The Green Party’s focus is on building a smarter, greener economy, and we believe the construction industry has an important part to play.

A smarter, greener economy is about getting more value from our natural resources using high-tech manufacturing and innovative techniques. Just producing basic commodities and shipping them overseas produces relatively little wealth, few jobs, and the only way to earn more is to produce more, which puts pressure on our environment. When we move our production up the value chain, we get more wealth without increasing our impact on the environment, and we create more well-paid jobs.

The current government’s approach is the opposite of smarter and greener. Under National, we have seen the economy become less diverse and less sophisticated. Our exports of basic commodities have risen but our exports of value-added products, where the real money is to be made, have fallen. Since the current government came to power, 40,000 manufacturing jobs have been lost, and there is no sign of recovery.

Our wood industry is a prime example of the current problem, and the opportunities we have to build prosperity. Under the current government, exports of raw logs have surged while exports of manufactured wood products have plunged. The local sawmilling and wood manufacturing industry has lost 4,000 jobs. This is not a smart way to run our economy.

Forestry can play a central part of a smarter, greener, more resilient economy. Rather than sending increasing amounts of low value-added raw logs overseas, the Green Party will encourage new technologies to be developed - such as structural timber - that will add value to our wood production and create good green jobs in New Zealand. An example of what I’m talking about is my recent announcement that, in government, the Greens will create a $1 million award to encourage the wider uptake of structural timber in the construction sector. Structural timber is a relatively new construction technique for tall buildings. It uses wood materials including cross-laminated timber, laminated veneer lumber, and glued laminated timber in place of the concrete and steel that are typically used for the load-bearing elements of high-rise buildings. The world’s tallest structural timber building is a 10-storey apartment complex in Melbourne.

Widespread adoption of structural timber in the building industry has the potential to substantially reduce the climate change impact of our building industry. Timber buildings effectively become carbon sinks. Additionally, structural timber can make our buildings lighter, stronger, and safer in an earthquake.  After extensive testing in University of Canterbury engineering laboratories, the world’s first multi-storied post-tensioned timber building was constructed at the Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology in 2007.

Ten similar multi-storey buildings have since been built in New Zealand with structural timber, the tallest being the six-storey St Elmo Courts building currently under construction in Christchurch. This building will be built to 180 per cent of the earthquake building code.The University of Canterbury has led research in the area of structural timber and developed some valuable intellectual property. However, the barrier to widespread adoption of the technology for taller buildings is unfamiliarity with the new technology by designers and architects. A simple cash incentive to complete the first tall structural timber building in New Zealand will help speed up the necessary development of experience and skill in the building industry, providing a proof of concept to potential developers.

The government will ask for expressions of interest and choose the winning design from the applications. The award will assist the winning team with design and construction costs.

The Structural Timber Award is just one small element of our forestry and construction policies but it shows where the Greens are coming from. We’re focused on ideas that produce more value for less environmental impact; creating good jobs for New Zealanders that make the most of our resources.