1 Introduction

1.1 New Zealand Green Building Council

The New Zealand Green Building Council (NZGBC) is a broad-based coalition of property and building industry representatives working with government to ‘transform the built environment towards sustainability by reducing the impact of development and use’. To do this, the NZGBC has engaged, and will continue to engage, all sectors of the property and construction industry from owners and developers through to tenants and end users.

The objective of the NZGBC is to promote the mainstream adoption of sustainable building principles, policies, practices, standards and rating tools. The NZGBC seeks to improve the overall environmental performance of building by: reducing environmental impacts caused during construction; reducing resource consumption (eg, energy, water); and significantly improving the quality of indoor environments in existing and future building stock. The outcome of these efforts will be a more sustainable future with buildings that are environmentally and economically efficient, as well as healthy environments in which to work, live and play.

To facilitate the transition towards a sustainable built environment, the NZGBC has acknowledged two key points of focus:

the vast and international wealth of knowledge and experience with ‘green buildings’ and ‘green building assessment tools’
the needs, current practices, and demands of the New Zealand market-place.

The NZGBC believes that a building rating and assessment tool is a fundamental market driver for this transition to occur. In this regard, the NZGBC has the unique opportunity to draw on the successes and challenges of international experience to produce a New Zealand specific assessment tool. On behalf of the Ministry for the Environment (MfE), the NZGBC proposed to review a number of international and domestic rating tools and assess their suitability for effective adaptation and implementation in the New Zealand environment.

Specifically, the NZGBC has researched the feasibility of the following rating schemes: LEED (US), BREEAM (UK), GBTool (Canada), CASBEE (Japan), BASIX, Green Star and NABERS (Aus), Green Office and Green Home schemes (NZ). While there are many similarities between these schemes, the various methods of assessment and scoring all differ to some degree. The differences generally reflect variations in the market to which they cater, the stage of the building process to which they apply, the environmental issues they address, and the purpose for which they have been designed (Hargreaves, 2005).

While researching international rating schemes, the NZGBC has taken clear measures to keep the market informed of the tool establishment process as well as engage their local expertise. To date, the NZGBC has uncovered a strong demand for a New Zealand specific rating tool which is closely interchangeable with related international assessment tools. In addition, the market demonstrated a clear preference towards an accessible interface with Australia’s Green Star system due to proximity of markets. The result of this work is the suggestion of a framework that includes all the demands from the New Zealand market-place.

1.2 The Project

1.2.1 Project Design

Over the past six months, the NZGBC has worked diligently to initiate and pursue a strong and mutually beneficial relationship between the NZGBC and the property and construction industry. This project has enabled the NZGBC to have a specific focus for this engagement. It is this relationship that will in the end ensure the success of any commercialised system. To build this relationship, the NZGBC has taken a two pronged approach:

public meetings to promote industry knowledge and stimulate generalised thought, awareness and feedback
a Project Working Group (PWG) to facilitate industry-based decision-making.

The purpose of these public meetings was to ‘meet and greet’ the industry—to inform them of the background, goals and status of the NZGBC establishment, and investigate a solution for a new commercial design tool for New Zealand. In addition, these meetings provided a forum to gather a wide range of feedback and stimulate industry wide interest through involvement and increased understanding.

At the same time, Project Working Group (PWG) meetings involved a smaller group made up of people from different industry perspectives and interests. The ultimate goal of the PWG meetings was to come to an informed agreement between the NZGBC and industry on a solution for New Zealand. It was understood that during the course of the project consideration would also be given to tools related to the assessment of both new and existing buildings and retrofits but with a primary focus on a solution for a new commercial design tool.

Project Working Group meetings were structured to achieve the following progression:

examine existing tools based on research provided by URS NZ Ltd
identify a green building rating tool or suit of tools appropriate for New Zealand buildings
develop an associated plan for adaptation and implementation.

The results of the PWG were very positive. Members of the PWG spoke publicly of their involvement and desire for an effective building assessment tool at the most recent public meetings (June 2006). In addition, the NZGBC presented the generalised structure for a New Zealand specific rating tool and received positive feedback. Looking forward, it is suggested that a future project be designed to properly adapt and implement a tool for use in New Zealand.

1.2.2 Project Working Group Members

Table 1-1 Project Working Group Members

Jane Henley	NZGBC	NZGBC Establishment CEO
Michael Field	URS New Zealand Ltd	Technical Project Manager
Wayne Sharman	Building Research	Working Group Member
Marko den Breems	Jasmax	Working Group Member
Chris Wood	Ministry for the Environment	Working Group Member
Geoff Banks	(ACENZ) Structex	Working Group Member
Justin Lees	Connell Mott	Working Group Member
David Kernohan	DBH	Working Group Member
Jason Happy	Kiwi Income Property Trust	Working Group Member
Hans Buwalda	Fletcher Building	Working Group Member
Chris Mason	NZIA	Working Group Member
Mark Sigglekow	Pragmatix	Working Group Member

1.3 Report Objectives

This report provides a summary of the work completed during this project. It includes:

a) An outline of the project methodology applied (Section 2).

b) Background research for existing green building rating tools (Sections 3 & 4).

c) Public consultation outcomes – resulting from workshops and meetings held (Section 5).

d) Review of the industry requirements of a sustainability rating scheme and the issues identified (Section 6).

e) A detailed description of the decision-making criteria and selection process undertaken to reach the final decision (Section 6).

f) Final recommendations for the adoption of the Green Star and Green Office tools in New Zealand (Section 7).

1.4 Acknowledgements

The authors would like to take this opportunity to thank all those who have been involved in the process to date, including the industry representatives that attended the seven workshops (two in Auckland, two in Wellington, two in Christchurch and one in Dunedin) and offered feedback and discussion that has helped us understand industry needs. Thank you to all of the international tool designers who have provided information on their existing tools through the matrix sent to them, and other supporting material. In particular we acknowledge the industry representatives who provided their time and expertise to the Project Working Group.

Thank you to URS New Zealand Ltd, and especially Michael Field, who has carried out all of the research throughout the project and compiled the material for this report.

Thank you to Jasmax and Dr Paul Jursovich for their review for the project, ideas and support over the past five months.

Thank you to Alec Williams, who has helped behind the scenes writing, questioning and ensuring that we listened and then had a clear process for complex multi-stakeholder engagement.

Special thanks go to BRANZ for the use of their own assessment tools research report, which greatly aided the research segment of this project, written by Rachel Hargreaves (Hargreaves, R (2005) Compendium and Evaluation of Building Environmental Impact Schemes being used in Australasia. BRANZ SR 135. Judgeford, Wellington). And for the presentations at all of the series two workshops.

Final acknowledgement goes to the hard work and dedication of the Establishment Board of the NZGBC who have laid the foundations for the organisation so this project was possible, as they continue to steer the organisation into a strong position for full operation in July 2006.

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