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MECLA Governance

Purpose of the Alliance:

This collaboration of organisations comes together to drive reductions in embodied carbon in the building and construction industry. We seek to align with the Paris Agreement targets and principles of the circular economy and recognise that the building and construction sector is a complex ecosystem.

We will drive a market transition across industry and government by: 

  • Demonstrating the demand and activating the supply of materials which meet the needs of net zero carbon goals.
  • Defining a best practice embodied carbon evaluation framework.
  • Knowledge sharing through best practice education, case studies, myth-busting, demonstrations, and supporting innovation in materials and processes as part of a pre-competitive approach.
  • Developing common language for design specifications, procurement guidelines and tendering criteria as standard practice for government agencies and companies.
  • Helping to manage industry’s climate transition risks, risks associated with adopting innovative materials and the required skills development.
  • Supporting materials such as steel, cement and concrete, and aluminium to reduce their carbon intensity and giving visibility to other low carbon and innovative materials.

Our Guiding Principles:

MECLA will follow these principles to guide our decision-making and work:

  1. We recognise the urgency of the climate challenge and the role of the building and construction sector to demonstrate leadership and material impact towards net zero.
  2. We are guided by the science to be ambitious and engage constructively with government agencies and industry participants to support and promote the need for carbon budgets and targets that align with a 1.5oC pathway, to help develop a series of indicators to measure our success including target(s) for reducing embodied carbon.
  3. We will collaborate across all parts of the building and construction value chain to stimulate market demand and share knowledge and experience including through proposing, sponsoring and hosting trials for new products/materials or construction methodologies.
  4. We embrace the riple effect; as champions of change, we take what we learn in MECLA and implement where relevant in our own organisations.
  5. Zero tolerance for anti-competitive behaviour.
  6. We are equal voices around the table and role and organisation agnostic.
  7. Decisions that impact all members are made by consensus.
  8. To be part of a decision, be present at the meetings.

Our Values:

  • Collaboration: this is a complex mission and can only be achieved together
  • Integrity: we act in an ethical manner to achieve our purpose
  • Leadership: we are the change needed to reach net zero
  • Opportunity: responsibly sourced materials bring positive commercial and community benefits
  • Transparency: we openly share what we do through our knowledge and expertise

Founding Partners

Founding Partner membership opened in November 2020 and closed in September 2021. Other member organisations that joined after September 2021 joined as Members. Over 190 organisations from across the building and construction supply chain have now joined.

Financial Contributors

MECLA Founding Partners signed an in-principal agreement to provide some ongoing funding to support MECLA post June 2022. In addition to in-kind contribution, MECLA asked for a modest financial contribution based on ability to pay and size of organisation. Through this and a subsequent funding round MECLA has continued to deliver assets, events, engagements, and policy consultation to assist in driving decarbonisation of the construction sector for another 3 years. From July 2025 MECLA is seeking further funding to continue the Alliance. MECLA is pursuing a mixed funding strategy of government and private sector investment. $350,000 per annum is required to continue the MECLA initiative.

From July 2025, MECLA will institute new policy on working group participation in line with funding goals. Only Financial Members will be entitled to participate in the working groups (WGs), Project Control Groups (PCG) and Project Leadership Groups (PLG) except where it is agreed to by members of the PCG/PLG. In the case of service providers exceptions can also be made.

MECLA Phase 4 Membership Policy

Transition Period Policy – July 2025 – December 2025

There is a transition period between Phase 3 and Phase 4 from July to December 2025. During this period, new organisations and/or individual may only join a working group if they are meeting at least one of the below criteria:

  • They are pre-existing members of the working group from phase 3
  • The organisation they represent is a paying member of MECLA
  • They have been invited by the MECLA secretariat to contribute in-kind assets or direct feedback to MECLA work through their involvement
  • There is a reciprocal membership agreement in place between MECLA and the representative organisation

January 2026 MECLA Membership Policy

Following the Transition Period, individual members qualify for inclusion in working group activity if

  • The organisation they represent is a paying member of MECLA
  • They have been invited by the MECLA secretariat to contribute in-kind assets or direct feedback to MECLA work through their involvement
  • There is a reciprocal membership agreement in place between MECLA and the representative organisation

Establishment of Working Groups

MECLA has established working groups to deliver on its purpose. Working group participants have historically come from the Founding Partners, Financial Supporters, and Members. From July 2025, new working group members must be financial supporters of MECLA or satisfy one of the above listed criteria on participation:

Complying with all laws including competition laws

MECLA and the working groups are committed to compliance with all applicable laws including strict compliance with competition laws. Members must not take any action that might raise an inference that MECLA or its members are engaging in coordinated activity or any other action that amounts to a breach of competition law (eg, price fixing, market/customer sharing, restricting or limiting production or capacity, bid rigging, concerted practices or other collusive behaviour such as joint approaches to customers and suppliers).  

Members must always exercise caution and avoid discussing, encouraging, or allowing the discussion of competitively sensitive information at any meeting, including matters relating to terms and conditions, discounts, rebates, costs, prices, volumes, suppliers, tenders or future business plans.  Such action could amount to a contravention of applicable competition laws, or be interpreted as being contrary to competition law. 

