We are excited to announce updated sustainability criteria for the 2025 awards entry process.
The motion was passed at the 2024 AGM to “make mandatory the completion of any awards entry project’s sustainability credentials to be eligible for consideration within the Local and National Awards programmes and that juries use these criteria in consideration”.
The Sustainability Advisory Group has worked hard over the last few months to develop the criteria. International examples such as the RIBA 2030 Climate Challenge and the Australian Institute of Architects’ 2023 Awards Sustainability Checklist were referenced. These have been adapted to the Aotearoa context and named He Korowai Tiaki Protecting Our Futures.
He Korowai Tiaki Protecting Our Futures
He Korowai Tiaki questions have been created to assist 2025 Award jurors to assess how projects demonstrate an ethical approach to architectural practice, minimising environmental impact and enhancing wider interconnected environmental systems through design excellence.
The concept of kaitiakitanga (guardianship) challenges us to care for the natural world and all its living creatures in the search for best-practice approaches to climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution.
The first year of our new criteria will serve as an introduction – the intent is to develop a more robust set of questions and requirements in the following years.
What you need to know:
• To be nominated entrants must complete the sustainability questions to the best of their abilities.
• Responses will not affect the overall eligibility of your project into your primary award category.
• If the applicant does not have the necessary information or data, or it was not factored into the project, the entry will still be considered by the jury.
• The questions provide an opportunity for project teams to reflect on what has been achieved and highlight opportunities for future improvement.
The 2025 New Zealand Architecture Awards entries are open now.
A webinar introducing the sustainability criteria will be held on Monday 16 December at 12pm and will later be available online. During the webinar, Strategic Sustainability Advisor Rachel MacIntyre will be joined by members of the Sustainability Advisory Group to provide insights into why and how criteria have been developed and guidance on how to answer the questions. They will allow time for a Q&A.
Register now.
Why is change important?
If members working in the built environment do not make significant changes to how they design buildings by 2030, the agreed 1.5°C global warming target will not be achieved. More than any other built-environment professionals, architects can positively impact this target by educating clients to produce sustainable buildings. We are at least a decade behind other architecture institutes in our sustainability initiatives, and we must be seen to be equal, if not leaders, on the world stage.