New NABERS requirements for building owners and government agencies

At the start of 2021, the New Zealand Government announced a new requirement, that all mandated government agencies who occupy office space greater than 2000m2 must get a NABERS energy efficiency rating when entering a new lease or renewing an existing lease. This should target a rating above 5 stars, but achieve a minimum of 4 stars. Agencies in smaller spaces are also strongly encouraged to get ratings.

If less than 4 stars are achieved, annual re - ratings are required until 4 stars are reached. Thereafter, re-ratings are required every 3 years. An important aspect will be public disclosure of ratings as this has been found to be a significant driver for improvements.

They have also announced that agencies planning a new build project need to achieve a minimum of 5 stars.

Who will this affect?

The responsibility for getting the rating lies with either the agency as tenant, or the landlord, or both, depending on the leased area and proportion of the overall building size. “Mandated agencies” covers an extensive range of government bodies from the Ministries to ACC.

To retain their tenants, building owners and landlords will need to be proactive and get ratings well before the expiry of leases so that the current building performance is known and they have time to improve if necessary to achieve the 4-star minimum. Where the responsibility lies with the Agency, again they should be proactive and get ratings early so that they are well informed when considering whether to renew leases.

Graham Gilleberg, WSP Senior Sustainability Consultant thinks the government is taking a good step forward in starting the momentum going towards awareness around the zero-carbon trajectory, but warns:

“The majority of New Zealand office buildings are likely to fall short of a 4-star rating. The requirement for ratings and the need to achieve the minimum star rating means that there is much to do and forward planning is essential to reduce the cost and effort in bringing buildings up to standard.”

Of course, there could also be disruption and significant cost in moving to new office space if this is not possible or the landlord chooses not to. He advises:

• Assessing which of your tenancies will require ratings, which type of rating, and who will take the lead in getting the rating
• If the rating doesn’t achieve 4 stars, identifying opportunities for improving workplace practices to save energy and working with your landlord to identify steps to take to improve energy efficiency in building features, plant and equipment
• Assessing existing metering arrangements and in many cases working with your landlord to improve/ adapt them to NABERS requirements to ensure appropriate energy coverage is included in the rating and therefore an accurate rating
• Ensuring your new build projects include a requirement to be “NABERS ready”, ie designed to achieve a 5 star rating after the first year of occupation
• Ongoing re-ratings (either yearly or every three years)

“The experience in Australia where NABERS ratings has been a requirement for all buildings over 1000m2 for some time is that energy efficiency has increased significantly, reduced outgoings, and the market has responded well with higher building values, reduced vacancy, and reduced incentives to secure tenancies, whilst at the same time making a significant contribution towards the reducing carbon emissions”.

What is a NABERS rating?

The National Australian Built Environment Rating System (NABERS), was launched by the Australian government in 1999 to measure and compare the energy and carbon performance of commercial buildings and tenancies. Most Australian building require ratings and this must be disclosed at the point of sale and lease.

Due to the programme’s success in driving improved environmental efficiencies and the expansion into new markets, EECA introduced NABERSNZ as a voluntary tool to rate the carbon performance of New Zealand offices in 2013.

There are several Australian building types that can have NABERS ratings (offices, shopping centres, hospitals) but in NZ there is at present just NABERSNZ ratings available for office buildings

There are three types of energy ratings:

• Tenancy: the energy performance of the floors and areas occupied mainly by the tenant, including computers, lighting, data centres, and staff kitchens.
• Base building: this rating has the biggest impact on improving a building's energy performance and measures the energy performance of a building's core services – lifts, stairwell lighting, common toilets, air conditioning, and ventilation.
• Whole building: measures both base building and tenancy ratings.

For more information on how WSP can assist with NABERS compliance please contact Graham Gilleberg

WSP can provide:

• Fully qualified NABERS assessors with nationwide coverage to rate and re-rate your tenancies and owned buildings.
• Building asset managers and surveyors to help you identify and manage your lease portfolios with respect to NABERS compliance and documentation.
• Energy professionals to survey and audit existing buildings and advise on metering requirements, energy efficiency and recommendations for best value improvement.
• Building performance engineers to model predicted energy use during new building design stages and integrate with the architect, façade engineer and building services engineers to design in features which will achieve the 5 star performance level.