Joining us today is Alec Tang who is the Director of Sustainability at Kāinga Ora - Homes and Communities, a real-life Transformation Catalyst here today with us talking about the redesign of everything.

Now, we have known Alec for some time now. I first met Alec on the side of a street in downtown Tamaki when I was introduced to him when I had just started out at Circularity and it was indicated to me that Alec was someone to watch and they were not wrong at the time he was leading the Council’s Chief Sustainability Office …and overseeing the finalisation and adoption of Te Tāruke-ā-Tāwhiri: Auckland's Climate Plan.

Alec believes like many of that… “we need to move to an economy that is more regenerative, that is fairer and more distributive, that better recognises the finite nature of the natural resources that we are reliant on. 

Now there is really so much to share about Alec, but just to cover a few….he is a Chartered Environmentalist (CEnv) and Fellow of the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment (FIEMA). He has spent the bulk of his career developing and delivering innovative sustainability solutions across business, academia and the public sector. Most recently, Alec’s work has been focused on the creation of low-carbon, resilient and equitable urban environments. He is recognised as one of the inaugural Top Voice on LinkedIn for social impact across Australia and NZ. Is the Advisory Board Chair for the Auckland Climate Festival and also is a really engaging lecturer on sustainable business at Auckland University of Technology. I have heard from many of his students who have been inspired to follow his footsteps after hearing him speak. He is uber famous for his twitter feed which is largely street videos and photography shot while he cycles his way around Tamaki including near misses from cars. 

Much of Alec’s work centers around how we can design our urban environments to promote low emissions choices and the delivery of inclusive, regenerative ways of living. Why is this important? 

Two-thirds of us will be living in urban areas by 2050. Despite taking up just 2 per cent of global landmass, our urban centres consume more than 75 percent of natural resources, are responsible for over 50 percent of solid waste and emit up to 60 percent of greenhouse gases, contributing to pollution, climate change and biodiversity loss. 

Today we are going to be getting to know Alec and exploring…What does the future of the urban environment look like? And how do we get there? 

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