Breaches of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (CCA) can lead to serious penalties for members and for individuals involved in any breach (including large financial penalties and potentially also imprisonment for key individuals involved). 

Any queries about whether certain conduct is permissible should be brought to the attention of PCG immediately, prior to any action. The PCG will determine the nature of any further steps, including if the PCG considers appropriate, obtaining legal advice, before members proceed with any proposed action or exchange of information that may potentially raise competition concerns. 

The chair of each PCG and working group meeting will remind participants of the importance of strictly complying with competition laws at the start of each meeting. 

Specific Guidelines – Information Exchange

Disclosure or exchange of competitively sensitive information can give rise to competition law risks, including creating an environment in which cartel conduct can occur or other conduct comprising a concerted practice. 

Competitively sensitive information should not be disclosed or exchanged by members (whether through or outside MECLA or the working groups), including information about: 

  • Individual capacity, production, acquisition or output volumes; 
  • Any aspect of individual pricing, price components, margins, discounts, allowances, rebates, credits, pricing strategies or calculations, planned price changes or market pricing to the extent it is not public information; 
  • Individual profit, profit margins, cost structures, production capacities, sales quotas, market shares, promotional schedules or planned investments; 
  • Individual business development or forecasts (especially sales or revenue figures); 
  • Individual corporate strategies or current or future market behaviour or intentions; 
  • Individual members’ clients or customers, terms of trade, payment conditions, delivery conditions or cost sensitive information; 
  • Individual members’ suppliers, or terms of supply or acquisition (including to boycott a particular supplier); or 
  • tenders, bids or whether and on what terms any member may respond to a tender. 

Any attempt at disclosing or sharing the information outlined above should be reported to the chair of the PCG immediately. 

Conflicts of interest declarations

At each MECLA meeting, the chairs will ask participants if there are any conflict of interest declarations.

Governance Structure

Project Leadership Group (PLG)

The Project Leadership Group (PLG) is responsible for the overall governance and direction of MECLA. It must ensure that the work remains aligned to the Purpose, Principles and Values. It will have overall program oversight including program funding, timing, resourcing and communications. Where there is a lack of consensus from the Project Control Group (PCG), it will make the final decision.  

It is made up of:

  • Atelier Ten
  • Lendlease
  • WWF Australia
  • Climate-KIC Australia
  • Presync
  • Holcim
  • Arup
  • Boral
  • NSW Government

The makeup of the PLG will be reviewed every year with a full review by 1 February 2026. 

Project Control Group (PCG) 

The PCG will provide on-going management and support of the working groups, much like a PCG in a development or construction project. These positions are voluntary, advisory in nature and based on participants’ goodwill. The PCG provides updates, raises and resolves issues, discusses opportunities and most importantly, ensures coordination across the various working groups. The PCG will oversee appropriate due diligence processes and ensure proposed goals and outputs are SMART and logically aligned. It is made up of: 

  • PLG 
  • Working group chairs/co-chairs  
  • Invited subject matter experts as required 
  • Other industry organisations – (up to two) who are not chairs of the working groups and wish to participate. 

Membership of the group may change as the needs of MECLA change. If there is a perception of any conflict of interest within any of the working groups, this will be immediately brought to the attention of PCG and the PLG who will determine the nature of any further action required based on best available advice. 

A member of the Secretariat (Monica Richter; Hudson Worsley; Kathy Verheyen; Alexi Barnstone) will attend each working group meeting to ensure consistency across each working group. 

The PCG will meet every month as agreed. There needs to be a quorum of 10 attendees (including secretariat) for the meeting to proceed.

Working Groups 

Working groups have been formed with MECLA members to address specific opportunities and barriers, which currently include: 

  • Demand side response  
  • Defining a best practice embodied carbon evaluation framework 
  • Building and capturing the knowledge base (merged with WG4) 
  • Developing common language (merged with WG3) 
  • Supporting materials to reduce their carbon intensity and to educate the demand side industry on different material options:  
  • Steel 
  • Concrete and Cement 
  • Aluminium 
  • Construction Assemblies and Other Materials (bricks, asphalt, recycled and reformed materials including plastics, glass, etc) 
  • Services and Systems for the Built Environment 
  • Engineered Timber
  • Residential

Working groups will meet as required to achieve the agreed outcomes. Additional working groups may be formed over time and existing working groups may change over time as needs arise. 

MECLA Network Meetings and Events 

To ensure MECLA members continue the conversation and collaboration to drive the uptake of construction materials aligning with net zero across all working groups, there will be regular meetings and events to discuss matters of collective interest to MECLA  learn about relevant subject matters, progress and opportunities, findings and issues to tackle. We will seek to present relevant subject matter experts to add to the knowledge base of the group. The structure for these meetings can look like this: 

  • Spotlight events, Briefings, Case Study presentatinos, Workshops, Deep Dives or other event styles (as and where relevant)
  • Annual MECLA Community event
  • Project Management: WWF Australia/Climate-KIC Australia

Communication via:

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