Tessa Meyer, a corporate responsibility advisor at Auckland Council’s development arm Panuku Development Auckland, has been named the 2020 Future Thinker of the Year.

Now in its second year, the Future Thinker of the Year is awarded to a student or young professional who demonstrates environmental knowledge and leadership and recognises success and passion for greener, better buildings.

Meyer leads sustainability solutions across a variety of Panuku projects, designed to directly contribute to Auckland’s transition to a climate-resilient, healthy and low carbon city. She led the first Green Star – Communities ratings in Aotearoa and Panuku’s world-first volume certification.

Along with working on an economic analysis tool to incorporate social, environmental and economic benefits in holistic decision-making regarding community investments and urban development, she has been involved in waste minimisation projects, including a zero-waste town centre strategy and piloting construction waste management targets. Recently, she has successfully completed Panuku’s Toitū Envirocare Carbonreduce certification with a base-year emissions inventory and management plan and she also leads internal behaviour change campaigns at Panuku.

Meyer says the award will give her a chance to contribute to the green building industry and help grow the movement at a critical time. “I’ve got a lot of admiration and respect for the other finalists and the leadership they’re showing in their respective areas’: she adds. “I’m excited to work with them, our wider cohort and NZGBC to promote the programme for our young professionals and students.”

This year’s finalists included PhD candidate at the Victoria University of Wellington School of Architecture Ged Finch, University of Auckland civil engineering student Hannah Wu and graduate building services engineer at WSP Rochelle Kirby.

The award, sponsored by Bayleys Real Estate and Mott MacDonald, forms part of a calendar of events put on by the New Zealand Green Building Council’s Future Thinkers network.

While plans for an awards evening at AUT involving presentations by the four finalists were cancelled due to COVID-19, the process was taken online and the six judges (Lloyd Budd, Warner Brunton, Andrea Davison, Te Ari Prendergast, Jennifer Whittle and Kate Boylan) had the chance to speak and ask questions directly over a recorded conference call.

That was then streamed as part of the live announcement of the winner.

After their discussion, which included ideas for what the Government should be investing in during the COVID-19 recovery and reflections on the built environment in isolation, the judges announced Meyer as this year’s winner.

Judge and 2019 Future Thinker of the Year Kate Boylan said the judges really appreciated Meyer’s attention to the social and cultural aspects of sustainability. “We also liked that Tessa mentioned building the confidence of young people in our industry, which is exactly what we’d like to achieve.”

New Zealand Green Building Council chief executive Andrew Eagles said the enthusiasm shown throughout the awards for healthy low carbon buildings was a huge positive for the future of construction and development in Aotearoa.

“It’s great to see so many bright minds entering the industry and championing green building,” says Eagles. “We need to embrace and nurture our future thinkers as we transition to low carbon healthy homes and buildings. There’s passion there and bright ideas.

“We’re thrilled to provide a platform for them to collaborate, learn, and push for a better Aotearoa. Tessa will be a brilliant Future Thinker of the Year and we look forward to working with her.”