavily on the workplace as a driver of engagement, from Facebook/ Meta to Google/Alphabet, Salesforce, TradeMe, 2 Degrees, PwC, Jarden, and Chorus. Not coincidentally, these companies are also leading the thinking and conversation around long-term flexibility in work as a component of their strategies. A popular metric for these top companies is to maintain 70 percent of overall

with high incentives to fund the new fit-out. With New Zealand having the third-highest cost of fit-out globally but ranking 60th in rental costs, there is a prime opportunity for business owners and landlords to work together. Tenants will need to accept slightly higher rents (bearing in mind that a 30 percent overall rent increase, when rent is seven percent of operating costs, adds just 2.1 percent to the bottom line), but that will enable the funding of the fit-out. Where business own-

Change must be driven by financial decision-makers, who need to move their mindset from cost to value workspace (most have HQ and satellite offices) as core fixed space, and 30 percent as flexible or on-demand space. They take advantage of favourable market conditions to secure new premises

ers have been focused on securing the best rent deal, given all the variables they are better to home in on what kind of deal (rent versus incentives) will allow them to get the workspace they want.

A popular metric is to maintain 70 percent of overall workspace as core fixed space and 30 percent as flexible or on-demand space

Moving towards a post-waste workspace

Part of the decarbonisation movement involves finding new efficiencies and preserving those savings that have been hard-won through the pandemic. Pre-COVID, office utilisation was at 50 percent, with almost all employees working full-time in the office. Now, with many employees wanting to work three days in the office and Work From Home (WFH) on two days, efficiency (in utilisation terms) drops to 30 percent.

The building sector (across all asset classes) contributes to 20 percent of New Zealand’s carbon emissions. Energy expenditure is massive, with large buildings being illuminated, powered, heated, cooled and ventilated all the time. Therefore, when utilisation is 30 percent, it means 70 percent of this output is wasted. By finding solutions to increase utilisation, and by designing better and with flexibility to accommodate changing requirements without the need to move offices, we reduce waste

Traditional real estate can move with the times by embracing a more agile approach of creating working hubs instead of static long-term leases propertyandbuild.com 57

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With New Zealand having the third-highest cost of fit-out globally but ranking 60th in rental costs, there is a prime opportunity for business owners and landlords to work together and remove the churn of fit-out over the lifecycle of a building. Less demolition, construction and renovation work equals lower emitted carbon. Given that NZ$1 billion annual commercial rent figure for Auckland, there is the potential to improve the bottom line by 70 percent ($700 million) for companies through widespread adoption of workplace strategies that are focused on efficiencies and value rather than the bottom-line rent figure. The caveat is that 100 percent utilisation is probably impossible to achieve, but 70 to 80 percent is highly realistic.

What the optimal workplace looks like in a post-pandemic work culture

As businesses are getting back to the office, including in hybrid models that are seeing many companies bringing workers in two or three days per week and otherwise working from home, a data-driven, human-centric approach is helping make workspaces more creative, productive and safe. 58 propertyandbuild.com

“The companies I work with are chiefly concerned about two things, both of which factor into the bottom line,” says Ferrandon. “First future-proofing companies for the next disruption, now that we have all seen just how serious and prolonged the business interruption can be, and second facilitating a hybrid model that will work for the long term in offering flexibility to employees in a competitive talent market.“ Office design that is informed by data-driven strategy aims to improve building utilisation through better attendance and activity-based working; the integration of flexible workspace solutions; and the incorporation of utilisation studies to show exactly which spaces are most used. The flow-on effects from this are both economic and environmental, as more efficient workspaces use less resources and yield a lower carbon footprint, in line with larger decarbonisation programmes. Technology has caught up to general company operations, and Studio DB data shows that over the next

18 months innovation in design will take workplaces to the next level to bring the best out of people. In a recent Studio DB client survey, 62 percent of respondents said their workspace requires improvement, and 55 percent said leased office utilisation is among their main challenges, but they don’t know how to tackle it. Unfortunately, most businesses have become accustomed over years to carrying surplus real estate because there was no alternative. But that is shifting, and traditional real estate can move with the times by embracing a more agile approach of creating working hubs instead of static long-term leases. Workplace policies in this area are now focused on meaningful design and fitout of commercial spaces to promote employee engagement, innovation, collaboration and culture.

