8 | BUSINESS Sustainable Business Network Awards - Piritahi Alliance Collaboration benefits communities Karen Phelps Neighbourhoods that the Piritahi Alliance is working on in planning and development include Mangere West. The Piritahi Alliance is a great example of how collaboration can change lives and communities, says Piritahi early works operations manager Hugh McLaughlin. Piritahi, which means ‘to be together’, was formed in late 2018 to deliver infrastructure for land and housing that communities need. This saw design companies, Harrison Grierson (survey, design, consenting), Tonkin + Taylor (environmental and engineering) and Woods (engineering, surveying, planning), joined by constructors and civil work specialists Dempsey Wood and Hick Bros Group. Kāinga Ora – Homes and Communities is the owner-participant of the Alliance and its only client. Hugh says the Alliance collaboration has brought many benefits including shared risk for economic sustainability, procurement gains through aggregation and leveraging the extensive pipeline of work to stimulate innovation with supply partners. An in-house innovation hub, seeking initiatives that can demonstratively economise on time and money, recorded a saving of $2million from the last financial year alone. Based in Tāmaki Makaurau the works undertaken by the Alliance are part of the largest urban regeneration programme in New Zealand history led by the Kāinga Ora Urban Development Delivery (UDD) team. Piritahi is responsible for delivering the horizontal infrastructure for large-scale projects across Auckland, providing an important opportunity to improve and increase amenity, public space, and vital infrastructure works. Responsibilities include site investigations, detailed civil design and construction, the removal of old state houses, land remediation, arranging resource consents, creation of new land titles and the construction of infrastructure. Hugh says that Piritahi also presents broader opportunities including smart procurement negotiations, which allow manufacturing suppliers to invest in their own innovation pipelines with a guaranteed return-on-investment through large-scale, long-term contracts. He says the benefits of this innovation will be felt industry wide. Neighbourhoods that the Alliance is working on in planning and development are Aorere, Māngere East, Māngere West, Tāmaki (Glen Innes, Pt. England, Panmure), Roskill South, Ōwairaka, Wāikōwhai, Wesley, Oranga, Northcote and Catalina Bay (Hobsonville). “Collectively, these developments will be generating tens of thousands of market, affordable and social houses for Tāmaki Makaurau, something that Piritahi and its partners are proud to be part of,” says Hugh. He says that Piritahi focuses on continuous improvement within its business, with a major goal to improve construction sector practices including health, safety and wellbeing, sustainability and environmental outcomes and productivity. “Social outcomes are prioritised by looking after the communities we work in, creating workplace opportunities and jobs and upskilling our workforce all while partnering with mana whenua to ensure we are meeting Kāinga Ora obligations to Māori,” explains Hugh. The Alliance is also involved with organisations that support the creation of jobs and future potential for youth, including the Kāinga Ora Construction Plus programme There has also been a general investment by the Alliance in innovation around training, which has included simulator technology and online Talent Learning Management Systems (Talent LMS) to monitor and grow competencies of onsite teams, underpinned by a significant health and safety focus. “By increasing competencies off-site this generates cost efficiencies by shifting training off-site the result is less disruption to our programme works,” explains Hugh. Environmental outcomes have been another big focus. Hugh says that it is well recognized that construction waste is the biggest contributor to landfill in New Zealand. With 7000 state homes in Auckland needing to be removed for new housing, Hugh says that the Alliance’s Housing Removal Programme is blazing the trail, exceeding the “Collectively, these developments will be generating tens of thousands of market, affordable and social houses for Tāmaki Makaurau, something that Piritahi and its partners are proud to be part of.” Kāinga Ora 7% house relocation target by more than four times (31% achieved FY21), while achieving 87% (FY21) diversion from landfill from demolished houses, also well above the 80% target. From July 2020 to April 2021, Piritahi diverted more than 10,000 tonnes of construction waste from landfill – recycling core materials and contributing to the circular economy. “We need to do more as a country to reduce materials sent to landfill. This demonstrates that Piritahi and Kāinga Ora are leading from the front.” The House Removal Programme also helps facilitate transitional housing for Kāinga Ora, while working with social enterprise, Ara, that provides training and apprenticeships to South Auckland secondary schools’ gateway programmes. The difference the Alliance has made to lives and communities is palpable, says Hugh: in three years Piritahi has handed over 140 super lots to Kāinga Ora, which has enabled the construction of 2,150 new homes in Tāmaki Makaurau. The Alliance received a commendation in the 2021 Sustainable Business Network awards in the Outstanding Collaboration category. It is also finalist in a spate of other awards including the 2022 IPWEA Awards and The Property People Awards 2021. “Piritahi is achieving its core purpose, of delivering infrastructure for land and housing that communities need. “It’s a great feeling to be making such a very real difference in the lives of Aucklanders and creating benefits that will be felt industry wide in the process.”
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NDc2Mzg=