Features & Current Events

How are cities responding to extreme weather?
Weather events are becoming more unpredictable, more intense and more damaging, posing huge challenges in both preparing for and recovering from their growing impact, says Jeremy Kelly, Global Director of Cities Research at JLL
From extreme heat across southern Europe to the heaviest rainfall on record in Shenzhen and Hong Kong, to flooding in Brazil and cyclones devastating parts of southern Africa, cities face unprecedented physical risks. Continue →

New caretaker for communications infrastructure
Chorus has appointed Programmed to manage and maintain the integrity of buildings and infrastructure services that support New Zealand’s critical communications network
Programmed has won a competitive bid to maintain Chorus’ property portfolio across 2,600 sites in a potential eight year, multi-million-dollar contract. Continue →

The construction employers shaping the sector’s future
BCITO has announced the winners of the 2024 Building Leaders Awards, celebrating outstanding BCITO employers in the trades who are helping build the future leaders of tomorrow’s construction sector. Continue →

Why EVs are actually driving up emissions globally
A study of 26 countries using data over 15 years has found a link between EV uptake and increased CO2 emissions, though New Zealand is an outlier for one important reason
Conducted by researchers from the University of Auckland and Xiamen University in China, the study analysed the environmental impacts of human activity and used a robust statistical approach to investigate what drives a nation’s carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions. Continue →

How emissions dropped across every sector
New Zealand reduced its gross greenhouse gas emissions by 2 per cent in 2023, the Ministry for the Environment has revealed, with drops in every sector, but has it come at a cost? Continue →

What councils need most in 2025
Councils across the country had some of their most challenging conversations around the table last year, as they balance the need to protect ratepayer’s long-term interests with the financial sustainability of councils, Local Government New Zealand (LGNZ) President Sam Broughton writes
Looking ahead to 2025, we all know the long list of actions that central government is asking of local government. Continue →

Work-based learning to become industry-led
Industry representatives are pleased vocational education and training providers will be given more control over their own programmes, rather than taking direction from a ‘centralised behemoth’
Beginning next year, the Government will introduce a new, independent, and industry-led model for work-based learning, Vocational Education Minister Penny Simmonds says. Continue →

Cheaper public transport sees drop in car use
50 cent flat fares have been made permanent for urban public transport networks state-wide in Queensland, Australia – Adventures in Transitland’s Darren Davis explores the impact and notably how parking providers have responded
Queensland launched 50 cent flat fares across all urban bus networks in the state in August 2024 (including free transfers), initially as a cost of living relief measure implemented in the lead-up to the October 26 2024 state election. Continue →

Region plagued with water restrictions investigates massive dam
A bid to build a dam in the shadow of the failed Ruataniwha dam in Central Hawke’s Bay has been given a $3 million injection from the Government
By Linda Hall, Local Democracy Reporter
The money will be used to find out if the massive project to store water on the Makaroro River is viable – commercially, environmentally and technically. Continue →