Return on investment

A key challenge around optimising the workspace through design is measuring the return on investment. Where the traditional cost management

focus has been on rent and incentives, greater value improvements are seen in a broader approach which also incorporates building utilisation and sustainability factors – both people and climate. Part of ROI measurement can include running employee engagement surveys that can be converted into reportable insights that help HR leaders, CEOs and directors make better, informed decisions about people and culture, operational and capital expenditure, and the direction of the business. There are tremendous strategic and productivity insights to be gleaned from this approach, including around attrition, recruitment and retention of talent. This post-pandemic, repositioning period gives all leaders a unique chance to align workplace policy (elements such as working hours and conditions) with workspace design. Globally, companies like LinkedIn are ahead of the curve in empowering employees to choose if and how often they want to work remotely versus in the office.

Pierre Ferrandon is the head of research for Studio DB. He creates strategies for companies to implement hybrid working and optimise the workspace for productivity, profitability and employee engagement. Full information at Studio DB

Industry leader in soft fall protection on construction sites

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Massey University rigorously tested all elements of the Safety Nets NZ system

ith the enactment of the Health and Safety at Work Act (2015) it became apparent that there was a need to assure customers that they comply the requirements of the Act in safety measures for fall arrest. “We needed to have our system independently analysed, engineered and ultimately certified. This meant that not only did the individual components of the safety net fall arrest sys-

tem have to be tested, the performance of the safety fall arrest system as a whole also needed to be studied,” says General Manager Craig Daly. A team at the School of Engineering and Technology at Massey University tested a variety of drop heights and weights, different bracket centres, various net sizes and points where the load strikes the net. “It even tested nets of different ages and repaired

nets, with the results being collated and analysed to effectively confirm that our safety fall arrest system works,” says Daly. “This enables PCBU’s to discharge their responsibilities in regard to the requirements of the in the use of a system that is without risk to the health and safety of it’s workforce.” When the nets have been installed and inspected by a Safety Nets NZ team and a handover certificate

completed by our certified rigger, the client can then commence works above the safe area of the net. “All of our safety documentation has been produced in such a format as to ensure that it complements the overall site safety policy and manual that the Principal Contractor is required to establish on all projects,” says Daly. Click here to read inspection guidelines

Safety industry pioneer Safety Nets NZ has developed national standards in association with WorkSafe NZ, ensuring risk from falls is minimised for your construction workforce. • New Zealand owned and operated • Nationwide network of local installers • Dedicated to building site safety North Island 0800 NETSNZ (638 769) South Island 0800 NETS4U (638 748)

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Office market strategies changing JLL research shows increasingly positive sentiment across the Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch office markets following the disruption caused by Omicron

City overview Auckland

Prime buildings continue to perform well with a growing divergence between rents for prime and secondary buildings in the City of Sails, particularly pronounced with buildings that have established occupierowner relationships. Our figures reflect this, with vacancy unevenly spread across the CBD on a building-bybuilding basis.

Wellington

The Capital’s office market has stock currently under construction that is set to be completed in 2H22 or 1H23. With much of this stock being A-grade space and preleased, the trickle-down effect in lower grades is expected to be significant.

Christchurch

Continuing the trend from late 2021, the office market in the Garden City remains stable with increased investor interest in this region supported by the limited stock that is available for purchase in Auckland and Wellington. 60 propertyandbuild.com

Wellington

he great return to the office that was expected for early 2022 was muted when New Zealand moved into the red traffic light setting in response to the Omicron outbreak in late January. Uncertainty and apprehension reigned supreme for both employees and employers due to the unknown duration and level of impact it would have on the workplace. However, with cases now decreasing and restrictions easing, demand is expected to remain high for premium buildings in good locations. From an occupier perspective, the trend from 2H21 continues. Workspace strategies are changing with an increase in requirement for employee wellness and sustainability initiatives. In order to continue to attract employees back to the office, occupiers need to be offering flexible workspace arrangements, new technology such as IT enabled meeting rooms and quiet spaces. For investors and landlords, tenant quality and long-term viability of their business remains a critical focus with owners increasingly seeking to de-risk future returns. Yields remain unchanged on the

