Nearly 50% of all landfill waste in New Zealand comes from construction and demolition.

Sustainable construction doesn’t stop with increasing insulation and thermal comfort but considers the complete life cycle of a building and its use. The benefits for construction projects that use existing buildings are now becoming apparent as we move towards a circular economy and carbon zero construction industry.

It’s not just their character that make heritage buildings worth developing. Refurbished buildings have only half the embodied carbon compared to a new build project. Restoration, refurbishment and adaptive re-use is preferable to demolition or new construction as a method of minimising construction-based carbon emissions.

Origin Heritage is committed to promoting the restoration, adaptive re-use, and zero-carbon refurbishment of Aotearoa’s historic buildings as a powerful tool in the battle against waste reduction and climate change.