Well that got away from us. We know you are reading this wondering why you monthly V-Quest update didn’t appear, right? July has been a busy month for us here and we’ve missed our Newsletter commitment by a week. It’ll be worth the wait though.
We keep pushing forward despite obvious set backs from the New Zealand Government.
COLLABORATION
Last month we announced there was an exciting collaboration in the works. We can officially announce that V-Quest has secured one of eight places on the Trimble Inc. Trimble 0-60 Challenge, US accelerator. We were picked from over 1,000 applicants world wide and made it to the last eight.
Trimble Ventures have seen the potential that V-Quest has and the impact we can have on the US market and will collaborate with us, helping leverage their worldwide expertise, customer base and investment networks. This is huge for us. We have always had a global scale mindset, solving a global problem but this is both the recognition and opportunity to speed this up.
The US market is huge and its carbon emission legislation is advancing quicker than any other region of the world. There are currently 3 states that have live carbon measurement and reduction standards, California, New York State and Washington State. There are a further four that have pending legislation, North Carolina, Oregon, Illinois and Colorado.
We get to take part in a 12 week accelerator program, preparing us for a US entry, which culminates in V-Quest presenting at the Trimble Dimensions global conference in Las Vegas, Nevada in November.
If you are an investor and are interested in being a part of this opportunity and helping us scale into this market, please get in touch.
SUPERHOMES TOURS
On Saturday 20th of July V-Quest was present at the Superhomes Movement Tour. The Superhome Movement Charitable Trust is a non-profit, group creating transformative change in the New Zealand building industry through education, supporting good business & lobbying for change.
Our Co-founder Barry, spoke at the 10 Balmoral Lane, Christchurch Home. A ground breaking home in Christchurch, using high performance envelope and CLT and LVL structural framing. He spoke on the basics of what carbon is, why its important to reduce it and how we can make little changes our new houses to reduce both embodied and operation carbon.
NZ NATIONAL CARBON RESOURCE
Last week the New Zealand Institute of Architects, BRANZ, and Masterspec announced that they are developing a free online resource with carbon data for construction materials to help reduce the carbon footprint of buildings. Supported by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, this initiative aims to aid the industry in making environmentally responsible decisions and supports New Zealand's zero-carbon targets.
GLOBAL CLIMATE NEWS
It was a tough month in New Zealand, where V-Quest is based. Our new government seems to be weakening its climate response resolve, potentially rolling back some great building standard advances we have made in the last few years. With 98% of the industry against this roll back, it seems bonkers.
Some other news stories that tweaked our interest from around the world in July:
- Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced more ambitious climate targets, pledging to cut carbon emissions by 43% from 2005 levels by 2030.
- The UN climate conference in Bonn focused on global efforts to cut emissions and protect people from climate hazards.
- The UN Environment Programme published an annual report outlining the significant contributions of the buildings and construction sector to global greenhouse gas emissions.
- The World Economic Forum highlighted innovative solutions for cities to reduce carbon emissions in construction.
- A study revealed substantial carbon emissions resulting from the Israel-Gaza conflict.
That's all for July.
Wrap up warm and hope for some sense from the New Zealand Government.
The V-Quest Team.