The early morning gathering of the multinational company of consulting engineers, planners and surveyors incuded presentations by urban development leader Greg Dewe, renewable energy team leader Blair Walter and building services leader Neil Purdie on urban planning, wind energy and green buildings at the Rydges Lakeland Resort Hotel.
Connell Wagner Queenstown Lakes office manager Sean Barnes said the meeting was a first for them and came about through the desire for a substantial client function with a difference.
"Probably the big issue is the development of green standards.
"We've experienced that developers across New Zealand want leading-edge and future-proof buildings that are also environmentally conscious.
"The codes and standards are in a state of transition and difficult for people to understand and sometimes it's difficult for consent authorities to keep up."
Mr Barnes said sustainability was being pushed by Government policy and most people identified with the environmental aspect.
However, social and financial sides needed to be considered and Connell Wagner was offering "real solutions for something that is undefined".
"A developer will say `I want to do a green development', and it's wide open for opportunities."
Mr Walter, one of the speakers, leads the renewable energy team, which helps developers "find, assess and progress" wind farm projects.
"The Government wants wind power. They've set a target of 90% of our electricity from renewable sources by 2025 and we have 60% from hydro and some geothermal already.
"It puts the challenge to wind to make up the difference.
"However, there's resistance on a local level and I dwelt on the visual, landscape, noise and ecological impacts in my presentation."
Mr Walter said, apart from ecological concerns, those impacts were often subjective, and wind power was a good solution for New Zealand.
Connell Wagner transportation operations leader Alastair MacRitchie, of Auckland, was one of the 90 people attending the breakfast conference.
His team worked on sustainable transport ideas that minimised effects on the environment, he said.
Mr MacRitchie's team, in association with Beca, Opus and Fletcher Construction, won the Arthur Mead Environmental Award from the Institute of Professional Engineers last month for the Northern Busway in Auckland.
The environmentally sustainable project was New Zealand's first purpose-built road dedicated to bus passenger transport.
"Sustainability is something we're all affected by and, as a socially responsible company, we want to work with clients to devise sustainable solutions," he said.
"It lives what it preaches and the lessons we've learned are applicable anywhere."
