Clone of Environmental Legislation

Submitted by coleen.yan@edd… on Wed, 02/28/2024 - 18:14

K@Darren - I have moved this topic away from the compliance module, as I find the subtopics to be more relevant here (Sustainable Pr). We can incorporate it at later stage. - Nat

Kia ora tatou LB5.

This bite size module in your New Zealand Certificate in Construction Trades Supervision (Level 5) is looking at the sustainable management practice of New Zealand’s natural, physical, and man-made hazardous resources.

Our aim is this module is to:

Examine the governments environmental protection frameworks.
Determining the material safety requirements of hazardous substances.

Sub Topics

Sustainable management is becoming a big part of the construction industry.

New Zealand’s ‘eco-system’ legislative style approach recognises all aspects of its environmental elements which are not considered on a standalone basis.

The management of this environmental protection legislation, outlines and aims to properly protect the general life supporting capacities of air, water, and soil from the unconnected effects that human activities have on the environment. We can correct the adverse effects from previous activities on the environment by avoiding them or lessening its effects.

Embedded in the Acts is a framework for the general management of activities, their use, their developments, and all round protection protocols of all natural and physical resources involving the land and water so that these resources are maintained for use for future generations.

Insert video here.

The Resource Management Act or the RMA is the primary legislation that provides for and gives advice on the sustainable management of New Zealand’s natural and physical resources.

Two key pieces of legislation for resource management reform are now in place.

The Natural and Built Environment Act and the Spatial Planning Act will be phased in over the coming years.

A small number of changes apply from August 24, 2023. Many parts of the Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA) are still in force for now.

As referenced from environment.govt.nz :

By bringing together laws governing land, air and water resources, the Resource Management Act (RMA) introduces a totally new approach to environmental management

The RMA is New Zealand’s main environmental legislation and aims to promote the sustainable management practice of its natural and physical resources.

The resource management system governs how people interact with natural resources. As well as managing air, soil, freshwater and the coastal marine area, the RMA regulates land use and the provision of infrastructure. People can use natural resources if it’s allowed under the RMA or permitted by a resource consent.

So this Acts purpose is to recognises that we need to protect our air, water, soil, and our general ecosystems for the generations to come.

The RMA is designed to establish a workable framework within which the environmental effects of your activities, including all aspects of construction can be identified and properly managed accordingly.

This Resource Management Act classifies activities into six different categories and the need for a consent depends on the type of activity undertaken, the categories are: permitted, controlled, restricted discretionary, discretionary, non-complying and prohibited.

In the construction industry all building work in some way has an effect on the environment. The Act outlines “landowners are responsible for avoiding, putting right, or become less severe the environmental effects from their construction activities”.

These activities are central to the resource consent being processed.

A resource consent is formal approval from your council to do something that they haven't clearly identified in their plan as either permitted or prohibited.

Under the Resource Management Act, regional and city or district councils prepare plans to reflect the desires and aspirations of the local community in relation to natural or physical resources, and activities that affect the environment.
^{https://www.building.govt.nz/projects-and-consents/planning-a-successful-build/scope-and-design/check-if-you-need-consents/resource-consent/}

Being granted resource consents means permission to carry out the required work that affects the environment.

An example would be:
District plans often set height limits for buildings. A proposed building that is taller or wider than the permitted height / site coverage limit, would require both resource consent and building consent approval.

So this resource consent procedure provides permission to carry out an activity that would otherwise fail sections of the Resource Management Act.

What are some of the meanings under the Act?

The RMA:

Helps to look after the environment.
Is based in the idea of sustainably managing resources.
Encourages us to get involved in decisions about our environment.

Note: In the context of the RMA, resources include air, land, soil, water, minerals, energy, plants, animals and structures.

Source is https://environment.govt.nz

The main three functions the RMA has related to managing New Zealand’s natural and physical resources are:

Control access to and use of natural resources,
Control the discharge of contaminants (pollutants),
Manage the adverse effects of all activities in the environment.

Any sort of building work comes under the control of both the resource management act as well as the Building Act.

The Building Act in general controls the construction of the building, while the Resource Management Act deals with their environmental effects in and around the construction process.

The Resource Management Act does this by controlling aspects of the buildings such as

its height, bulk, or site coverage,
the size of the front, side or back yards and sunlight recession planes,
it's noise level
it's required parking

in some areas of these controls particularly with regard to natural hazards, there may be overlaps between the Resource Management Act and the Building controls for example: when a resource consent is required in addition to a building consent, building work may not begin until the “resource consent” has also been granted.

