CONS 7822 Assignment 2

Area of investigation

1.1        Topic title

Carbon Reduction Strategies for Auckland’s Construction Sector

1.2        Introduction

A persistent problem that still plagues every modern-day society currently is carbon emissions with the construction industry being a major contributor to these emissions. Within New Zealand “The construction sector makes up for “20% of New Zealand’s carbon emissions” (Thinkstep anz, 2023). This is a large percentage for just one sector to make up and so the research being conducted will attempt to address this issue by firstly analysing what the primary sources carbon emissions within the construction industry are. Secondly by identifying what current policies are already in place that are trying to reduce carbon emissions within the construction industry. Finally, the research will endeavour to provide a solution to the issue at hand by suggesting new potential sustainable practices and technologies that can help reduce the carbon emissions.

1.3        Research question

How can carbon emissions from Auckland’s construction sector be reduced?

1.4        Sub-questions

• What are the primary sources of carbon emissions in Auckland’s construction sector?

• What policies and industry initiatives currently exist to reduce construction-related emissions?

• What sustainable practices and technologies can be implemented to further reduce carbon emissions?

2.    Research approach(es)

In order to investigate how carbon emissions from Auckland’s construction sector can be reduced this research project will adopt a desktop-based research approach mixing qualitative analysis of industry documents and policy with quantitative data analysis of secondary sources such as publicly available government data records and emissions reports.

This research project will use a desktop study research approach to find various publicly available data which will provide a wide range of already existing data and knowledge related to carbon emissions in the construction industry. Academics such as Dawson (2019) explain that a desktop study is “a non-intrusive method that involves analysing existing information to identify patterns, trends, and gaps relevant to a particular research question.”. This approach would fit perfectly with the research question as it will allow for insight into existing policies that are publicly available and affect the Auckland region such as the Auckland Climate Plan as well as National policies attempting to minimise carbon emissions such as publications from the NZ Emissions Reduction plan and the construction sector accord. On top of this a review of the green building certification schemes will allow for valuable exploration into improvements to current construction practices.

As well as using a desktop research approach, this research question will also focus on using secondary data in a document analysis utilising credible sources such as Stats NZ, EECA and the Auckland Council greenhouse gas inventory. A document analysis using secondary data has a large advantage to other research approaches mainly being that it “allows researchers to investigate new questions using already available data.” Bryman (2016). Using this approach and analysing the documents will allow for trends within the Auckland Construction sector to be identified, the impact of policies on carbon emissions within the Auckland construction sector to observed and for comparisons to be made between different construction materials and their effects on carbon emissions.

3.    Data sources

3.1        Publicly available data

The research project will focus on publicly available data sources to find answers to the research. To organise the sources, the articles and publicly available data will be saved into bookmarked folders that are applicable to each sub question.

3.2        Additional source(s) of data

4.    Research ethics

This research project relies heavy on the use of publicly available secondary data hence carries very little ethical risk, though personal care for data interpretation should be considered as well as the possibility of copyrights within the public data.

Potential Harms and Mitigation Approaches

5.    Research challenges and risks

As this research project is a desktop study utilising secondary data the risks and challenges associated with this project are limited as all information collection has already been done is available publicly. Because most of the raw data collection is done for this project the potential for timeline issues with the research project resulting from non-personal reasons is essentially nullified as all that is left with the data is for it be personally processed which doesn’t require outside input. The main challenge with this project stems from the interpretation of the data, as it is important to not be subjective in its interpretation as this can lead to wrong conclusions being made. To mitigate this, it is important to maintain objectivity in the processing of the data. Other challenges for this project are potential restrictions of the publicly available data which could be mitigated through only accessing easily available public data that does not require any subscriptions. Another challenge to this research project is that the data may be too old to be relevant, the mitigation strategy for this challenge would be to effectively filter the data sets and categorize their relevancy based on the age of the data. Through all these mitigation strategies the research project should have limited challenges in effectively answering the research question.

6.    Project timeline

Project Timeline & Milestones (Aligned with Assessments)

References

Bryman, A. (2016). Social research methods (5th ed.). Oxford University Press. https://ktpu.kpi.ua/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/social-research-methods-alan-bryman.pdf

BRANZ. (2024). Reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the construction industry. https://www.branz.co.nz/sustainable-building/climate-change/reducing-greenhouse-gas-emissions-construction-industry/

Dawson, C. (2019). Introduction to research methods: A practical guide for anyone undertaking a research project (5th ed.). How To Books. https://archive.org/details/introductiontore0000daws

Deloitte. (2023). Constructing New Zealand’s low-carbon economy. https://www.deloitte.com/nz/en/services/consulting-financial/perspectives/constructing-new-zealands-low-carbon-economy.html

Inframanage. (2025). New Zealand’s drive toward low-carbon buildings and sustainability. https://inframanage.com/new-zealands-drive-toward-low-carbon-buildings-and-sustainability/

Knowledge Auckland. (2024, October). Auckland’s greenhouse gas inventory to 2021. https://www.knowledgeauckland.org.nz/publications/aucklands-greenhouse-gas-inventory-to-2021/

MBIE. (2024). Building for climate change. Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment. https://www.building.govt.nz/getting-started/climate-change-work-programme/emissions-reduction/

Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment. (2021). Building for climate change: Summary report. https://www.building.govt.nz/assets/Uploads/getting-started/building-for-climate-change/building-for-climate-change-summary-report.pdf

NZIA. (2024). ERP2 recommendations for reducing construction emissions. New Zealand Institute of Architects. https://nzia.co.nz/media/jmtizeoq/20240824_tkwnz-institute-of-architects_erp2_recommendations-v-1.pdf

One Click LCA. (2024). Mandatory carbon counting for New Zealand construction. https://oneclicklca.com/en/resources/articles/new-zealand-2025-mandatory-carbon-counting-what-it-means-for-embodied-carbon-in-construction

Sustainable Living NZ. (2024). ETS and sector strategies. https://sustainableliving.org.nz/sector-strategies-to-cut-carbon-emissions-in-new-zealand/

Thinkstep ANZ. (2023, May 10). New embodied carbon calculator for New Zealand. https://www.thinkstep-anz.com/resrc/news/new-embodied-carbon-calculator-for-new-zealand/

Wang, Y., Zhang, X., & Brown, M. (2023). Embodied carbon in commercial buildings: A systematic review. Energies, 16(11), 2629. https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/17/11/2629

Appendices

Appendix A – data collection framework for publicly available data

Appendix B – data collection framework for other data types

Appendix C – ethics application form and relevant supporting forms (information sheet, consent form, access to data form, access to site form)