Strengthening earthquake resilience with Canterbury Seismic

At PMG, we recognise that our responsibility goes beyond maintaining buildings – it means protecting people, supporting business continuity, and making confident decisions in moments that matter most. In response to New Zealand’s evolving seismic landscape, PMG selected Sentinel by Canterbury Seismic to install real-time earthquake response sensors at selected Christchurch and Wellington assets where seismic risk was high.

This technology provides immediate, location-specific data after seismic events, enabling our property and facilities managers to act quickly – ensuring tenant safety, minimising disruption, and preserving asset integrity.

For investors, this initiative is another example of how PMG proactively manages risk, enhances operational resilience, and protects long-term portfolio value, reinforcing our commitment to being the property partner of choice.

Locations

Sentinel EQ sensors have been installed across key PMG assets in Christchurch and Wellington, including buildings with varying age, construction types and NBS ratings. According to GeoNet, New Zealand has >20,000 a year, across New Zealand about 250 of those are felt and impact life.

Challenges

Following the Christchurch earthquakes, property managers faced immense pressure to make safety decisions without timely engineering assessments. With engineers overwhelmed and delays stretching into months, decisions were often made without data, posing risks to tenants and business continuity.

PMG recognised the need for a solution that could provide real-time, location-specific seismic data to guide response decisions and reduce reliance on subjective human experience.

The greatest challenge was not sensor deployment, but ensuring continuity in the response process - maintaining stakeholder lists and educating on-site contacts to act appropriately when alerts are triggered.

Historic challenges PMG faced post-earthquake:

• Delayed access to engineers created long wait times for building assessments.
• Property managers had to make go/no-go decisions with little or no data.
• Tenants lacked confidence and assurance in response processes.
• False alarms based on regional quake data caused unnecessary evacuations.

The approach

PMG partnered with Canterbury Seismic to install accelerograph sensors and implement Sentinel, a building-specific response plan that reflects each building’s seismic tolerances. Each sensor delivers real-time, validated data about how the shaking at the building — not just how far away or how big the earthquake was.

Developed in New Zealand and backed by over two decades of research, Sentinel uses industrial-grade accelerographs to measure seismic activity at or near each building. These measurements are compared against the building’s unique tolerances, based on NZ Building Code standards and translated into a traffic light alert system:

• White (no action).
• Amber (inspect non-structural elements).
• Red (potential structural damage—evacuate and assess).

The goal of the rollout was to enable the PMG team to:

• Respond faster and more confidently after a seismic event.
• Reduce reliance on overloaded engineers and eliminate guesswork.
• Minimise business interruption for tenants.
• Fulfil governance obligations under HSWA 2015 using a data-led response.
• Strengthen building-level Health & Safety protocols using modern resilience tools.
• Build a standardised earthquake response plan that can be set up in advance and used anywhere in the portfolio.

The rollout was led by Paul Drummond, Chief Executive of Canterbury Seismic, in close collaboration with PMG’s Facilities Management team. Planning began over a year prior, with installations coordinated across multiple sites. Each building’s seismic profile was assessed to calibrate sensor thresholds, ensuring tailored responses.

“PMG’s remote property managers now benefit from immediate visibility into seismic events, limiting the need for on-site inspections to stronger events and enabling continuity of operations.” - Massimo Crestanello, PMG Facilities Manager

Results

The installation of Sentinel sensors has delivered tangible value to PMG’s operations, tenants, and governance framework:

• Enables fast, informed decisions following seismic events.
• Protects tenant safety and confidence while avoiding unnecessary evacuations.
• Supports compliance with the Health & Safety at Work Act 2015.
• Improves stakeholder trust - from tenants to insurers.
• Strengthens PMG’s ESG story under both environmental risk and governance.
• Reduces business disruption by enabling remote property managers to act with confidence.

PMG’s adoption of Sentinel by Canterbury Seismic exemplifies how data, technology and collaboration can drive better outcomes for tenants, investors and communities. By replacing uncertainty with real-time insight, we’re enhancing decision-making, reducing disruption, and strengthening the resilience of our portfolio.

This initiative reflects our commitment to being the property partner of choice – delivering proactive, future-focused solutions that protect people, preserve asset value, and give investors confidence in the long-term performance of the properties their funds are invested in.

Learn more about investing with PMG and current opportunities by reaching out to our Investor Relationships team at invest@pmgfunds.co.nz or 0800 219 476.