Andrew Eagles

Andrew Eagles, chief executive of the New Zealand Green Building Council, joins Andy to demystify Green Star (commercial) and Homestar (residential) ratings and to make the business case for building better. He argues the "green is expensive and elite" perception is a myth, Homestar can add as little as 2-3K to a house build, with Infometrics showing payback inside three years and $60-100K of lifetime savings, while banks now reward green assets with sales premiums (3-9%), rental premiums (3-6.7%) and cheap green finance (ANZ 1% up to $80K, Westpac 0% up to $50K on home upgrades). The conversation then turns to New Zealand's energy crisis: domestic gas is running out fast, 50% of large gas users have cut jobs, shut or postponed (over $5B GDP impact), and Eagles' pitch is to electrify homes and buildings (heat pumps) to free up ~40% of gas for the industry that genuinely needs it, saving families ~$1.5B a year. Andy and Andrew explore automating embodied-carbon and construction-waste calculation straight from the 3D model at building-consent stage, sustainable data-centre certification and waste-heat reuse, and close on leadership lessons Andrew draws from coaching his son's football team (facilitation over instruction).

Key Topics Discussed

• Green Star vs Homestar. Green Star is the standard for non-residential buildings (offices, retail, commercial); Homestar is the residential standard. Both measure roughly the same things (energy, water heating, waste) with commercial placing more weight on HVAC.
• What the ratings measure. waste to landfill (per m² of built-up area), air quality / fresh air (beyond building-code minimums), energy efficiency (carbon per kWh, getting off fossil fuels), embodied carbon, acoustics, thermal comfort, and daylight modelling.
• Embodied carbon. pollution from making materials (brick, steel, glass); 9% of NZ's carbon emissions. Calculated by pushing QS quantities into a calculator; databases exist but can't always account for material source/transport.
• The "green is expensive" myth. Homestar often under 10K, sometimes 2-3K extra on a $300-700K build (1-2% uplift). Infometrics: payback within 3 years, $60-100K lifetime savings. Christchurch developer example: green lending saved $40K/house against a 9-10K cost = ~$30K/house net, $150K over five homes.
• Green finance / TCFD. banks offer sales premium (3-9%, JLL research), rental premium (3-6.7%), and lower-interest lending on green assets, driven by the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures. Low-interest home top-up loans: ANZ 1% up to $80K, Westpac 0% up to $50K, BNZ/ASB similar.
• Consumer tools. Home Fit (free app, pass/fail + improvement recommendations for existing homes), NABERSNZ (energy-efficiency assessment for existing buildings, four new typologies just launched with Minister Chris Penk).
• NZ energy / gas crisis. steep cliff in domestic gas supply; 50% of large gas users have fired staff, shut or postponed; >$5B GDP hit. 15% of NZ gas and 23% of electricity is used in buildings/homes. Electrifying homes could free ~40% of gas for industry and save families ~$1.5B/year.
• Electrification transition. plumbers and designers still installing gas; cultural preferences (Andy notes Indian/Chinese communities favour gas cooking); Sydney's residential gas ban (Dec) with an electrify-later option for restaurants; EECA research on gas-cooking indoor pollutants.
• Data centres. potential sustainable data-centre certification model and waste-heat reuse (UK example: a data centre heating a 120-staff housing-association office 50m away). Follows Andy's Ep 87 conversation on data-centre power demand.
• Automating carbon & waste. calculate embodied carbon and construction waste from the 3D model at consent stage, tagging materials with "data frames" to auto-derive waste quantities.
• Leadership from coaching. facilitation over telling; asking "what's going well / what could we improve" gets more buy-in from kids (and site teams) than instructing.

Notable Quotes

• "Without data, you're just a person with an opinion.", Andy (his website tagline; also invoked by Tim Porter in Ep 86)
• "We can electrify 100%. Then we can free that gas up for manufacturers and industrial processes, the industries that actually genuinely need it.", Andrew Eagles
• "He grows tomatoes and cucumbers and he was saying he couldn't access gas at the price he needed... He said, '3,000 homes worth of gas.' And in the last year, we've actually connected up 3,000 homes to the gas network. There didn't need to be.", Andrew Eagles
• "It's not provide options... you're not just cutting people off from what they're used to.", Andy, on Sydney's electrify-later restaurant rule
• "The skill I've had to learn the most: how to shut the [...] up and listen to another person.", Andy

Guest Background

Andrew Eagles grew up in Taranaki (rendered "Tanaki" in the auto-transcript), studied English and economics in the South Island, and worked as a government official in Wellington before spending 13 years in the UK, working across construction and property for government, overseeing the quality of new-build (largely affordable) homes around London, and time at a startup. He returned to New Zealand wanting to raise his children here and to contribute to healthier, more energy-efficient buildings. He is now chief executive of the New Zealand Green Building Council, where he sets strategic direction with the board, fronts media, and manages key clients such as listed property entities. He coaches his son's football team (since the boy was five or six).