John Gillespie
on Multi-Disciplinary Design
John Gillespie didn't arrive at sustainability in a straight line. He started as a pharmacist — good at it, but quietly aware that something wasn't aligning. The turning point came from a simple moment of self-reflection: why wasn't he combining his passion with his career? He went back to study, completed a Masters in Sustainable Energy Engineering, and hasn't looked back since.
Now based in the Waitakere Ranges with his family, John leads multi-disciplinary design teams at 22degrees, helping clients deliver buildings that serve as markers of intent — proof of what sustainability can do when it's genuinely embedded into design from the start.
If sustainability were a flower in his life, it would be harakeke. Not for its appearance, but for what it gives back — pollen for pollinators, shelter for species, fibre and materials for people. "It's not just about looking good and saying the right things," John says. "It's about the trickle-down effect that sustainability has on our wider population in terms of climate resilience, energy resilience and ultimately providing a better place for everyone."
The biggest challenge he faces in the construction sector is timing. Sustainability conversations still arrive too late in the process to make cost-effective impact. John points to the UK and Ireland as models worth following — where operational energy and carbon targets are written into the building code, making them part of standard practice rather than an optional extra. His single seed for the future is exactly that: modernising New Zealand's building code to reflect the climate realities we're already living with.
When engaging stakeholders, John's approach is to understand what matters to them first. ESG, in his view, will almost always support what people already care about — the task is helping them see that connection, rather than leading with language that causes people to switch off.
Aotearoa's superpower, he believes, lies in its renewable energy foundations and the innovative thinking that remoteness has quietly demanded. Companies like Geo40 — pioneering mineral recovery from geothermal waste — show what's possible when necessity drives invention.
His advice to rising change-makers is to stay adaptable, keep learning, and not underestimate the impact of their particular corner of the work. Whether through buildings, communities, or classrooms, every voice helps build a more integrated path forward.
Read John's answers to Blooming Sustainability to explore how smarter building design, stronger regulation, and a culture of kaitiakitanga can reshape the built environment for generations to come.
BLOOMING Sustainability Questionnaire
Name: John Gillespie
Company & Title: Project Development & Sustainability Lead
Website & LinkedIn Profile:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-gillespie-80ba03ab/
* Guiding Values | Kaupapa
If sustainability were a flower blooming in your life, what would it look like? What nurtures it?
I would say Harakeke, in my opinion an unsung hero of the Aotearoa landscape. It is nurtured by good tikanga, and in return gives back in many ways to our land, animals and people. This plant not only stands tall and strong, but it offers crucial high-protein pollen to several key pollinators as well as providing shelter to many other species, and has served as a key source of fiber and materials in the past to early populations in Aotearoa. I feel it mirrors the importance of sustainability, its not just about looking good and saying the right things, its about the trickle-down effect that sustainability has on our wider population in terms of climate resilience, energy resilience and ultimately providing a better place for everyone.
A quote, personal motto or whakataukī that reflects your vision:
I have 2 quotes that I try and live by, both of which are actually tattoo’d on me! They are “Be the change you wish to see in the world” – Ghandi, which I like as it reminds us and encourages us to lead by example and walk the walk as well as talk the talk. as best that we can.
The second one is “I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul” – William Ernest Henley, Invictus. This one is important to me in my life and my vision as it reminds me that we are all in charge of what happens, it is our decisions that drive what happens, meaning each of us doe shave the voice and impact to make should we want to.
If you could mentor a rising change-maker in Aotearoa, what advice would you share?
Don’t give up, keep driving for change and to swing the momentum in support of sustainability, but always be adaptable and open to keep learning. What is important is that sustainability is a shifting landscape, not a set parameter. This means there are so many ways you can use your voice to make an impact. In my case I do so by empowering our construction industry to make better buildings, build better and more sustainable. Others do so via empowering communities to reduce their energy, water and waste levels, and some do so my teaching. All have a marked impact and help build a stronger more integrated approach to a sustainable future.
