Green Star Design & As Built NZ and Interiors NZ v1.1
Buildings and their construction account for as much as 15% of New Zealand's carbon emissions (including infrastructure closer to 20%). [Source: Ministry for the environment Emissions Reduction Plan, Chapter 12 Building and Construction]
Working alongside others who want healthy, green buildings, we can transform the way our commercial buildings are designed and built, dramatically reducing our carbon footprint and improving people's health and wellbeing.
Green Star continues to evolve in collaboration with the industry, with version Design & As Built NZ v1.1 pulling together the lessons we've learnt, and the feedback we've received from the industry since Green Star Design & As Built NZ and Green Star Interiors NZ were first introduced back in 2019.
On 28 October 2022, registrations for Green Star Design & As Built NZ v1.0 will close.
After this date, all projects will be registered under the latest version being Green Star Design & As Built NZ v1.1.
This is an important step towards zero carbon buildings, with new mandatory requirements and a bigger emphasis on embodied carbon throughout the design and build phase. Moving forward, the New Zealand Green Building Council is working to prepare the industry for the transition to the future version of Green Star Buildings. More information on the consultation and timeline is available here.
What's new in v1.1?
There's a comprehensive set of changes to Green Star Design & As Built and Interiors including introducing new mandatory minimums to achieve certification, as well as greater emphasis on areas such as embodied carbon, performance and climate adaptation.
- New mandatory calculations requiring minimum performance thresholds
- Mandatory commissioning and tuning where the building has set environmental performance targets, been commissioned, and will be tuned.
- A new conditional requirement for a climate change pre-screening checklist.
- Guidance for Climate Change Risk Assessment and Adaptation Plan is updated to improve clarity by referencing localized resources and approaches.
- The Greenhouse Gas Emissions credit has been reframed with separate points for energy efficiency improvement removed and added to overall GHG Emissions reduction. The credit increases threshold for conditional requirements for 4, 5, and 6 Star ratings. This includes fossil fuel limits for 4 and 5 star buildings, and a total fossil fuel ban for 6 Star buildings.
- There are now more points available under Life Cycle Impacts, with new criteria set up for upfront carbon emissions and long-term carbon storage. There is also a new conditional requirement added for upfront carbon emissions alongside specific guidance and pathways provided to guide projectsâ calculations of upfront carbon emissions.
- Incorporation of New Zealand data for water calculators
- Provides updates and clarifications to several other credits including the Sustainable Sites and Climate Adaption Plan credits.
A full breakdown of changes can be found in the new Submission Guidelines