GSNZAP News

Green Star Accredited Professional News - March 2010


Green Star Accredited Professional e-news is designed to keep you informed of new developments with Green Star.

Since we last updated you, the NZGBC has certified New Zealand’s second 6 Green Star - Office Design Project. The Christchurch Civic Building achieved a 'world leadership' rating and is designed to save $1.3 million in energy annually through its innovative Tri-Generation system, and 85 per cent of its hot water will be heated by solar power. Click here to read more about this project.

We're always keen to hear from you so please let us know what information you would like to read about in the next edition of this newsletter.

Please send your ideas to greenstarnz@nzgbc.org.nz

 

Materials and Products Information

New and improved information for people with questions about Materials and Products and how they fit in Green Star NZ is now available on the NZGBC website.

This includes:

  • Materials Calculator Guide for Interiors and Education tools
  • Eco-label Frequently Asked Questions

Please click here to visit the Materials and Products section of our website.

 

Recognising Eco-labels

The Green Building Council of Australia (GBCA) has just released details of the first eco-label to successfully pass through their framework. This eco-label now gets added to the list of recognised eco-labels on our website Click here to see the list. You can also visit the GBCA website for further details.

 

Project Inquiries and CIRs

We have provided further clarity around the ways in which project teams submit inquiries and CIRs to the Green Star team. Our focus on registered projects and this will help streamline the process to provide good turnaround times for you and your project teams. The new forms are available to download from the 'Technical Clarifications and CIR' page of the NZGBC website:

 

GSAP Profile - Tricia Love

Tricia Love Consulting

Geyser Building - 6 Green Stars

Click here to read an interview with Tricia Love about her involvement in the 6 Green Star Geyser Project.

 

IMPORTANT Green Star Excel Tool Downloads

The NZGBC as well as many of your organisations have or are transitioning from Office 2003 to 2007, which has alerted us to some functional losses within the freely downloadable Green Star Excel tools.

We have been working hard to resolve these issues and now have Excel tools in both 2003 (.xls) and 2007 (.xlsm) versions available to download here from our website.

Please direct your project teams to this page on the NZGBC website to download the latest version of the tools.

Note: Office v1 currently appears to be unaffected, but please get in touch if you identify any areas of concern

 

Review of PVC, Steel, Concrete and Timber Credits

The Green Building Council of Australia are reviewing and potentially revising some of the Materials Category Credits aiming to keep these Credits relevant to emerging industry benchmarks for environmental performance and to provide clarity to a diverse range of stakeholder concerns which have been collected over time.

The NZGBC is interested in exploring similar changes to Green Star NZ. Over the next few months we will seek feedback from you and others in the industry about adopting these revisions into Green Star NZ.

Click here for further information on the proposed new Australian Credits.

 

Improving Green Star NZ Project Processes

Last year we worked with eCubed Building Workshop to review the cost of Green Star NZ certification and identify options to simplify the assessment process. We surveyed people who worked on a Green Star NZ project and have identified a number of strategies to improve Green Star NZ.

The first of these strategies to be implemented will be the release of submission templates for each Credit. These templates will help project teams understand what is required and should further reduce the time required to prepare a successful submission. We look forward to releasing these in our next newsletter in May 2010, and to keeping you updated on other improvements to Green Star as they develop.

 

Certified Buildings

To date there are 38 Certified Green Star buildings in NZ spread over five tools with 35 additional projects registered for certification.

Recently certified projects include:

  • Christchurch Civic Building, 6 Green Star - Office Design (v1)
  • Pipitea Plaza, Wellington, 5 Green Star - Office Design (v1)
  • Victoria Square, Auckland, 5 Green Star - Office Design (v1)
  • MAF Building, Wellington, 5 Green Star - Office Design(v1)
  • 7a Pacific Rise, Auckland, 4 Green Star - Office Built (v1)

Registered and Certified Projects Graph

 

In Brief

Education and Training

Green Star Accredited Professional Training has been educating the industry now for four years. If you have new team members who can benefit from a deeper understanding of how Green Star works, please forward information about the following dates to your teams:

Please forward information about the following dates to your teams:

Click here to go to GSNZAP Training dates

  • 15 April - Auckland
  • 13 May - Dunedin
  • 22 June - Auckland
  • 29 July - Wellington
  • 07 September - Christchurch

NEW Dunedin Green Star Training

We're taking Green Star Training to Dunedin on 13th May - this will be the only training session offered in 2010 for Southland so if you have teams in the area, please forward them to the registration form at this link

Latest Technical Clarifications and Credit Interpretation Requests

Look out for the new format March release of Technical Clarifications and Credit Interpret Requests on the NZGBC website on 1 April 2010.

MAT-8 Steel 2009 tools

Please note that the January TC for MAT-8 Steel was only applicable to the Green Star NZ - Office (v1) tool, and incorrectly distributed points for the 2009 tools. The following Technical Clarification wording has been amended to reflect this, and is to replace the January 10 post: March 10, Technical Clarification: In order to be awarded one point, 30% by weight of all steel used must have a post-consumer recycled content of 50% or greater. In order to be awarded two points, 60% by weight of all steel used must have a post-consumer recycled content of 50% or greater. In order to be awarded three points, 90% by weight of all steel used must have a post-consumer recycled content of 50% or greater.

Making your first submission soon?

Just a reminder for GSAPs with registered projects that the NZGBC recommends that you take us up on our offer of a preliminary meeting to discuss the certification process ahead. Once we have met we also recommend that you submit a Checkpoint to check that the submission documentation is on track.

A Checkpoint Submission Form is available to download under 'Certify Your Project' at this link for GSNZAPs to use ahead of making your final submission.

Resources Available Online

Tools in Development

Thanks to all of you for your support of the NZGBC.

The Green Star Team

GSNZAP Exam

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