Vision

“Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”

The Sustainability Society is a membership organisation established to support and foster sustainability practitioners and researchers across New Zealand.

The Society adopts the Brundtland Report definition of sustainability as its core belief:

Objectives and Activities

The Sustainability Society seeks to promote:

Research into the science and engineering underlying sustainability;
Methods and tools for achieving sustainability; and
The application of sustainability to professional practice, design and management.

Our membership crosses the disciplines of engineering and science, into architecture, planning, design and innovation. We have members who are involved with central and local government, members from business and consultancies, from NGOs and CRIs, and others from academia.

The activities of the Society will include:

Holding regular forums, workshops, seminars and other events on current sustainability issues for New Zealand’s built environment;
Generating active projects that contribute to sustainability being developed effectively as part of the ongoing considerations and practice of our built environment community;
Supporting the cross-disciplinary links and knowledge-sharing within the Society’s membership and wider community networks;
Providing input into policy, debates and media on sustainability within the built environment.

Membership Fees (2024/2025):

Individuals

Full membership: NZ$60 plus GST
Retirees, Part-time students and graduate* members: NZ$40.00 plus GST
Full-time Students: Free**

Organisations

Organisational membership: NZ$750 plus GST
Additional organisational members: NZ$40 plus GST
(individuals whose employer is already an organisational member of TSS)

Plus any applicable IPENZ service fee for people who are not IPENZ members (currently NZ$45 plus GST)

*Graduates are people who are in their first five years of their career
** There is a strong focus currently on developing networks and activity within the nationwide student population who are interested in sustainability. Although student membership is financially free we want to encourage students to make a tangible contribution in terms of time and energy in developing these student initiatives.

The membership fee covers the financial year from the 1st of October to the 30th of September of the following year.

Individual Membership Benefits

Membership benefits include:

Free registration to all forums and webinars
Exclusive discounted rates to all fee-paying TSS short courses, workshops, seminars or conferences
Regular newsletter updates
Negotiated discounts for affiliate society events
Opportunity to contribute to collective submissions on relevant policy
Opportunities to showcase sustainability research and practice via online and in-person member events
Opportunities to contribute to The Society’s projects/themes via working groups which are actively seeking to influence sustainability in some aspect of the built environment

Organisational Membership Benefits

This membership category is to enable organisations to become part of The Sustainability Society and actively support the Society’s goals and activities. Organisational members offer support to those aims and receive both public recognition of that support and unique membership opportunities.

Organisational membership includes:

Three full individual memberships for nominated representatives (transferable as and when organisational changes require it).
A discounted rate of $40pa for additional individuals from the organisation wanting to join (discount does not apply to IPENZ fee component).
Profile on The Sustainability Society website including a description of their business and links to their organisational website or sustainability portfolio.
Access to all sessions within the annual webinar series for any of the organisation’s employees whether they are nominated TSS members or not.
Opportunities to showcase examples of sustainability practice within their organisation nationally and internationally via a variety of online and in-person forums.*
Opportunities to work with The Society to develop customised sustainability forums or specific presenters for the organisation on topics of particular interest.
Opportunities to contribute to the strategic projects and themes that the Society undertakes.

*Organisational members are expected on an annual basis to actively support the understanding and development of sustainability within the built environment by:

Contributing at least one case study of leading sustainable practice in projects that they have been involved with. This will be used as part of the ‘bank’ of case studies aligned with new IPENZ Sustainability Practice Guidance which is currently under development. Depending on specific context it may also be used across other learning forums also.
Hosting one organisational member event every year focusing on a sustainability theme or issue of their choosing. These events are intended to be strategic networking forums where the wider organisation can be engaged in sustainability and the whole organisational member community can come together to build connections and explore the critical issues.