Latest news

“What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.”

Our Movers and Shakers series is spotlighting Aotearoa's leading sustainability professionals transforming the way we design, build and operate our buildings and homes. These are the people leading the charge for a more sustainable built environment throughout Aotearoa. Greg Tolley As Head of...

The New Zealand Green Building Council (NZGBC) has published its response to the government’s H1 Building Code consultation, arguing it needs to take action to avoid building tens of thousands of overheating homes.

It is promising to see that the potentially disastrous rollback of insulation levels is not moving forward, the New Zealand Green Building Council (NZGBC) says. Keeping the standards help ensure Kiwis will stay warmer and ensures Aotearoa’s energy grid is more resilient.

Our Movers and Shakers series is spotlighting Aotearoa's leading sustainability professionals transforming the way we design, build and operate our buildings and homes. These are the people leading the charge for a more sustainable built environment throughout Aotearoa. Sunshine Yates Sunshine...

I’m always anchored during the busy rush to the end of the year by the knowledge that we’re part of a longer journey. As much as I’d still love to pin a few things on 2024 before starting fresh in the new year, one of the things about working on climate is the knowledge that our efforts can’t be...

We are proud to release our first ever Green Star Impact Report - a key document highlighting some of the significant strides made in promoting sustainable building practices across New Zealand, and showcasing some of the incredible mahi being done by industry.

Last week, we were joined by a fantastic line up of panellists who shared their insights on developing ESG strategies in the property and construction sectors, giving them access to better sustainable finance options.

With spring upon us (not that the weather appears too aware of that fact) there have been a few new green shoots to highlight.

Tē tōia, tē haumatia Nothing can be achieved without a plan, workforce and way of doing things. It’s with huge thanks to Rui Peng from Critical who raised the roof with more than 300 of you joining us in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland for the annual Green Property Summit. We often hear feedback on our...

The built environment presents huge opportunities to slash emissions quickly, and cost-effectively. With the draft ERP2 containing just a line or two about buildings, there's a large gap to fill. Suffice to say, our response is a whole new chapter in itself. Our key recommendations include:

The world of sustainable finance, green finance, green bonds, sustainable loans is moving fast. No matter whether you’re in Treasury, project finance, business lending, developers, investors, or heads of sustainability, it’s hard to keep up. So here are our top three reads released over the last...

It’s been another huge month, with some significant milestone and landmark mahi.

Our Movers and Shakers series is spotlighting Aotearoa's leading sustainability professionals transforming the way we design, build and operate our buildings and homes. These are the people leading the charge for a more sustainable built-environment throughout Aotearoa. Jo Woods Jo Woods is the...

Buildings with sustainable credentials like Green Star and NABERSNZ command higher rents and are more valuable, according to a new report by leading real estate services company JLL.

After over two years of industry consultation the New Zealand Green Building Council has today launched the most carbon-busting commercial building certification yet.

As lenders and borrowers increasingly look to cut emissions and support others to do the same, the New Zealand Green Building Council has released an important guide to help the market answer the question ‘what is a green building?’ and “how can I evidence my green portfolio for finance.’

Sustainable buildings have hit a milestone with the New Zealand Green Building Council (NZGBC) awarding its 300th Green Star certification for new buildings and fitouts.

Our Movers and Shakers series is spotlighting Aotearoa's leading sustainability professionals transforming the way we design, build and operate our buildings and homes. These are the people leading the charge for a more sustainable built-environment throughout Aotearoa. Dave Annable Dave is a...

Photo by Amin Hasani on Unsplash

Photo by Petra Reid on Unsplash

As interest in healthier, more efficient, and environmentally friendly homes increases, Te Kaunihera Hanganga Tautaiao | the New Zealand Green Building Council is launching its first Homestar Design Guide to support the industry to deliver.

A letter to Climate Change Minister Simon Watts and Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk is urging the government to commit to energy labels on homes and buildings – similar to those required on domestic appliances, and to commit to MBIE’s Building for Climate Change programme aimed at...

As we hunker down and wrap up warm, on the other side of the world there’s an alarming reminder of the urgent need for climate action. In the past days and weeks, communities worldwide have mourned lives lost to extreme temperatures – More than 1,300 people died during this year’s Hajj pilgrimage...

Over the past three years many of you may have worked with Emma Bijleveld, our Professional Development Manager and integral part of the NZGBC team. We are sad to announce that Emma is moving home to the Netherlands, but equally excited for her next adventure.

Our Movers and Shakers series is spotlighting Aotearoa's leading sustainability professionals transforming the way we design, build and operate our buildings and homes. These are the people leading the charge for a more sustainable built-environment throughout Aotearoa. Danica Holgado Danica is...

