Green Star
Design & As Built
The most commonly used Green Star rating, Green Star Design & As Built NZ helps guide the sustainable design and construction of any new commercial build or major refurbishment.
The latest version of Green Star; Green Star Buildings NZ, is now live. During the transition period, Green Star Design & As Built NZ v1.1 will run alongside Green Star Buildings NZ. Please note that all DAB v1.1 Expressions of Interest must be submitted by 6pm, Friday 30th May 2025, and fully registered by 30th June 2025. Current projects can benefit from extending their design and planning to incorporate the new credits available under Green Star Buildings NZ. For more details, check out the credit substitution document here.
Green Star Design & As Built NZ assesses the sustainable credentials of non-residential building design and construction
Hundreds of buildings have been registered and certified under Green Star, the green building rating scheme, and dozens more are being added every year. It has helped projects slash waste to landfill, choose better materials and systems, and create spaces that better serve the environment and people. The team at the New Zealand Green Building Council, who oversee and run Green Star, is proud that thousands of Kiwis are now thriving in productive, healthier, more efficient places.
Green Star is recognised as an independent assessment which combats the risk of ‘greenwashing’ and provides assurance to the occupants of the building, and the wider community, of its sustainability. When considering both tenant expectations and Willis Bond’s aspirations to reduce the impacts of its projects we decided Green Star was the best tool to achieve our goals.
David McGuinness
Willis Bond | Director
Helping embed sustainable design and construction
Green Star Design & As Built allows projects to submit for an interim Design Review rating - giving developers and project teams confidence they're on the right track, as well as providing an opportunity to get feedback early on areas they can improve upon. It also allows teams to promote their green credentials earlier in the project.
The Design Review certification expires two years after practical completion, or once the full Design & As Built certification is achieved. The As Built component certifies that the completed building delivers
What makes a Green Star building?
Green Star is a holistic tool that awards points across various key performance and environmental categories to assess a project's sustainability.
Projects must meet a number of mandatory benchmarks for a lower-carbon, higher-performing project, before using a combination of optional credits to achieve a final score. The greater the number of points, the higher the Green Star rating.
A rating of 4-6 stars can be awarded, with a 4 demonstrating best practice, 5 New Zealand excellent, and 6 stars putting a project among world leaders in green building.
Indoor environment quality
Aims to encourage and reward initiatives that enhance the comfort and well-being of occupants. The credits within this category address issues such as air quality, thermal comfort and acoustic comfort.
Energy
Aims to reward projects that are designed and constructed to reduce overall greenhouse emissions from operations by addressing energy demand reduction, use efficiency and generation from alternative sources.
Transport
Aims to reward projects that facilitate a reduction on the dependency of private car use as an important means of reducing overall greenhouse gas emissions, as well as to encourage the provision of alternative forms of transportation.
Water
Aims to encourage and reward initiatives that reduce the consumption of potable water through measures such as the incorporation of water efficient fixtures and building systems and water re-use.
Materials
Aims to address the consumption of resources for the project, by encouraging the selection of low-impact materials.
Land use and ecology
Aims to reduce the negative impacts on sites' ecological value as a result of urban development and reward projects that minimise harm and enhance the quality of local ecology.
Emissions
Aims to assess the environmental impacts of 'point source' pollution generated by projects and reduce their effects on the atmosphere, watercourse and native animals.
Innovation
Aims to recognise the implementation of innovative practices, processes and strategies that promote sustainability in the built environment.Technical resources (Green Star Design & As Built NZ v1.1)
Here you'll find everything you need to guide you through your Green Star certification. Please note, these documents are for the latest version introduced in April 2022 - Green Star Design & As Built NZ v1.1
If you're project was registered under a previous version of Green Star you can continue to use the submission guidelines and resources associated with that version. Previous versions, including Design & As Built NZ v1.0 can be found here.
