“The New Zealand Government signed up to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2015,” says Architect, Independent Green Star Professional, and SDG Consultant, Carolyn Savage, “but most people in New Zealand still have no real understanding of what they are.”

As a Green Star-Accredited professional and sustainability advisor, Carolyn’s job is to support building industry professionals, and others, to better incorporate SDG principles into their work. “My skill is bringing in dashboards and showing people how they can monitor and report on sustainability through the lens of SDG priorities like sustainable cities and communities, responsible consumption and production, life on land, and life under water,” she says. “I can look at the sustainability requirements of a project through the whole build process and provide tailored training for the business from senior management right through to the team on site.”

Carolyn is a trained architect whose involvement in sustainable design dates back to the 1990s when she completed a Master’s focussing specifically on this discipline. She had designed a new arts and culture centre to be a fully sustainable building, with solar energy to offset energy supplies to neighbouring communities and water collection for use in all facilities on the site. “While I was studying at Auckland University, I became a student representative for the New Zealand Institute of Architects and then was Environmental Chair on and off over 10 years. In 2022, I undertook the Massey University Masters in Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), with a focus on business and sustainability. This was the first of its kind in Australasia and was endorsed by Helen Clarke.”

Since then, Carolyn has been bringing her sustainability expertise to the global stage.

Carolyn spoke at the following events:  8th International Conference on Energy and Environment of Residential Buildings (ICEERB) Housing Sustainability in Urban Areas when hosted in New Zealand for the first time in 2018, at the New Zealand Permanent Mission New York in 2019 on SDG 11 Sustainable Cities and Communities. In 2023 she spoke at the SDG Summit, in the plenary session Design and Construction hosted by the University of Waikato and the BPW Asia-Pacific Young BPW Symposium, Taiwan, on Architecture and the SDGs 2023.

Carolyn says " I recently spoke at a high-level panel in Bahrain on the SDGs, what we’re achieving in the Asia Pacific region, and the areas where we’re moving in the wrong direction.  I’ve been working remotely with the Ontario region in Canada and, earlier this year, I spoke in New York about SDGs in entrepreneurship and how that looks for women in business, plus bullying in the workplace and how the SDGs on inequality, health and well-being, and human sustainability are not being achieved in New Zealand.”

This education and advisory work goes far beyond materials and methodologies, Carolyn says, with a holistic approach that also examines sustainable workforces and communities. “If you look at the three key pillars of environmental sustainability, governance, a major investment we need to make in design and construction is in that human value.

This means not only making sure our people are trained but also making sure that they are safe in what they’re doing and how they’re treated. We also need to be looking at how we work on a site and how we can have the least impact. We should be exploring things like how families can grow food on land where all the topsoil has been scraped away, or how residents in higher-density neighbourhoods can connect with green space. We can’t leave it to landscape architects to create outdoor living spaces. We are the ones who are responsible for educating clients on how they can use a site well, both for the natural environment and for the people occupying it.”

Throughout her career, Carolyn has applied these principles in projects across her professional architectural practice. “I once designed a house that was 51% wood shavings from the local timber mill, repurposed into concrete blocks. It was weather-tight, fire-rated and earthquake-proof with its own wastewater treatment and solar-powered hot water. It performed so well that the children eventually bought it from their mum so they could keep it in the family for future generations. I also designed a totally self-reliant house in Lake Rotoiti for a client who wanted solar-powered hot water for a swimming pool and underfloor heating in the garage, and I worked on a big marae project to create a whole new stormwater, wastewater and potable water system. I’ve always pushed builders and developers to prioritise sustainability. Every design I’ve ever done has focused on what I can do in a specific environment to give the client the best possible outcome.”

To apply the SDGs successfully, individuals, businesses and governments need to work in partnership, Carolyn says, and to collaborate on all the aspects where they overlap and interconnect. “The Green Building Council, the Government and anyone working in the sustainability space needs to be working together to meet and report on the SDGs. Many in the New Zealand building industry are capturing the data but often not the method behind it; they’re not looking at that next level of information. Even the people doing good work in this space haven’t woven in the necessary understanding around the work that they’re doing and, as a result, they can’t always see the bigger picture.”

We have an obligation as a country to support our small and medium enterprises to meet and report on the SDGs, Carolyn says. “We don’t meet the Paris Agreement and we are definitely off-track to meet the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. One critical way we can push the needle in the right direction is to better capture the good work that New Zealand businesses are already doing. This is exactly what I do.

“In my advisory work, I have written documents such as Green Star Achievement Plans and contributed to high-profile reports including The People’s Report on the 2030 Agenda and Sustainable Development Goals for New Zealand. With these reporting skills and my architectural background, I can come into a company, review drawings, provide mentorship, give an overview of circular economy and ‘cradle-to-grave’ methodologies, and identify the work they’re doing that aligns with the SDGs but isn’t being reported on. I can then design a customised dashboard with targets such as health and wellbeing and waste management and set realistic goals to achieve these over an agreed period. Those reports can then be captured and promoted externally on the business’ website to share their good work.”

Carolyn is presenting at an upcoming Teulo Talks event where she will showcase how the design and construction industry can better adopt and demonstrate sustainability principles. “I will talk participants through how they can put SDGs into practice; I will provide examples of this by showing businesses that are already doing it well. In particular, I will be highlighting how Fletcher Building and Auckland Waste Management are reporting their successes and opportunities in the SDG space.

“As an industry, we’re all still focused on low-carbon, but I am committed to demonstrating the next level of what can be achieved. We need to take the global sustainability perspective and lessons and make them local.”

To learn more and connect with Carolyn, visit her LinkedIn, register for her upcoming Teulo Talks session, or email her at carolyn.savage@sa-pc.org.nz to learn how she can support you on your SDG journey.