* Leading Change | Arataki
A key moment in your journey that shaped your path:
Having a look in the mirror moment and asking myself if what I was doing was what I wanted to be doing. At the time I was a pharmacist with a pasion for sustainability and the environment. The two didn’t marry or meet, so I made a change and went back to college to complete my Sustainable Energy Engineering Masters. The key moment being that deep self-reflection of why was I not combining my passion and my career, and since I have I have never looked back.
What’s the main challenge you face in driving sustainability within your sector?
Making it part of the discussions, often still in the construction industry the project wants to build, well, and finish, so often the sustainability opportunities are not in the discussions early enough to make cost effective impacts. What Aotearoa really needs is for the building code to include some core and key elements that would require projects to adhere to – for example the recently talked about embodied carbon, or taking a leaf from the approach in UK & Ireland where operational energy & carbon targets are made part of the building code, along with a target ration for energy to be covered by on site renewable sources. Now that these have been code for 10 or so years, it is just part of the process for projects, meaning it is not a big challenge, it just happens.
An area you need more support with:
Regulatory support, mandating elements as part of the building code or building act will directly accelerate the change in our construction industry.
An Indigenous perspective you admire and want people to be mindful of:
It may be used often in our world of sustainability, but I feel there is no perspective that means more to me than Kaitiakitanga. It embodied what sustainability means to me, that it is my responsibility as a steward of the environment, land, sea etc, to do all I can to protect it and provide it to future generations in a better place.
Your best approach for engaging stakeholders in meaningful dialogue about ESG:
Know your audience – everyone, whether they realise it or not benefits from adopting a greater interest and focus on sustainability. One approach does not suit all, as ESG as an overarching entity will offer different impacts on different people. It is important to understand what is important to the stakeholders, as ESG will invariably support and uplift that thing, and it is about empowering them to realise this. This also prevents “green washing” or “green blindness”, where people switch off when you start talking ESG as they have not yet understood how it properly supports what they want to achieve.
What do you think is Aotearoa’s superpower in creating a sustainable future?
In a roundabout way our remoteness from the rest of the world has really driven and spearheaded our push for renewable energy sources. Combining hydro, geothermal and wind systems we know that our electricity is generally around 80% renewable. This also means we have great local innovations happening that uplift not only us, but also educate and drive the rest of the world to better, Geo40 for example has been pioneering what we can do with the waste from geothermal systems, how can we recover things like key minerals from the geothermal brine, looking at opportunity in what is traditionally seen as a by product or waste.
* Surfing the Green Wave | Kakariki
Books, podcasts, courses or other resources that profoundly shaped your approach to sustainability:
Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the way we make things
An Inconvenient Truth
Sustainability Agenda (podcast)
Sustainability Jungle (podcast)
Your job is a climate job – a new book, but recommended none the less.
Climate change, the facts (documentary)
Events in Aotearoa or globally that you think are must-attend:
NZGBC Green Property Summit
CEP Conference
Transform
A sustainable initiative or project in Aotearoa that deserves more attention:
Sustainable Business Networks building out waste in the construction sector, a great industry led plan on tangible steps that can be implemented towards circular construction.
https://sustainable.org.nz/learn/designing-out-waste/building-out-waste-in-the-construction-sector/
If your work could plant one seed of change for the future, what would it be?
The modernization and climate/environmental change focus to our building code in NZ.
The leader(s) you endorse for a future edition of Blooming Sustainability:
Jean-Luc Ellis, Co-founder at WasteX
Francisco Carbajal, Capana Group
Maeghan Pratt-Rink, Project and Channels Manager at SBN
* One actionable takeaway for our readers to make a change today for a brighter tomorrow:
Embrace it and give it a go, see how simple it is to make changes to your day to day life, start small and then dig deeper into the larger aspects and make your own decisions – for example start with reusing and upcycling goods at home, then step up to PV for your home, or a hot water heat pump! Tying back to one of the quotes that drive me – “I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul”. Your decisions are yours, meaning you have the power to make the decisions that can immediately, and generationally, impact your and yours tomorrow. We all play our part, no matter how perceptively small, our combined impact is what will make the difference.
