Green body 'will transform building'

Patrick Fontein

Property development is about to change radically, as aspects of design and building in commercial and residential sectors are influenced by environmental issues, according to a new industry chief.

Patrick Fontein, just appointed chairman of the new Green Building Council, is predicting a radical change for the sector.

"Green building council initiatives are very strong in Australia and being driven by tenant demand from companies focused on triple bottom line reporting standards. Large corporates are having to report to their shareholders on their environmental responsibility and this will have a dramatic impact on property here quite quickly," Fontein said.

Fontein, head of developer Kensington Properties which has large residential projects at Orewa and Taupo, is on Auckland City's urban design panel and is a former Property Council Auckland president.

He is planning to apply environmental standards to his new residential projects. "There are also strong applications of good environmental design in large residential projects and we are incorporating a number of these into our new master-planned projects at Orewa and Taupo," he said.

The Green Building Council board met for the first time last Friday. Graeme Findlay of Warren and Mahoney is deputy chairman and committees have been formed.

"We have set the agenda for setting our strategy policy framework and priorities. We aim to complete this within six to eight weeks " Fontein said.