Tackling upfront embodied carbon with NABERS and NZGBC - Webinar replay
Автор: thinkstep-anz
Загружено: 2025-11-08
Просмотров: 42
The way we think about emissions has changed. While we’ve made great progress on reducing operational energy, upfront embodied carbon - the emissions locked into a building through its materials, transport, and construction - is now the largest part of a project’s total footprint.
The good news is that the tools needed to measure and manage these emissions from the very start are already available:
• New Zealand led the way in regulation and Green Star updates, providing clear pathways for measurement.
• In Australia, the NABERS Embodied Carbon rating tool offers a standardized way to compare and verify a building's upfront emissions against what's typical for similar projects.
In this webinar, Katie Eyles (Embodied Carbon Lead at NABERS), Sam Archer (Director of Market Transformation at NZGBC), and Nicole Sullivan (Impact Director at thinkstep-anz) discussed how to measure and manage the largest share of a building’s footprint: upfront embodied carbon.
Here’s what we learned:
New Zealand is mandating rapid reductions. Sam Archer outlined that New Zealand is heading towards a 53% reduction by 2028. NZGBC's rating tools, like Homestar, use fixed benchmarks (e.g., targeting 60 kg/m² for homes), and the Green Star tool uses a defined reference building specification to prevent designers from artificially inflating their baseline.
NABERS provides an "as-built" star rating. Katie Eyles detailed how the NABERS tool provides an "as-built" rating by comparing a building's actual emissions against an expected baseline, adjusted for its type and height. She confirmed its use as a compliance pathway in NSW regulation and alignment with Green Star V1.1. "We compare your actual upfront emissions with what we would expect for a building of your type... and if you have less CO2 equivalent per meter squared than what we would expect, then you get a higher rating,” Katie Eyles.
A huge challenge is in collecting evidence. Katie stressed that the primary implementation challenge is securing as-built evidence (invoices, delivery dockets, and purchase orders) to prove what specific low-carbon materials were delivered to site.
Success depends on contractual mandates. Nicole Sullivan offered practical guidance, emphasizing that the most impact is achieved by starting early in the design phase. To overcome data gaps, project leaders should use the NABERS tool for early estimation, make data collection a contractual requirement and demand monthly reporting from contractors to ensure critical evidence is secured before the project is complete.
Interested to listen to more sustainability webinars? https://www.thinkstep-anz.com/resrc/w...
Timestamps:
00:14 – 00:51 – Introduction (Emily Moore)
Overview of webinar and speakers: Sam (NZGBC), Katie (NABERS), Nicole (thinkstep-anz).
00:51 – 07:21 – NZGBC (Sam Archer)
Embodied carbon methodology, standardised assumptions, calculator, and Green Star/Homestar targets.
07:21 – 15:22 – NABERS (Katie Eyles)
Overview of NABERS embodied carbon tool, benchmarking system, training and certification, data and policy context.
15:22 – 19:20 – thinkstep-anz (Nicole Sullivan)
How to demonstrate genuine carbon reductions and collect credible evidence early.
19:20 – 28:24 – Q&A Session
Benchmarks, data verification, preventing gaming, infrastructure use, intensity vs efficiency, small projects, and early quantification.
28:24 – 28:56 – Closing remarks and thanks.
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