Green Property Summit 2011

Last month a number of us attended the Green Property Summit in Auckland (for which S&T were sponsors). Speakers included Anthony Malkin – owner of THE Empire State Building no less as well as a multitude of very well informed and forward thinking academics, practitioners and investors. The ESB (yes they do shorten such a fabulous landmark!) green message was “forget Green for green’s sake – just do energy efficiency really really well and the economic payback will make you happy and if it avoids some environmental impacts then give yourself a pat on the back” (my interpretation!). Perhaps a truly capitalistic view of the world...

Other speakers took us on a journey from which I distilled a new green theme. Green buildings are old hat, run of the mill, base line only. Green communities is where it is at – ie groups of green buildings, shared services, co-operative design and living. Green cities is where it’s going (check out Sydney). The good news for the planet is that it’s then not so hard to see green nations and ultimately a green globe.

Thankfully the capitalistic view doesn’t preclude this momentum which now seems to be gathering tangible pace.

So we need to think bigger while still ensuring the individual project is always at the leading edge. Talking about leading edge – S&T are a sponsor of the Meridian First Light entry in the US Department of Energy solar decathlon. The house is being assembled today on Frank Kitts Park in Wellington and will be open to the public the week after next. We’ll have a small stand there so come on down on Sunday 8 May 10-5pm. Our contribution through Michael Warwick as mentor and advisor to the VUW student team has been in the electrical and ESD engineering space – great work Michael! This thing is awesome.