We Are One (WAO) co-founder Monique Kelly said one of the main objectives of the six-day summit of talks, workshops and activities was to get businesses to understand about emissions, and their water and land footprints.
"We know builders are wanting to change. We surveyed members of our Building Better working group last year and 100% said they knew they had a problem with waste, mental health and improving the building code to make more energy efficient homes."
Ms Kelly said the construction industry workshop on waste management was designed to make it easy for builders to attend.
It was being held on a construction site, with experts giving practical tips on reducing building waste, and how to identify reuse and recycling opportunities and breakfast would be included.
Other summit talks and workshops included how to estimate your household or business emissions, a tour of high country stations to look at riparian planting, water monitoring and soil health and a presentation on digital tourism.
The summit opens tonight with a "conversation" on "Where To From Here?"
Dr Carly Green and Dr Jim Salinger, both lead authors for the United National Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, are the guest speakers.
