Govt3
Govt3 was a sustainability programme operated by the New Zealand government. It was managed by the Ministry for the Environment. "Govt" stands for government and "3" stands for the three pillars of sustainability: environmental, social and economic.
The programme was set up under a Labour led government in 2003 to encourage government departments to minimise waste and adopt sustainable practices. By July 2007 48 central government agencies had joined the programme and by 2009 the programme was saving the Government over $4 million each year through reduced travel demand, double sided printing and other initiatives to reduce the amount of office consumables being used, lowered buildings operating costs through smart design of new buildings and energy efficiency retrofitting of existing buildings, reduced amount of waste going to landfill, improved procurement practices and other initiatives. The National led government, which came into power in October 2008, ended the scheme in March 2009.
The programmes work areas were sustainable building, transport, office consumables and waste. The sustainable building work stream built the financial case for setting best practice performance targets for new and existing Government buildings. The sustainable building team worked with the industry to develop New Zealand specific performance targets and benchmarks to raise the overall environment and economic performance of Government buildings. The team also developed an innovative sustainable building management tool as a way of ensuring sustainable building practices were considered throughout the life-cycle of a building.