Key resources
- Green Star certification agreement
Submission pointers and guidance
- Guidance - Submitting for Design Review
- FAQs
Submission resources
- Submission templates (.zip file)
Statements
- Modelling producer statement
- Construction and demolition waste reporting criteria
Projects may use the new Operational Waste Calculator v1.0 for Design & As Built projects. You can find the calculator, and calculator guide here
Credit 12 - Visual comfort
- Daylight and views hand calculation guide
Credit 15 & 16 - Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Peak Electricity Demand Reduction
- Shared services and low-carbon energy supply assessment guide
Credit 17 - Sustainable Transport
- 17A - Performance Pathway calculator guide
- 17B - Prescriptive Pathway calculator guide
Credit 18 - Potable water
Credit 19
Embodied Carbon
Please note, Microsoft often blocks macros on downloaded documents. In order to access the full calculator functionality macros needs to be enabled. Macros and adding the document as a trusted file can be done when the document is first downloaded or through the file's security properties. Find out more here
Life cycle impacts
Credit 21
Sustainable Products Calculator v1.1
Credit 23 - Ecological value
Credit 28 - Refrigerant impacts
Green Star recognises innovation and efforts to carve out new ways of building sustainably. Often these sit outside the current benchmarks laid out in the tool, however points are awarded under a separate 'Innovation' credit. This recognises new initiates with a significant sustainability benefit.
Each project can submit up to 10 innovations to be considered for approval, for a maximum of 10 points towards a Green Star rating.
If you have an idea for an innovation in your project, we encourage you to talk to us as early in the process as possible.
How to claim Innovations
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After reviewing the section for Innovation in the Green Star Submission Guidelines (Available to members and Green Star professionals below), your Green Star Accredited Professional will then need to register a project’s interest in targeting an Innovation with the NZGBC.
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You will then need to submit a completed Innovation submission using the template below. This outlines the initiative, its sustainability benefits and relevance in New Zealand.
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Documentation will then need to be submitted for assessment after registration but before Round Two).
Project teams can provide partial documents or full documents in a 'Pre-Round One' or 'Pre-Round Two' review for each proposed innovation. If the innovation is granted conditionally pending further documentation, all the remaining documents need to be provided in either Round One or Round Two assessment. Innovations can't be targeted after Round Two.
Innovation Challenges
In addition to innovations claimed by projects, both Green Star and Homestar have published a list of innovation challenges. These recognise initiatives that don’t currently fit in to the main framework of these tools but that we believe are important to encourage and recognise. They cover environmental, social and economic sustainability initiatives. While some challenges only apply to some tools, others across all our tools. Several current innovation challenges were originally published by the Green Building Council of Australia for Green Star projects there, but have been adapted for Green Star and Homestar projects in New Zealand.
Table of Innovation Challenges
You are welcome to submit a new challenge relating to sustainability issues you would like to address
Submission Template
The submission template is developed to assist your project with an innovation submission – these will be submitted to us by your Green Star Accredited Professional (GSAP)
Example submissions
These submissions, from NZGBC’s own office fit-out, will give you an idea of what NZGBC expects.
Exceeding IEQ-C credit template and submission documents
Financial Transparency Disclosure Template
- Download
Additional Guidance for Universal Design Innovation
Using sustainable building products and materials is a great way to reduce our footprint, but which ones are best?
Similar to how we advocate independent certification like Green Star and Homestar as a way of verifying whether things are done right, we encourage the use of independent assessments of products and materials by third parties such as Environmental Choice New Zealand, Green Tag, and EPD Australasia.
We do not test, review, or provide eco-label certification for products and materials ourselves. Instead we use authoritative third party certification bodies and eco-labels, and incentivise the use of products that have undergone these assessment by awarding points towards a Green Star rating.
Products recognised in Green Star
- Eco-label certified materials and products
- Products with Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs)
- Reused materials
- Materials with high recycled content
- Responsibly sourced materials with certifiable stewardship programmes
- Low emissions of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC)
We're happy to work with any of our members to help communicate how their products fit within Green Star. We'd encourage product and material suppliers to get certified under one of our approved eco-labels or generate an Environment Product Declaration.
