Auckland, NZ...Let the journey begin with Stanley Construction!

Upon arriving into Auckland from Melbourne (sorry for not blogging that part folks!), Dr. Forgey set the tone straight with an early morning appointment (courtesy of Mr. Martini's YPO network, once again!)

Stanley Construction was our first stop, where we met with Business Development Manager, Gary Caulfield. He gave us a run down on the firm, and it turns out that it is a 87 year old firm, with multiple business units: Construction, Joinery, Eco-Build, & Modular. The origins trace back to a town outside of Auckland called "Mata Mata."

Gary gave us the scoop on construction in New Zealand by first touching on framing practices from 1983 to 2006. Many problems have risen in residential and commercial buildings built during that time period, as most builders used "untreated" timber, leading to a nationwide epidemic dubbed the "leaky building sydrome." A whopping 99% of construction overall was and is still done with wood, and when it is untreated, one can imagine what types of problems can arise. The wood would naturally rot, and if not, termites easily feasted away, resulting in brand new buildings collapsing. He went through a PowerPoint presentation detailing a few projects they have worked on to restore buildings that have suffered from this issue, one that is costing the New Zealand Government and involved parties somewhere between $12-$22 billion NZD! Private sector developers have to cover 25% of the cost, with another 25% being picked up by the Govt., leaving the remainder 50% to an interest free federal loan to builders! Talk about sweet deal for this BAILOUT. Lawyers in particular did not like this, as this was eating into their profits from litigation earnings. A few of the projects that he touched on were the Waiheke Island Resort & a Ski Resort nearby.

Gary was very helpful and well versed with the NZ Green Building Council's practices, and went into detail about his grass roots involvement from the early days. They went from zero to 300 members in under 1 year! Ironic enough, this "green" fellow's wife is spearheading inspections for Green Star rating awards. They work hand in hand with The University of Auckland to further enhance the rating tools for the Council, which originally took much of the fundamental structure from Australia's Green Building Council.