With the Future of Work: What do we know, what do we need to know to transition to zero-carbon construction? project, BRANZ is looking at the skills and competencies required to undertake zero-carbon construction and to gain an understanding of how Aotearoa New Zealand compares internationally. Several key questions will be explored:
- What expertise is needed to deliver zero-carbon buildings?
- Does our industry have this expertise already? If not, why not?
- What is the best way to deliver this knowledge to the sector?
The first stage of the project involved an examination of international evidence.
What zero-carbon skills are needed?
Our examination of the international evidence outlined that, while technical skills are still relevant, there is a great need for soft skills to enable better communication to increase climate change literacy and collaboration within construction projects. The evidence highlighted that zero-carbon targets will be missed unless current weaknesses in the vocational, education and training and qualification structures are addressed or reconfigured to incorporate zero-carbon knowledge.
Our analysis also suggests that our building and construction industry needs to rethink its current practice around design and construction of buildings, which is often fragmented in nature and disaggregated into subtrades’ tasks.
Countries like Belgium often work with centralised in-house teams. Adopting a more interdisciplinary team approach here may support better communication and teamwork to meet zero-carbon goals, especially product delivery, and help us meet our zero-carbon construction goals.
Developing these zero-carbon skills and competencies within industry would improve the way construction teams work together to help meet Aotearoa’s zero-carbon goals and make sure that zero-carbon construction practices are more the norm with the sector.
What is being done globally?
For Aotearoa to understand where it can improve, we also looked at what international initiatives on skills for zero-carbon construction are being carried out We looked at three international case studies – Ireland, UK and Canada. These countries were selected as they have similar regulatory regimes to Aotearoa. More specifically, we looked at each country’s areas of focus, scheme overviews, education delivery and challenges they experienced.
Ireland
The Republic of Ireland has an industry-led approach to the implementation of zero-carbon skills in its workforce. The Irish Green Building Council (IGBC) launched a roadmap in 2022 with the aim of decarbonising Ireland’s construction sector. The key recommendations from the IGBC were to:
- accelerate the National Retrofit Programme
- source new homes from existing underused and vacant properties
- reduce the carbon emissions associated with energy use for new construction and renovations by 50–60%.
The IGBC has established the Digital Academy for the Sustainable Built Environment (DASBE), which is a hub for upskilling, capacity building and education in the Irish construction sector. The IGBC has also partnered with the Limerick Institute of Technology to produce the BUILD UP Skills Advisor app. This free app was designed to enable building professionals and construction workers to identify energy renovation training courses that suit their needs while on the go.
UK
In the UK, industry organisations such as the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) are leading the way in developing zero-carbon skills for the construction sector. Based on a survey by the CITB, most of the UK construction sector (70%) believes it understands what new skills are required to meet carbon emissions targets. Additionally, most respondents (90%) stated they are willing to retrain in zero-carbon construction. Survey responses suggested that the most significant reasons for not decarbonising construction within the UK were a lack of training, lack of funding for training, regulatory changes and lack of appropriate building standards.
The CITB produced a report – Building Skills for Net Zero – that identified the skills and training requirements to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions. The key area that required major effort and investment was increasing the number of retrofit building surveyors, retrofit assessors, retrofit designers and retrofit installers. Due to the large number of traditional and commercial buildings in the UK, retrofitting is a significant skill that needs to be introduced into its workforce.
Canada
Canada has taken a more government-led approach to zero-carbon construction. The evidence for this is seen through Canada’s zero-carbon building standards – some of the world’s first. Canada has a standard for the carbon emissions in both the design of a building and the performance of a building.
The Future Skills Centre, with support from the Canada Green Building Council, launched a project named Workforce 2030: Rapid upskilling for green building. As of April 2023, more than 500 people in the province of Ontario have received training through this programme. Participants are taught real-world skills at a live construction site that gives participants foundational-level understanding and knowledge of what a low-carbon building is.
Next steps
Our examination of what is happening in other jurisdictions highlights that there is much work to be done such as a need to focus on retrofitting and refurbishment and initiatives to support skill development. While other countries may be further ahead in their journey, there is a strong desire in our industry to address this issue.
This BRANZ research project is an important first step and provides Aotearoafirst research into what skills and competencies are required for zero-carbon construction. We are also collaborating with ConCOVE, Waihanga Ara Rau and the Construction Sector Accord to help address this issue.
The next article in this series will outline the results of a nationwide survey into industry knowledge of climate change and the sentiment within industry about participant skills and how they would like to upskill towards zero-carbon construction.