JUNE - JULY 2022 Auckland Wynyard

Auckland Core

Christchurch

back of limited transactions. The rising interest rate environment is expected to gradually have its impact on yields towards the end of 2022 and into 2023. In addition, all key stakeholders increasingly have environmental, social and governance considerations at the top of their list as they review current and future strategies. This has been taken into consideration

as many new prime office buildings are seen to be 6-star green buildings. The delivery of these projects will rely on various factors including pre-commitment, ability of the construction industry to keep up, and how the Government’s post-pandemic responses roll out. Access the full Vertical Vacancy Review 1H 2022 here

Gavin Read is the Head of Research at Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) New Zealand. JLL is a leading professional services firm that specialises in real estate and investment management. propertyandbuild.com 61

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Sponsored Article

Site Safe congratulates 2021 construction health and safety champions Site Safe is proud to recognise the award winners and finalists in our 2021 Construction Health, Safety and Wellbeing Awards.

he annual awards celebrate those in the construction industry who are striving to make their workplaces safer and improve the wellbeing of their colleagues. There were five award winners; Major Consulting Group for the Safety Innovation Award for small to medium organisations, Piritahi for the Safety Innovation Award for large organisations, Brian Perry Civil for the Safety Leadership Award, Pipeline and Civil for the Safety Contribution Award and Dunlop Builders, who won the Mental Health 62 propertyandbuild.com

and Wellbeing Award. Site Safe was impressed with the lengths award winners and finalists had taken to improve health and safety and wellbeing. The judges were particularly impressed with the calibre and maturity of all entries that were received. A variety of innovations and ground-breaking initiatives were on display, such as redesigning the classic waratah rammer to improve its safety for the industry through to a variety of ideas focused on creating work environments that are open,

supportive and committed to keeping each other mentally strong. Bryce Dunlop, the owner of Dunlop Builders in Wānaka, said it was “great” to be recognised for the work that has already been done and the company would continue to push to make improvements to the mental health of the industry. He hoped their example would encourage others to do the same. “Hopefully by having these awards and getting recognition for the work that [we] do encourages others to follow that same suit to

be able to make a better workplace environment for their staff. “That's when we'll start to get some real momentum behind normalising these conversations that we have around mental health and the health of our staff, that's not [just] cutting yourself with a skill saw it’s what’s going on in your head [that] is equally as important.” To learn more about the award winners head to the Site Safe website for case studies and news stories.

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Congratulations to our 2021 Construction Health, Safety and Wellbeing Award winners and those businesses making a real difference. Major Consulting Group Winner of the Safety Innovation Award for small to medium organisations.

Piritahi Winner of the Safety Innovation Award for large organisations.

Brian Perry Civil Winner of the Safety Leadership Award.

Pipeline and Civil Winner of the Safe NZ Safety Contribution Award.

Dunlop Builders Winner of the Kalmar Construction Mental Health and Wellbeing Award.

For more details on award winner initiatives, go to sitesafe.org.nz propertyandbuild.com 63

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ost of us are familiar with green buildings – reducing our carbon footprint through energy and water efficiency, cleaner air systems, and similar measures. However, environmental, social and governance (ESG) is taking the well-being of tenants and responsibilities of owners to a new level. Leading New Zealand corporations are voluntarily taking the high ground, while many others are preparing to comply with various governmental and governance mandates that will soon come into effect, Bayleys’ national director property management services Stuart Bent says. “ESG is a very broad topic. People have focused on the E rather than S and G until 64 propertyandbuild.com

The growing importance of ESG in property A new wave of environmental, social and governance features is sweeping the property world with New Zealand owners and investors proving quick to adopt them now. Many of our clients are already reporting these things in their profit results. “When it comes to the full range of ESG we’re finding that the top-end companies are more interested. They have big tenants with an appetite for buying in. Mid-range building owners and tenants still need more

encouragement. “It used to be about basic rules, but it’s become more sophisticated to embrace procurement for all components, and social and governance criteria,” he says. There is growing collaboration between landlords and tenants who are insisting ESG components are in

place in their workplaces. “Governance and accountability is about more than talk. NZX-listed Argosy has an ESG committee established by its Board; they’re one of the leaders in New Zealand.” Argosy has a $2 billion portfolio, and among its properties are several