Mixed-use
This guide addresses the alignment of rating levels within mixed-use building
projects looking to target both Green Star D&AB NZ v1.1 (including NZ v1.1.1)
and Homestar v5. It presents the association between the different tool
credits and provides guidance on which requirements need to be applied
where and identifies where pre-defined innovations can and cannot be
applied.
Industrial
This guidance document, Green Star – Design & As Built NZ v1.1 Guidance for Industrial Projects is for all involved in industrial projects including buildings owners, Green Star Accredited Professionals, contractors and suppliers.
Healthcare
The purpose of this guide is to provide
additional information to help buildings such as public and private hospitals, and aged care facilities where substantial care is delivered target a Green Star – Design & As Built NZ v1.1 rating.
Fitout Scope: Guidance for Integrated, Cold Shell and Warm Shell Fitouts
This document is designed to provide guidance to project teams where part
or all of the primary and secondary areas in a building are being delivered as Integrated Fitout or Cold Shell.
NZGBC Members and Green Star Accredited Professionals can access the Submission Guidelines for free.
For Non-members the Submission Guidelines for any NZGBC tool costs $600+ GST.
Login, or get in touch
Certification fees
For a Green Star Design & As Built Certified Rating, the following fees apply.
Please note price will be determined at time of billing and is subject to change.
All fees shown are excluding GST.
| Project value ($) | Members fees 2024/2025 ($) | Non-member fees 2024/2025 ($) |
|---|---|---|
| 0M - < 3M | 18,500 | 24,700 |
| 3M - < 10M | 23,400 | 30,800 |
| 10M - < 30M | 31,700 | 44,800 |
| 30M - < 60M | 40,700 | 57,500 |
| 60M - < 100M | 49,700 | 70,000 |
| 100M - < 150M | 60,800 | 82,300 |
| 150M + | 72,000 | 93,500 |
Additional fees
Charged technical question - $400 + GST
Charged additional review - $950+ GST
Appeal - $950+ GST
Extension of time fee - $2,500 + GST
Certification Agreement amendment - A minimum of $200 subject to the complexity of the required changes
- More resources for Green Star – Design & As Built NZv1.1 are available here
- Current GSAPs and NZGBC members can login to view the submission guidelines on our website
REGISTER A PROJECT
Green Star Design and As Built NZv1.1 is the latest version of Green Star, effective from the 28th April 2022. The deadline for registering projects under Green Star Design and As Built NZv1.0 will be 28th October 2022. From then on projects wishing to register may only use the Green Star Design and As Built NZv1.1 submission guidelines.
To register a project, please download the Eligibility, Registration & Submission Form from this page and submit the completed form to greenstarnz@nzgbc.org.nz.
CONTACT US
If you have any questions about rating your project under Green Star – Design & As Built NZ, please contact the Green Star team on (09) 951 0733 or greenstarnz@nzgbc.org.nz.
Technical Resources NZ v1.0
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
NZGBC Members and Green Star Accredited Professionals can access the Submission Guidelines for free. Please visit the Resources for Members and GSAPs page for download.
For Non-members the Submission Guidelines for any NZGBC tool costs $600+ GST. Please email to find out more.
Technical Resources NZv1.1
Green Star Design and As Built NZv1.1 is the latest version of Green Star launched on 28th April 2022.
The deadline for registering projects under Green Star Design and As Built NZv1.0 will be 28th October 2022, after which all projects must register using the the Green Star Design and As Built NZv1.1 submission guidelines.
This page will continue to be updated with additional v1.1 resources, including the embodied carbon calculator.
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
NZGBC Members and Green Star Accredited Professionals can access the Submission Guidelines for free. Please visit the Resources for Members and GSAPs page for download.
For Non-members the Submission Guidelines for any NZGBC tool costs $600+ GST. Please email to find out more.