Five new independent industry leaders have been appointed to the New Zealand Green Building Council’s (NZGBC) Green Star Advisory Committee as part of the ongoing collaboration with the sector to drive lower carbon, healthier, efficient buildings and communities. Since the New Zealand sector...

With a diverse commercial property portfolio valued at approximately $1.8 billion, Oyster Property Group is one of New Zealand’s leading unlisted commercial property and fund managers.

The day after budget day and I’ll be honest, it didn’t make for pleasant reading. Instead of cracking on with awesome pollution-busting, cost-saving measures like energy efficiency and the expanded Warmer Kiwi Homes Programme, our government has scaled back climate initiatives and failed to fund...

Image courtesy of Leroy de Thierry.

Our Movers and Shakers series is spotlighting Aotearoa's leading sustainability professionals transforming the way we design, build and operate our buildings and homes. These are the people leading the charge for a more sustainable built-environment throughout Aotearoa. Amanda Bryan Amanda is NZ...

What a day! Thanks to the 300 plus people who joined us at Housing Summit 2024, supporting New Zealand’s journey to a low-carbon future and better homes. The packed room mirrored the packed schedule – it was a big one with lots to digest. Here’s our attempt to unpack the day and some of our key...

Improving buildings could save New Zealand almost $40 billion and slash emissions equivalent to taking half our country’s petrol cars off the road.

Widi Auliagisni has become the sixth young leader awarded the Future Thinker of the Year title. The annual award, run by the New Zealand Green Building Council (NZGBC), acknowledges a student or young professional who demonstrates environmental knowledge and leadership and recognizes their success...

Our emissions are on the rise. New Zealand’s construction sector continues as one of the few sectors with rising emissions, while the homes our society live in are contributing to higher household emissions.

We're delighted to announce this year's Future Thinker of the Year finalists: Elizabeth Norris, Widi Auliagisni, Francisco Carbajal, and Mike Murray.

Our Future Thinker of The Year awards brings together some of the most innovative, passionate and exciting up-and-coming voices in driving better futures through sustainability. Now in its sixth year, it’s safe to say that we’ve seen some inspiring young leaders go on to make their mark in the...

2024 is passing as a blur – it’s been all go with events and courses, our team is working through a mountain of registrations and new certifications, providing new training such as air tightness webinars, we’re updating tools and improving our new website and systems, and more broadly we’re...

We're delighted to announce this year's Future Thinker of the Year shortlist: Oluwatobi Oyefusi, Elizabeth Norris, Widi Auliagisni, Francisco Carbajal, Ryan Simpson, and Mike Murray.

Our Movers and Shakers series is spotlighting Aotearoa's leading sustainability professionals transforming the way we design, build and operate our buildings and homes. These are the people leading the charge for a more sustainable built-environment throughout Aotearoa. Abbey Pickering Abbey is an...

Image by Koon Chakhatrakan Thanks to the support of industry we are thrilled to launch a new benchmark for logistics warehouses looking to certify their operations with Green Star Performance.

Our Future Thinker of The Year awards brings together some of the most innovative, passionate and exciting up-and-coming voices in driving better futures through sustainability. Now in its sixth year, it’s safe to say that we’ve seen some inspiring young leaders go on to make their mark in the...

Our Future Thinker of The Year awards brings together some of the most innovative, passionate and exciting up-and-coming voices in driving better futures through sustainability. Now in its sixth year, it’s safe to say that we’ve seen some inspiring young leaders go on to make their mark in the...

At a recent event with Auckland city leaders I asked ‘what future do we want?’. It’s a basic question, but one that isn’t as front of mind as it should be. We’re facing hotter temperatures causing homes to overheat, ageing water infrastructure struggling under a growing population, extreme weather,...

Spotlighting Aotearoa's leading sustainability professionals who are transforming the way we design, build and operate our buildings and homes. These are the people leading the mission for a more sustainable built-environment across Aotearoa. Bridget Pyć Bridget is centre stage in the push for...

Each year our Future Thinker of The Year awards brings together some of the most innovative, passionate and exciting up-and-coming voices in driving for better futures through sustainability. Now in its sixth year, it’s safe to say that we’ve seen some inspiring young leaders go on to make their...

Chief Sustainability Officer and Executive Director of Phoenix Metalman Recycling, Hilary West-Reeve has been voted onto the Board at the 2023 Annual General Meeting held on Tuesday.

Each year our Future Thinker of The Year awards brings together some of the most innovative, passionate and exciting up-and-coming voices in driving better futures through sustainability. Now in its sixth year, it’s safe to say that we’ve seen some inspiring young leaders go on to make their mark...

It’s getting hotter. 2023 was the warmest on record thanks to human-cause climate change and boosted by El Nino weather event. 200 days of the year saw new daily global temperature records for that time of year according to the BBC.

