January 6th, 2011



It was time to head back to Auckland but we had to stop at the University of Waikato on our trip back so Dr. Forgey could give a speech on the UTA Sustainability program to an international group of sustainability professors. While Dr. Forgey spoke our group headed over to the Hamilton Gardens to view their sustainable garden attraction.

The garden was a very impressive development and integrated local tribal features with a very diverse collection of plant and crop species. The garden was all self sustainable and used items such as live composting and rainwater collection to maintain its health. The plant beds were all laid out in a very attractive fashion and each planting area was labeled with placards that provided information on what you were looking at. While the sustainable garden didn’t apply directly to my academic area of interest, it did provide a nice morning activity that proved that sustainability doesn’t have to apply to only real estate of construction. There are sustainable actions that you can take in many areas of your life and many of them are not that difficult to undertake.

 



Upon arriving in Auckland we dropped our bags at the hotel and drove in to the town’s central business district to view the “Britomart” development. At Britomart we met with the development manager for Cooper and Company, Sarah Ballyntyne, and the lead construction supervisor. They explained to us that Britomart is actually a collection of 17 buildings that occupy a two block area of the Auckland CBD. It is a complete mixed-use development that incorporates office, retail, residential and transportation space. The specific buildings that we toured were known as the East 1 and 2 buildings and they were new office space that was on the verge of being completed. These buildings were very nicely done and had achieved 4 and 5 star green design ratings from the NZGBC. Some of the green or sustainable elements that they possessed were a rainwater harvesting system, the use of low VOC materials, public / bike transportation facilities and an extensive recycling facility along with some other sustainable design elements. I was very impressed with the buildings and really liked how they built incorporated the public transport system in to the building so workers have an easy alternative to driving in to the office. However, there was one issue that I have with the NZGBC process that was presented by these buildings. While they were designed to a 4 and 5 star level they did not have to be constructed to this level. I think that this is a bad way to handle the green building certification process and believe that if a developer / architect is going to design a building to these levels than they should be required to build the projects to these levels. That being said, they were at least incorporating some sustainable aspects in to the buildings and overall the development was very well done. Hopefully any of the future buildings that go up in the development will be both designed and built as sustainable structures.

Our time in Auckland has come to an end and it has been a real pleasure. Tomorrow we are headed back to the airport and flying down to Queenstown, New Zealand, which is on the South Island and is known as the “Adventure capital of the world.” It should be a blast and I am definitely looking forward to it!