Sustainability at Kāinga Ora
As a landlord and urban developer, we are actively working to reduce our environmental footprint and help create climate resilient homes and communities.
The key ways we are tackling this responsibility are through:
- reducing construction and demolition waste
- improving our climate and hazard data to support investment decisions
- ensuring our homes and communities are resilient to future climate change impacts
Our focus areas
Over a four-year period, the Kāinga Ora Renewable Energy Programme was funded* to install solar panels on as many suitable Kāinga Ora homes as possible, to help make better use of social housing roof space and to reduce energy hardship for tenants.
By early 2025, the programme had successfully installed solar panels on over 630 homes across New Zealand with tenants saving between $350-$1000 on their electricity bills, on average. Our solar panels are installed on homes in Northland, Auckland, Hamilton, Taihape, Wellington, Gisborne, Napier, Hastings, Nelson, Christchurch and Timaru.
The programme has left a legacy on New Zealand’s electricity market, responsible for introducing both a world-leading solar technology and a ground-breaking solar trial to the country.
Solar innovation
- Our ground-breaking multiple trading trial aims to help the electricity sector better meet the future needs of New Zealanders.
- Our complexes with Allume SolShare systems(external link) are the first in New Zealand to benefit from this unique type of solar sharing.
* The Kāinga Ora Renewable Energy Programme was funded between late 2020 - mid-2024 by the Māori and Public Housing Renewable Energy Fund.
Construction and demolition waste makes up 40 - 50% of all waste sent to landfill in New Zealand. As an example, one newly built home creates an average of four tonnes of waste during the construction process.
Kāinga Ora is focused on reducing the amont of waste generated by our development activities. We are looking to relocate or deconstruct older houses rather than demolishing them, wherever possible. We also aim to minimise construction-related waste through more efficient materials use and waste management practices. Working alongside our contractors and industry specialists, we aim to use our scale to help bring about system transformation.
As New Zealand’s climate changes, we know that some of our customers and homes are likely to be impacted by climate change induced events. All our significant projects go through a climate change risk assessment during planning; this includes exposure and vulnerability to flooding, and mitigating actions for all highly rated risks. We’re balancing the need to build at pace, with the need to build wisely.
We are also actively working to improve our environmental data to help mitigate climate risk to our homes, tenants and future investments. This data supports our ongoing development of strategy, policy, governance and operational responses to climate risks, ensuring we can respond quickly and effectively in a weather event.
Read more about how we’re building climate resilient homes and communities
Page updated: 9 May 2025