For the past two years we have been working with the building industry to update the Green Star rating tool to the next version, Green Star Buildings NZ, which is being released mid – 2024.

Spotlighting Aotearoa's leading sustainability professionals who’re transforming the way we design, build and operate our buildings and homes.

Today the New Zealand Green Building Council has released A practical guide to upfront carbon reductions, a vital report to support developers, architects, builders, contractors and the supply chain to tackle pollution.

In its advice to government today on the second Emissions Reduction Plan, the Climate Change Commission is backing calls to improve our existing buildings, recommending speeding up comprehensive retrofits to deliver healthy, resilient, low emissions spaces.

Photo by Hunter Cosford on Unsplash This week years of industry action, advocacy, and collective change contributed to something I think is pretty awesome. The latest Construction Industry Council key design guidelines. Sure, it didn’t dominate the news cycle or enter into many office watercooler...

Since October 2022, all new Green Star projects have been registered under Design & As Built v1.1. One of the main changes from the previous version (v1.0) was the introduction of the Conditional Requirement for minimum Upfront Carbon reductions. This new requirement was included to emphasise the...

A basic, but vital step is for our industry to measuring our impact, and the performance of the homes we create. In the latest iteration of Homestar, version 5, we introduced new carbon accountability requirements for homes aiming for certification. Alongside these requirements, we created the...

We are thrilled to have three fantastic interns joining the NZGBC whānau for the summer, Melika Rabbani-Khah, Bhavya Jasti and Vincent Heijnen. They will be supporting our Green Star and Homestar teams and getting involved with Future Thinker events.

In our new Q&A series we're putting the spotlight on some of Aotearoa's leading sustainability professionals who’re transforming the way we design, build and operate our buildings and homes.

BRANZ has updated tools and resources to help building designers meet and exceed the recently updated acceptable solutions and verification methods for energy efficiency in the Building Code.

In our new Q&A series we're putting the spotlight on some of Aotearoa's leading sustainability professionals who’re transforming the way we design, build and operate our buildings and homes.

Hopefully over Labour weekend you had an opportunity to relax, enjoy the sun, and perhaps crack into that book that’s been sitting on the bedside table for months. If you were able to finish it or are after something new, I’ve got your next bit of light reading all lined up… the International...

Photo by Tim Marshall on Unsplash There’s barely a day that goes by when I don’t have cause to speak to, or reflect on, our vision for all homes and buildings in Aotearoa to be green and sustainable, making healthier, happier New Zealanders.

Over the past few months, our Green Star team have travelled across Aotearoa, meeting with many industry organizations and reaching out to stakeholders to hear what you think about Green Star Buildings NZ, the next iteration of the Green Star new buildings tool.

In our new Q&A series we're putting the spotlight on some of Aotearoa's leading sustainability professionals who’re transforming the way we design, build and operate our buildings and homes.

Josefin Bloom has recently joined the Green Star team as a Technical Coordinator, bringing with her a real passion for environmental and social sustainability. Josefin is Swedish and has moved to Aotearoa after falling in love with the lifestyle and abundance of nature here.

Anyone with half an eye on current affairs in Aotearoa will know that there’s only one show in town at the moment. It’s full of talk about right wing, left wing, who’s taking control of the important centre ground. There’s big set pieces, off-the-cuff moments that swing momentum, and keenly...

There will be many political hustings/political panels ahead of the October election. With climate a key issue, and our sector providing a huge untapped opportunity to slash emissions, there remain major gaps in the political conversation.

Government and Council funded home improvement schemes have helped deliver thousands of healthier homes over the years and, alongside the recent development of healthy home loan top-ups from banks, a much needed part of the funding solution if we are to achieve net zero emission homes.

The Housing Summit 2024 will be the biggest ever, packed with hundreds of passionate and influential people who want New Zealand homes to be better, healthier places.

Photo by Elliot Blyth on Unsplash The New Zealand government has removed Fringe Benefit Tax (FBT) on public transport, bikes, ebikes and scooters, opening up greater incentives for employees to use more environmentally friendly transport.

We’re seeing increasing demand for high performance building envelopes, with blower door testing an essential tool to ensuring great results. But while it’s common practice in many parts of the world, we’re yet to see this important practice taking hold here in Aotearoa New Zealand. With demand...

Photo by Irina Iriser on Unsplash It’s about 17 years since the Stern Review on the economics of climate change was published. Sweeping up headlines around the world, it clearly concluded that “the benefits of strong and early action far outweigh the economic costs of not acting.”

In six months, on 1 January 2024, we will have just six years to halve climate polluting emissions. When we have achieved this, it will be the greatest success ever for our industry, and you’re going to be a key part of that success.