JUNE - JULY 2022 landmark Auckland buildings such as 82 Wyndham Street. Argosy’s latest sustainabil-

buildings we manage. However, there are a number of different sustainability accreditations we’re work-

It extends to how happy people are in our buildings and why they would want to occupy them ity report has several goals relating to ESG mandates including obtaining NABERS NZ ratings for all its offices by 2023, a waste management target of 75-percent landfill diversion on all major projects, moving to an electric vehicle fleet for staff, reducing air travel, and reducing carbon emissions by 2031. The commitment of Argosy and other corporations to ESG extends to encompassing the social well-being of employees and wider society with initiatives such as provision of subsidised gym memberships, and access to independent employee assistance programmes for mental health. Permanent employees are provided with health, life and disability insurance cover as part of their employment. Many of the more recent ESG features are likely to soon become part of accounting standards, Bent says. Bayleys Property Services’ Auckland-based head of retail management Michael Gillon says he is working closely with tenants to ensure their ESG ambitions align with landlords. “Some great work has been done so far with buildings already awarded the New Zealand Green Building Council’s Green Star ratings for design and performance. “We’re making good headway with the NABERS NZ accreditation for many

ing on including the Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark (GRESB),” Gillon says. “The social side looks at a wide variety of elements including how the property is contributing to the community it’s located in, health and well-being of staff and supply partners, commitment to living wages, with

suppliers treated as equals rather than a master and servant relationship. “It extends to how happy people are in our buildings and why they would want to occupy them,” Gillon says. “As we hopefully make our way out of the end of the pandemic, the question will be asked as to what tenants and their commercial landlords will do to entice

staff back to buildings. If you have a decent health and well-being strategy it will certainly help. “When it comes to governance, it’s about how transparent the organisation is, compliance and accountability.” A version of this article was first published in Bayleys Total Property - Issue 2 2022

There is growing collaboration between landlords and tenants who are insisting ESG components are in place in their workplaces

propertyandbuild.com 65

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Cutting-edge solutions to handle building waste Construction and demolition waste poses a special challenge for recyclers – it comprises a lot of different tough materials and it is difficult to separate pollutants, Waste Management World reports

siaPacific is anticipated to be the leader in the C&D waste recycling market in future, mainly due to the construction of buildings that are in the pipeline and an extensive focus on infrastructural development. In India, new recycling facilities are in development in various parts of the country, making it a possible contributor from among all AsiaPacific countries. North America is also expected to see strong growth due to the rising need for eco-friendly construction operations in this region. C&D waste makes up an enormous portion of the waste stream and comprises different types of materials such as plastics, bricks, wood, concrete, metals and

timber, many of which can be recycled or even reused for various other purposes, leading the industry towards a more sustainable future. Arne Ragossnig from Vienna-based consulting company Die Umweltkonsulenten says the construction sector is responsible for a major share of worldwide resource consumption as well as for the associated energy consumption that is also responsible for a high proportion of worldwide greenhouse gas emissions. “Construction waste recycling allows greenhouse gases to be saved and resource consumption to be reduced at the same time.” The major challenge is to allow pollutants such as asbestos – known as legacy

Driving Up Recycling Rates

A fairly high share of construction waste is already recycled in Central Europe. This is due to legislative boundary conditions that require pre-demolition audits of buildings that are to be deconstructed. “This allows pollutants and impurities to be removed, thereby enabling a high proportion of recycling for mineral construction waste. In addition, non-mineral construction products such as steel and glass can therefore be recycled as well,” says Ragossnig. But even though a high proportion of C&D waste is already being recycled in countries like the Netherlands and Austria – with the aim of further increasing the recycling rate – there are many regions where construction waste is not yet classified as waste and it ends up in uncontrolled dumping. “There is still a great need to increase awareness of the sound waste management of construction waste,” says Ragossnig.

