Little Greenie Building Education

Little Greenie has developed a building system that creates warm, dry, energy-efficient houses that are easy to maintain. The business model focuses on changing customer awareness, trades training, and the construction of civic and community-centric developments.

Team/Entrepreneur

Lawrence McIntyre has developed the Little Greenie building approach and method. He is supported by three co-directors.

What they’re doing and why

Nearly a third of New Zealand houses have an ambient temperature below 18°C – the World Health Organisation’s recommended minimum indoor temperature for healthy homes.

The Little Greenie team is aiming to transform New Zealand’s housing stock by supporting better building practices by local craftsman, local suppliers and communities.

The team are working on:

• building comprehensive public awareness of the benefits, desirability, and value of high-performance and sustainable housing.
• upskilling new and existing trades professionals with efficient and sustainable construction techniques.
• constructing community and civic dwellings using high-performance and sustainable construction techniques.

Find out more about the original Little Greenie in this 2011 report.

Coverage

The original Little Greenie is in Golden Bay, near Nelson.
The team have also started a pilot apprenticeship programme at WelTec’s campus in Otaki.

Work is also underway to build a demonstration home and education centre in Te Horo, on the Kapiti Coast.

Incubation stage

What’s next

The next steps for Little Greenie Building Education are to:

• Start the construction of the demonstration home and education centre in Te Horo
• Deploy the pilot building curriculum with WelTec and expand opportunities for other learning institutes to expand their curricula
• Identify opportunities for Little Greenie techniques to be applied to social housing developments.