As the election draws ever closer, our sector has an incredible opportunity. In the face of a climate crisis, of which our sector is a major contributor, we also have the means right now to significantly reduce our emissions while also reducing living costs and improving the health of our people....

Get ready - consultation on the latest version of Green Star is coming this July.

Hours before the Budget was announced – always one of the biggest and busiest domestic news events of the year, which hoovers up journalists’ attention and the bandwidth of media outlets – the government released their response to the Commerce Commission’s investigation into the broken residential...

Economic outlook The recovery from COVID-19 continues to exceed expectations following the global financial crisis (GFC), with economic activity now 6.7 percent ahead of the pre-COVID-19 peak.

Earlier this year, UN secretary general António Guterres issued a stark call to “massively fast-track climate efforts by every country and every sector and on every timeframe. Our world needs climate action on all fronts: everything, everywhere, all at once.”

Leading experts in the construction and property sector have today released three comprehensive climate change scenarios to guide the industry on how they assess and report on what climate change means for their business.

Another sign of industry confidence in ECCHO as an online energy modelling tool for Building Code energy performance compliance.

We're facing the greatest challenge our industry has ever faced. Recent figures released by the Ministry for the Environment show that the carbon pollution associated with construction is soaring. Under the Paris Agreement, New Zealand has committed to reduce carbon emissions to 50% below 2005’s...

The government has just received new advice and recommendations from the Climate Change Commission, intended to guide Aotearoa to a healthy, zero carbon country by 2050.

Many of you have come to recognise and rely on Lena Albrecht who has worn many hats for us during her seven years with the Green Building Council. Lena has been instrumental in the growth of our events and professional development programmes.

Following our recent webinar on ventilation and airtightness, we received some feedback that I think is important to share.

We're delighted to announce this year's Future Thinker of the Year shortlist: Ruby Crooks, Maggie MacKinnon, Luis Medrano, Emily Newmarch, Oludolapo Olanrewaju, Rana Abdollahi Rizi, Nola Smart, Maria Walker, and Alexander Wierzbicki.

At our 2022 AGM we had the opportunity to farewell and thank Steve Aschebrock. Steve has stepping down after a brilliant nine years on the NZGBC board, including four as chair. In that time there has been a huge shift in the way New Zealand designs and builds our homes and buildings. We’ve expanded...

The latest IPCC synthesis report makes for bleak reading, but there remains a few rays of hope. As the authors say, ‘if we act now, we can still secure a livable sustainable future for all.”

Brendon Dwyer takes over the reins as New Zealand Green Building Council Board Chair after being formally voted in at the February board meeting. He has been acting chair since Steve Aschebrock retired from the board late last year.

Green Star Buildings - the latest version of Green Star, is being adapted for the New Zealand market. Following last year’s consultation, we have been working with our colleagues at GBCA, our Green Star Advisory Committee, local technical experts and this week finished our last session with our...

The requirement for Homestar projects to calculate and report on their embodied emissions is being expanded to cover all standalone homes.

This past month saw hundreds of New Zealanders scrambling to prepare for yet another deluge. It's been a devastating time for New Zealand in which we lost loved ones, homes and possessions.

A new report by consultants Aurecon, with costings by quantity surveyors Kwanto, provides a detailed review of the various requirements and specifications to achieve a 6 Homestar v5 rating, and how that compares with the necessary steps to meet NZ Building Code’s H1 Energy Efficiency clause.

Photo by Mark de Jong on Unsplash Happy new year. I hope you are well and had a fantastic break. Last year saw tremendous steps forward with major commitments to drive lower carbon healthier buildings through changes to the building code and energy labels on buildings. Government procurement also...

Photo by Ethan Hooson on Unsplash The New Zealand Green Building Council has brought together industry leaders to identify key issues for those disclosing their climate-related financial risks.

We are grateful to be joined by Yash Bhatia and Zoey Zheng for the next few months as part of our summer internship programme. They’ll be helping our Green Star and Homestar teams as we process a record number of new projects coming through. Please join us in welcoming Yash and Zoey to the team!

We’ve just finished up the first round of consultation on some of the biggest changes to Green Star yet. Green Star Buildings will replace Green Star Design & As Built NZ v1.1 when introduced in late 2023.

Photo by Aaron Birch on Unsplash While there’s only a few frantic weeks left before our office closes, our recent AGM has me in reflection mode already. It’s been a massive year for us as an organisation, for New Zealand generally, and importantly, for our efforts to address climate change.

Together we’re re-shaping the built environment, the way we plan, design, build, and operate our homes and buildings. Together we’re pushing for real change, driving improvements to our Building Code, and embedding sustainability into our regulatory systems and policy. Together we’re learning,...