This Acts main goal is to ensure that the sustainability of the environment is not placed at risk by the economic and social goals of individuals or businesses.

It recognizes that people need to be able to use the resources, BUT that using them should not affect the resources in such a way that they are no longer available for future generations to use.

More information on when you might need resource consent in relation to building work can be found here:
https://www.consumer.org.nz/articles/resource-management-act

Insert activity here.

Insert video here.

Local Government

Under the resource management act the responsibility for making decisions about environmental issues related to any sort of construction project lies within the community most directly affected by the use of the resources within the New Zealand.

There is a hierarchy of responsibility and their prescribed roles for central and local government

New Zealand itself consists of 11 regional councils and 5 unitary authorities.

Unitary authorities have the powers of regional councils and territorial authorities. An example of a unitary council here in NZ would be, Auckland council.

The word, 'council' and 'authority' are both correct terms, their meaning is essentially the same just with different responsibilities.

These collective of 16 councils are charged with the integrated management of land, air, water resources, supporting biodiversity and biosecurity, providing for regional transport, services and building more resilient communities in the face of climate change and natural hazards.

Environmental science and local knowledge underpins all that they do. Ref lgnz.co.nz

A unitary authority is also a territorial authority (TA) that also has all the responsibilities of a regional authority unifying both roles in one local government body which covers one geographical area.

Within NZs government structure sits 61 territorial authorities (TA) which consists of:

11 City councils.
50 District councils.

TAs provide guidelines and rules to assist in carrying out the sustainable management of the city or district.

Territorial authorities (TA) manage the resource consents and there permits. In general they manage the development capacity for residential and business land use, to meet the city or district's long-term requirements by making the decisions about the effects of land use and activities within the city or district when it comes to construction.

They have the responsibility for the infrastructure including road networking, reservoirs, water supplies, stormwater, and sewage systems in their locations.

They manage the land use and subdivision.

They process and check the consent applications for their land use subdivision and building.

Hence why resource consents are required under the Resource Management Act and therefore are issued by these territorial authorities.

The bottom tier Councils with the TA’s are required by the Resource Management Act to prepare regional and district plans.

These documents set out the planning rules and determined permitted activities within the area controlled by that particular council.

As referenced from BCITO plus:

Regional plans-are prepared by regional councils they deal with the air, water, land, and coastal areas of the region.
District plans - prepared by district councils deal with the management of land use and subdivision within a district. They set out the rules and conditions for activities including building work.

District plans must be consistent with regional plans and set out the planning rules or permitted activities in each council area.

Having a resource consent is the authorization given to the construction project to carry out a particular activity or the use of natural and physical resources.

So remembering building work cannot start until the resource consent has been granted.

^{https://environment.govt.nz/acts-and-regulations/acts/resource-management-act-1991/central-and-local-government-responsibilities-under-the-rma/}

Insert activity here.

Insert video here.

Hazardous Substance and New Organisms Act 1996

The term hazardous substance refers to any product or chemical that has properties that are explosive, flammable, oxidising, toxic, corrosive, or toxic to the environment. Ref: Worksafe

On 1st of December 2017 the rules around managing hazardous substances in the workplace was transferred from the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act to the Health and Safety at Work (Hazardous Substances) Regulations.

Hazardous substances are any substance that has one or more of the following hazardous product properties:

Explosiveness.
Flammability.
Ability to oxidise (accelerate a fire)
Human toxicity (acute or chronic)
Corrosiveness to human tissue or metal
Ecotoxicity
Capacity on contact with the air or water to develop one or more of the above properties

When a construction hazardous substance is approved for use it will usually have a number of controls with which every handler must comply. These controls are based on regulations made under the act or codes of practise.

Regulations have been developed for each class of hazardous substance, and for particular points of a substances life cycle like labelling, packaging, usage, and the dispose of.

The important rule to remember is any hazardous substance will have a number of controls based on their codes of practise, we as users must find out what these controls are and comply with them before we use them.

Taken from the government hazardous substances website. In New Zealand Hazardous substances are classified under the HSNO (Hazardous Substance and New Organisms) system, which is based on the United Nations (UN) system for classifying dangerous goods for transport and the Globally Harmonised System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS).

What is a GHS pictogram?

Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals or GHS are graphic images that immediately show the user of a hazardous product and the type of hazard present.

With a quick glance, you can see, if that product is flammable, or if it is a health hazard.

Most pictograms have a distinctive red diamond bordering each potential hazard like your fire, health, or corrosive hazard.

