Here’s everything you need to know about us in three simple paragraphs:
- 1What we doSustainable power and developments
- 2Why we do itThe principles behind COG
- 3Who we areMeet the Directors
What we do
COG brings you better ways of powering commercial properties and growing vibrant urban centres through two sustainability-focused operations, COG Power and COG Developments.
SUSTAINABLE SOLAR POWER
We provide commercial properties with low cost, sustainable energy generated on your site using solar hardware that we own, install and manage. With no purchasing, no renting, no maintenance, lower OPEX and no-to-low emissions, switching to Solar as a Service from COG Power means you’ll enjoy all the gains without the investment.
BLENDED DEVELOPMENTS
We create live-work-play blended developments – mixed-use vertical neighbourhoods designed and built with environmental integrity for walkable, sustainable, people-centric cities. COG’s blended developments bring people’s daily places together and are structured in three ways from the ground up.
Why we do it
COG Power and COG Developments were established out of a real need for practical, affordable sustainability options for commercial properties, businesses and urban property developers in New Zealand. Our objective is to empower clients, support progress and encourage vibrant, thriving, people-shaped cities through better, innovative, and low emission ways.
Solar as a service
Although the high cost of electricity in New Zealand and the Government’s drive to reduce emissions are both compelling reasons for commercial properties to switch to cheaper, sustainable power, one of the biggest obstacles is capital cost.
We developed our Solar as a Service offering to remove that obstacle altogether, helping organisations focus on core objectives, save on OPEX and achieve their sustainability goals. In the long term, the benefits of COG Power extend to all electricity consumers. Distributed power generation means that the grid’s infrastructure load at peak times is reduced, ultimately lowing overall costs to everyone. We’re proud to be playing our part in helping New Zealand transition to the low carbon economy.
Blended Developments
There were three key factors behind forming COG Developments – New Zealand’s housing shortage, the absence of suitable commercial properties in post-earthquake Christchurch, and the need for urban developers to rethink how New Zealand’s cities adapt, grow and thrive in a changing world. In its rebuild, Christchurch presented a unique opportunity for a redesign of its urban outlay in a focused, principled manner on a human scale.
With climate change and population growth, the need for walkable, sustainable, people-centric cities is a must, not an ideal. Bringing daily places together in ground-up neighbourhoods creates less need for vehicles, reducing emissions and helping to curb urban sprawl. By creating more opportunities for people to connect our goal is to enhance wellbeing, support business success and encourage community. We’re proud to be helping New Zealand shape vibrant, liveable cities for today and our future generations.
Who we are
Chris Conner
An entrepreneur, adventurer and native of the United States, Chris came to New Zealand in 2009 after meeting his future wife, a New Zealander, in the Antarctic. His aptitude for practical solutions to common and uncommon challenges has taken him around the world in a career spanning defence, conservation, construction and renewable energy. The growing need for adaptive thinking and sustainability options means Chris is now focused on commercialising the low carbon economy as the managing director of Conner Operating Group in Christchurch.
Alyssa Conner
Alyssa’s interest in sustainability options for power generation and urban growth stems from her experience as a general manager in the wellbeing industry. As a pragmatic changemaker, her focus for empowering people along their journeys to health and fitness translated intuitively to helping to shape the bigger wellbeing picture. Alyssa arrived in New Zealand in 2016 and now divides her time and talents between the United States and Christchurch as a non-executive director of Conner Operating Group, and is on the product team of a US based commercial roofing & building supply company.
