About Green Star

Rating Tools for Commercial Buildings

NZGBC is committed to setting standards of best practice and leadership through the development of environmental tools for buildings in New Zealand. Green Star is a comprehensive, national, voluntary environmental rating scheme that evaluates the environmental attributes and performance of New Zealand's buildings using a suite of rating tool kits developed to be applicable to each building type and function.

The tools are developed by the NZGBC in partnership with the building industry in order to:

• Establish a common language and standard of measurement for green buildings
• Promote integrated, whole-building design
• Raise awareness of green building benefits
• Recognise environmental leadership
• Reduce the environmental impact of development.

The Green Star suite of rating tools was designed as a three-stage process to match the key phases in a building life cycle:

Design > Built > Performance

The tools address the needs of specific building types, such as office buildings, industrial buildings and education buildings, in the design phase and, following construction, in the Built phase. Now that Design and Built tools are available for these building types, we are focusing on developing a Green Star Performance tool.

The current tools assess the environmental impact that is a direct consequence of a building's site selection, design, construction, and maintenance. The framework has eight separate environmental impact categories plus an innovation category.

Credits are awarded within each of the categories based on the building's environmental merits in a range of areas and they take into consideration the unique development requirements and impacts of each sector.  Points are then weighted and an overall score is calculated, determining the project's Green Star rating.

Possible Ratings

• 4 Star Green Star Certified Rating (score 45-59) signifies 'Best Practice'
• 5 Star Green Star Certified Rating (score 60-74) signifies 'New Zealand Excellence'
• 6 Star Green Star Certified Rating (score 75-100) signifies 'World Leadership'