Taken from the Canadian centre for occupational Health and safety, the symbol and the border are referred to as a pictogram. Pictograms are assigned to specific hazard classes or categories in bold type is the name given to the pictogram. The words in brackets describe the hazard.

However you also might find that certain substances manufactured overseas may use another similar form of system.

The hazardous properties of a substance in NZ are classified into 9 classes to determine how the substances risk can be managed.

The New Zealand government have understood the importance of hazard prevention in the workplace so have published “A Practical Guide to working safely with hazardous substances”.

This guide will help you manage the hazardous substances you use, handle, manufacture, and store at work more safely. It also helps you to meet your obligations under the Health and Safety at Work Act (HSWA) and the Health and Safety at Work (Hazardous Substances) Regulations (the Regulations).

Workers or employees must be informed of any work involving hazardous substances taking place in their proximity or area. They also need to know where to find information about each hazardous substance and about safe handling and storage of that substance being used.

How to safely use, handle, store and dispose of the substance is a must. Guidance on the safe use of associated equipment including PPE should be part of all staff training undertaken. If a worker has had similar training previously on a different site for example, they will still need to have training if they are new to that particular workplace.

Worksafe have realised the importance of understanding hazardous substances in the workplace, so they have developed a supportive website called “Working safely with hazardous substances toolbox”

This practical guide supports working safely with hazardous substances in and around the worksite and describes what you need to do to be safe around these dangerous substances as well as includes useful information tables and checklists.

https://www.hazardoussubstances.govt.nz/

Using the below government practical Guide read through section 2 “Approvals, hazard classifications and controls” for more information on how these classifications work.

https://tinyurl.com/52u32vxh

HAZARDOUS SUBSTANCE and NEW ORGANISMS ACT

If you can, you should try and eliminate hazardous substances from your workplace for the purpose of workers health and safety. But sometimes a hazardous substance is necessary. After reading section 2 test your knowledge with the following points.

Insert activity here.

Insert video here.

A material safety data sheet or Safety data sheet (MSDS / SDS) is a well organised document containing all information about a given chemical.

Referenced from Worksafe, these sheets includes name, composition, hazards, first aid measures, firefighting measures, information regarding the proper steps to take with spills, handling, and any storage essentials.

These sheets set out the required personal protection to be used; information on physical and chemical properties; maintaining stability; and information on the disposal and transportation required to meet the industry regulatory requirements.

So, these sheets are similar to that of an equipment or instrument consumer manual.

All quality products or equipment items must have well organised documentation to provide all information about the product, and this is what it is.

In other words, a safety data sheet (SDS) and a material safety data sheet (MSDS) are the same thing, just worded differently.

These are the documents that accompany hazardous chemicals and substances and outline the dangers, composition, safe handling, and disposal of the particular chemicals and substances associated.

Safety data sheet provides comprehensive information about the properties of a hazardous substance and how it could potentially affect health and safety in your workplace.

Your supplier of the hazardous substance to your workplace must provide an SDS with their products by law. Then these sheets should be stored and made visible on site by your site managers.

Remember you must read these sheets before you use the product, as it is important to know about your product before an emergency happens.

These sheets of information are then broken down into various sections of headings these headings including information like:

Its Product and company identification, the type of Hazard(s) identification, products composition and information on ingredients, first-aid measures, any sort of Fire-fighting measures, products Handling and storage, as well as disposal, transportation, and PPE requirements.

Note :Remember Hazardous substances are bad for your health and can kill you you’re your workmates.

Further information on key facts related to Safety data sheets (SDS) and there uses in the workplace can be found on this useful “quick user guide” from Worksafe:

https://tinyurl.com/2s4h6mww

OUTRO

Remember you should always find out whether resource consent or any hazardous chemicals are needed early in the building process.

Most councils will have a planning team that can advise on resource consent matters as building work can only begin once council are stratified with any of your potential environmental effects.

Insert activity here.

Websites

Worksafe New Zealand https://worksafe.govt.nz

Site Safe New Zealand https://sitesafe.org.nz

Building and Performance: https://learning.building.govt.nz/course/index.php?categoryid=15

Branz: https://www.branz.co.nz/

Pexels.com

mbie.govt.nz

Articles

Building blocks for building controls
buildmagazine.org.nz/index.php/articles/show/building-blocks-for-building-controls

Building Performance: How the Building Code Works
https://www.building.govt.nz/building-code-compliance/how-the-building-code-works/

(MBIE) Licensed Building Practitioners: Building Confidence
https://www.lbp.govt.nz/assets/lbp/documents/lbp-handbook.pdf