Building Rating Schemes
National Australian Built Environment Rating Scheme (NABERS) - incorporating the Australian Building Greenhouse Rating Scheme (ABGR)
NEWS
NABERS OFFICE/ABGR Accredited Assessor Training
to be held in Darwin 23rd and 24th May 2007. For more information and an application form please go to the NABERS OFFICE website
Northern Territory Benchmarking Report 2007 for NABERS Office Energy and Water
Dr Paul Bannister's presentation on the result of the 2007 NABERS benchmarking study
What is NABERS?
The National Australian Built Environment Rating System (NABERS) is a performance-based rating system for existing buildings. NABERS rates a building on the basis of its measured operational impacts on the environment. The scheme has two parts, NABERS OFFICE used to rate existing commercial office buildings and NABERS HOME which compares the environmental performance of a house with the average home in a specific area.
The higher the NABERS star rating, the better the actual environmental performance of a rated building.
NABERS OFFICE currently consists of an NABERS OFFICE Energy (also known as the Australian Building Greenhouse Rating (ABGR) scheme) and NABERS OFFICE Water.
It should be noted that NABERS is different to the Green Building Council of Australia’s Green Star rating tools as NABERS focuses mainly on the actual environmental impact of existing buildings over the previous twelve months whereas Green Star focuses the potential of design features in new buildings or office fit outs to reduce a range of environmental impacts.
Eventually, NABERS OFFICE will rate buildings on a full range of measured operational impacts - including energy use, refrigerants (greenhouse and ozone depletion potential), water use, stormwater runoff and pollution, sewage, landscape diversity, transport, indoor air quality, occupant satisfaction, waste and the presence of toxic materials.
Since its launch in April 2006, the water component of NABERS OFFICE has successfully begun its penetrated of the market, with 4.4% of total office area around Australia having obtained a NABERS OFFICE Water rating by the end of 2006. In addition, the NSW Government released the Sydney Metropolitan Water Plan 2006 which commits the NSW Government to rating its buildings with NABERS OFFICE Water and to meeting certain star rating targets.
The NSW Department of Energy, Utilities and Sustainability (DUES) administers NABERS and each Australian jurisdiction government is represented on a National Steering Committee that guides its development. The Northern Territory is represented by Building Sustainability Services within the Department of Planning and Infrastructure.
The NABERS website contains more information on NABERS
Australian Building Greenhouse Rating Scheme (ABGR)
ABGR (NABERS OFFICE Energy) is voluntary performance based scheme which benchmarks a building’s greenhouse impact on a scale of one to five stars.
The scheme was developed in 1999-2000 to assist building owners and tenants to reduce energy use, energy costs and greenhouse emissions. ABGR can be used by building owners or managers to rate the base building (central services); by tenants to rate their light and power use and owner-occupiers (or tenants who pay for all of their building’s energy use) can rate whole buildings.
To determine the star rating, based on the amount of carbon dioxide emissions per square metre, the rating uses 12 months of data that includes - energy use, hours of operation, net lettable area and number of people and computers.
The scheme can assist building owners in determining how well a building is actually performing and identifying areas where possible savings can be achieved.
While largely used to rate existing buildings, ABGR can also be applied to new buildings. DEUS has developed a "Commitment Agreement", which applies when a new building is being designing or when planning a refurbishment and commits the development to reaching and maintaining a particular greenhouse rating. Commitment Agreements can be established at the 4, 4.5 or 5 star levels for base or whole building ratings.
The ABGR scheme has strong national support including: the Property Council of Australia, the Master Builders Association, the Australian Conservation Foundation, the Facilities Managers Association and the Australian Institute of Refrigeration, Air Conditioning and Ventilation. The scheme is extensively used by leading property organisations such as Mirvac, Macquarie Office Trust, Colonial First State Property, Investa Property Group, General Property Trust and Colliers International.
To date 26% of office building space in Australia has obtained an ABGR accredited rating.
The market for NABERS OFFICE Energy/ABGR accredited assessments in the Northern Territory is being led by organisations such as the Power and Water Corporation and the Department of Defence, both of which intend to have ABGR assessments completed for buildings in the future.
The Commonwealth Government’s new Energy Efficiency in Government Operations Policy requires ABGR ratings for new, major leases throughout Australia.
The New South Wales, Victorian, Australian Capital Territory, South Australian and Western Australian governments also have introduced policies requiring building owners to disclose ABGR ratings and preferring premises that meet minimum star ratings.
The Northern Territory Government Energy Smart Buildings Policy, approved by Cabinet in 2005, states that:
“In the future, as benchmarking tools become available in the Territory, the Government also aims to consider base building energy efficiency in lease negotiations. The property industry will be consulted prior to the finalisation of such initiatives”.
Private tenants such as Ernst and Young, Westpac and KPMG are increasingly asking for ABGR ratings.
The market for accredited assessments can also be expected to be affected by the Property Council of Australia’s 2006 “Guide to Office Building Quality” which includes ABGR accredited ratings as a requirement for Premium, Grade A and Grade B buildings.
Use of ABGR in the Northern Territory to date has been affected by concerns regarding the need to check star rating levels against actual base building and whole building energy use data for a range of buildings. In November 2006, the Property Council of Australia’s NT Division confirmed its support for an energy and water data collection project to be coordinated by the Department of Planning and Infrastructure in early 2007.
In May 2007 Dr Paul Bannister from Exergy Australia presented the finds of the 2007 benchmarking study.
Download the Northern Territory Benchmarking Report.
Download Dr Bannister's presentation on the benchmarking results.
It is generally accepted that capital investment to achieve high ABGR star ratings will be offset by lower operating costs. Case studies for new and existing buildings and tenancies refer ABGR case studies
Go to the ABGR website for more information, case studies on buildings that have saved energy and operating costs, and to complete self-assessments of ABGR ratings using interim rating levels for the NT.