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substances – to be separated. Ragossnig explains that in the past – and in some parts of the world this is still the case – asbestos has been and still is used for various construction purposes. Also, other substances such as tar and insulation material that includes brominated flame retardants need to be separated to establish clean material cycles. Thermal insulation materials, which are used widely to lower heating costs, pose a special challenge. In principle, these insulation materials must be separated during the deconstruction process. “Most of the time the polystyrene insulation must be thermally treated in order to destroy any brominated

flame retardants used in the past. Recycling of mineral construction waste is only possible if non-mineral components are separated,” says Ragossnig. But how should an ‘easy-to-recycle’ building be constructed? “The most important thing is to make sure that building components can be separated when the building is deconstructed. “And we have to raise the awareness and competence of planners and investors to construct the buildings that way and to pay attention to the end-of-life phase of buildings as well, not forgetting that the best way to avoid waste and to reduce resource consumption is to prolong the use phase of buildings.”

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C&D Waste Recycling Solutions

Industrial Shredders

Materials that are difficult to process and reduce in volume and are, in many cases, economically ‘unshreddable’. From problematic skip waste to demolition material – such as wood, non-ferrous extrusions, composite panel work and structures – this is typically unsorted, which can add an additional dimension of complexity for operators. UNTHA’s new two-shaft shredder: the ZR, unveiled in the UK in September 2021, comprises two machines – the ZR2400H and ZR2400W – which have been specifically engineered for multi-shift, continuous pre-shredding, even when handling difficult materials. Modular, quick-change cutting table design. Supplied with the UNTHA Eco Power Drive with water-cooled synchronous motors to reduce energy consumption by up to 75%.

Sorting Systems

USA Recycle needed its own system to divert materials from landfills while obtaining high purity levels. The objective was to quickly and efficiently remove materials from the waste stream and reuse them in new products. Machinex 50-tonne-per-hour system is designed to sort recycling valuables such as cardboard, metal, wood, aggregates and fines from construction and demolition residue. System includes a vibrating conveyor, a MACH Trommel and two cross-belt magnets. Finally, an air separator removes light materials from heavy ones. The ability to pick wood at multiple sorting stations makes recovery of a large quantity of wood possible and the dense out units are excellent at removing lightweight contaminants and allowing for easy quality control of the heavy fraction.

Mobile Crushers

For demolition work in an inner-city area, there are Rubble Master’s mobile crushers. High-quality recycling material for various applications is produced from C&D waste, concrete residues or asphalt. The crushed material can be used for the substructure of roads, for example, and also for admixture in the new production of concrete or asphalt. Mobile crushers from Rubble Master are used in inner-city areas in particular and enable on-site recycling, helping to save countless truck trips. With electric drives and new digital services, Rubble Master is setting standards for reducing energy and noise, and also for meeting current and future legal requirements.

Autonomous AI-based robotic sorting

Costly and inefficient manual processes and rigid plant set-ups, lack of data on waste and sorting results, and health hazards and injuries for employees are common challenges with C&D waste recycling. The AI-powered ZenRobotics Heavy Picker sorting robot runs unmanned and uninterrupted 24/7. Autonomous operations extend sorting capacity and efficiency with low operating cost. The robot picks multiple high-quality recyclables like wood, plastic, metals and inert materials with up to 6,900 picks per hour and 99% purity. System is flexible to use, easy to install and operate. propertyandbuild.com 67

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Industrial Safety News: June - July 2022

Articles inside

Cutting-edge solutions to handle building waste

Site Safe congratulates 2021 construction health and safety champions

The growing importance of ESG in property

SiteRight – It’s the right fit for your business

Industry leader in soft fall protection on construction sites

How to solve the problem of slumping commercial property values by acting now

Office market strategies changing

Hard work gets results

Money alone will not solve New Zealand’s infrastructure woes

A start to solving our poor record on low carbon cement replacement

New Zealand roading project wins top engineering prize

New dam safety regulations

What you need to know about Covid-19 reinfection

The construction conversations we should be having

Infrastructure strategy cannot wait

Chemical safety relies on meaningful cooperation

How upskilling your staff can future-proof your business

Nurses not monoliths are the backbone healthcare system

Skills shortages require pragmatic response

Why video calls are bad for brainstorming

There is no known safe level of exposure to welding fumes

One thing we all have in common is that we will all age

The great unlearning

Vocational training leader applauds budget