NABERSNZ

The New Zealand Government’s property and procurement body – Government Property Group has announced new energy efficiency requirements for government offices from the beginning of 2021.

The requirements in a nutshell:

  • From 1 January 2021, these standards are compulsory for all agencies who occupy single-tenant, co-tenanted, or co-located government office accommodation. Non-mandated agencies are encouraged to follow these standards.
  • For existing buildings – agencies entering a new lease or renewing an existing lease should target a NABERSNZ rating above 5 stars and achieve a minimum of 4 stars.
  • For new buildings – agencies planning a new build project need to achieve a minimum of 5 star NABERSNZ rating.
  • The ratings must be publicly disclosed.

To find out more information, please visit the Government's procurement website. If you have any questions, please contact NABERSNZ team: nabersnz@nzgbc.org.nz.

Background

EECA Business in collaboration with the New Zealand Green Building Council (NZGBC) has introduced NABERSNZ - a scheme to measure and rate the energy performance of office buildings in New Zealand in 2013.

The scheme is based on National Australian Building Environmental Rating System (NABERS). Launched in 1999, NABERS is mandatory for commercial office space of 1,000m2 or more which is offered for sale or lease in Australia. NABERSNZ has been adapted for New Zealand conditions by the Energy Management Association of New Zealand (EMANZ).

How does NABERSNZ work?

A NABERSNZ rating takes into consideration:

  • The climatic conditions in which the building operates
  • The building size and occupancy
  • The hours of use
  • The level of services it provides
  • The energy sources (e.g. electricity, gas, coal, diesel) it uses

NABERSNZ ensures your building is compared fairly against its market peers. To ensure your real-life performance data is comparable with other buildings, it’s sometimes necessary to make adjustments that account for the specific location and use of your building.

The adjusted data is then compared to NABERSNZ benchmark data, and a star rating is calculated that reflects your building’s performance.

Benefits of a NABERSNZ rating

A NABERSNZ rating helps building owners and tenants to understand, compare and improve energy performance. Along the way it can help building owners and tenants develop ongoing assessments and improvements to building energy performance.

A good Certified Rating is a strong indicator of market appeal. International experience has shown the benefits are more than just financial benefits, such as reduced operating costs, increased value, increased rental income and reduced vacancy rates. It also provides market recognition and a competitive advantage for building owners and tenants who operate in an environmentally efficient manner; helps to create a better work environment for employees; and provides a credible, independently verified means for benchmarking and monitoring actual improvements in performance.

The starting point is to accurately measure and rate your building’s or tenancy’s energy performance.

Understand

NABERSNZ helps you understand how well you’re managing energy in your building or tenancy. You can get an idea of how your building is performing, and how you could improve, by using the free online self assessment tool. When you’re ready, a NABERSNZ Accredited Assessor can help you get a Certified Rating.

Improve

A NABERSNZ Certified Rating is much more than just an accurate measure of how well you are using energy. Your Accredited Assessor can help you identify areas where you can improve energy performance to make immediate and long-term savings, often without additional capital spending. Once you’ve started the journey to better energy management, you can improve your star rating over time. As there’s no obligation to publish Certified Ratings, your rating will help you decide what energy saving actions to target.

Compare

A NABERSNZ Certified Rating gives you a competitive advantage. It communicates at a glance your organisation’s commitment to energy management and can help you stand out in the marketplace. Ratings can be compared, regardless of building/tenancy size, or climate – it doesn’t matter if you're in Auckland or Invercargill.

To learn more about benefits of NABERSNZ Certified Rating, please visit NABERSNZ website.