Listen to the learner

By - , Build 167

A long-time educator, Nelson Lebo, the Eco Design Advisor (EDA) at Palmerston North City Council (PNCC), believes Eco Design Service clients should be understood as learners that need individual specifically tailored advice.

Q. What was your background before taking up the position at PNCC?

My pathway to the building industry is very different than most. I spent 14 years as a high school science and environmental studies teacher in the United States, taking students on hundreds of field trips. Many were to visit people living in passive solar homes or to see experts in solar power, wind turbines or micro-hydro systems.

I have also renovated two older homes and spent 4 years doing PhD research at Waikato in science and sustainability education in New Zealand schools before joining PNCC in 2014.

Q. How does the Eco Design Service function — for example, who can use it and in what locations?

Eco Design Advisors offer free, independent advice on building, renovating, retrofitting and any aspect of maintaining a comfortable, healthy and energy-efficient home. The service is available in Auckland, Hamilton, Palmerston North, Kapiti Coast, Hutt City, Nelson, Christchurch and Dunedin. It’s available to anyone, from the general public to architects and builders. Recently, we’ve been getting lots of calls from landlords and tenants.

Q. Are homeowners increasingly interested in the idea of a sustainable energy-efficient home?

I think what most of our clients want is affordable comfort – in other words, having a warm and dry home with low running costs. That’s why I say the service should actually be called Good Design Advisor rather than Eco Design Advisor. Anything else is simply bad design.

Q. Did last summer, which was particularly hot, have an impact?

It helped broaden everyone’s perspective on just what is a well designed home, to one that is cool in summer along with warm in winter.

The heatwave also provided ample opportunity for me to promote the EDA service and the common sense approaches we advocate through the national media on television and radio as well as print and the internet.

Q. What basic steps can be taken to make a home warm and energy efficient?

The steps usually involve reducing moisture at its source, targeted ventilation, improving the thermal envelope, choosing an energy-efficient heater and hot water system and installing flow restrictors on taps and showers. I even advise clients on drought-proof landscaping, although I don’t think other EDAs do.

Q. You’ve said there needs to be an increase in the uptake of local council Eco Design Services. How could this be achieved?

The barrow I’ve been pushing is that the green building community in New Zealand has been focusing on the wrong things and that’s contributing to low uptake. We’re punching below our weight by failing to deliver our messages in the most effective ways.

‘It’s not about the building’ is the catch phrase I use. By not putting the client – I use the term ‘learner’ – at the centre of our focus, we’ll never maximise the uptake of people spending on the up-specs we recommend.

You could be the best eco-architect in the world, but if you don’t make a genuine effort to understand your clients as learners, then much of your advice won’t be enacted. The amount of wisdom conveyed matters less than the actions ultimately taken by clients.

My approach is to understand the learner first and then deliver my advice in a way specifically tailored to them. The way to gain converts to the green building movement (including builders) is to cultivate empowered learners confident in their new knowledge – one learner at a time. Otherwise, we’re spinning our wheels.

Q. What is your involvement in the NZGBC’s HomeFit initiative?

HomeFit is an assessment tool that fills a vacant niche in our ecosystem. It ranks existing homes by a set of criteria and awards HomeFit status to those that accumulate enough points. The HomeFit approach works for some clients and particularly in certain parts of the country.

In the same way that no technology will ever be better than quality face-to-face education in schools, nothing can improve on human-to-human adult education. I see HomeFit as a supplement to the existing programmes across the country.

Q. A final word?

This is a massive paradigm shift for New Zealand’s green building movement. It’s not enough to know a lot about eco design. Everyone in the movement must also get better at education design. Like it or not, we’re all educators.

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