This pathway only applies to industrial projects located in regional areas where cycling to work was not practical. When this pathway is adopted, it must be adopted in full. Where industrial projects are located in urban areas, seeking compliance through this industrial pathway will not be acceptable. 

Where there are key functional requirements for the spaces which are more important than the acoustic separation between spaces, the credit may be achieved even when the sound insulation target is exceeded. Please submit a Technical Question to justify in this case in order to preclude these spaces from the assessment

Providing that all other requirements of the Commissioning and Tuning - Independent Commissioning Agent credit criterion is met; an Independent Commissioning Agent (ICA) may be considered independent if they report directly to the building owner or the owner's designated representative, even if they are paid by the contractor. 

Due to the presence of certain rare earth minerals in photovoltaic panels, the ADPE environmental indicator in Life Cycle Assessments may be increased by more than 10%. This will not disqualify a project from achieving points under this credit, given that it is demonstrated that this limit is exceeded due to the inclusion of the PV system. Alternatively, as per the v1.1 Embodied Carbon Methodology, a PV system of equal size may be included in the Reference Building Model, which will eliminate the impact of this system in comparison. 

For aged care facilities that are delivered like residential projects, it is acceptable for projects to show compliance to the original criterion under credit 5.2 End-of-Life Waste Performance in the Submission Guidelines, where the Healthcare Guidance is also adopted. Note that this exception only applies to this specific project type. For all the other healthcare projects using the Healthcare guidance, the guidance needs to be adopted in full as specified in the Healthcare Guidance. 

Any natural stone or rock-like material in waste arising from excavation that is below a size that would preclude its re-use as fill, topsoil or similar re-use (in the reasonable opinion of the waste management contractor or processing facility), complies with the definition of ‘excavation waste’ under Credit 22 of the DAB Submission Guidelines

There is no requirement to use a dynamic simulation software where the Visual Comfort credit is met through the Compliance Using Daylight Factor option. 

This is clarified in response to a formatting change that was included in the most current version of the Submission Guidelines under the Visual Comfort - Daylight criterion. The second paragraph under the heading 'Requirements for Modelling' is only intended to apply to the Compliance Using Daylight Autonomy option.

The following certifications and programs were recognised under the Green Star NZ legacy tools for demonstrating products and materials’ VOC and formaldehyde compliance. However, under the Design and As-Built NZ and Interiors NZ rating tools, certificates or statements from these programs are not accepted as evidence to show compliance with the Indoor Pollutant credit 13: 

• GuT
• AgBB
• UL Greenguard
• Carpet and rug Institute (CRI) Green Label Plus
• SCS Indoor Avantage Gold
• FloorScore - Resilient Floor Covering Institute (RFCI)
• Formaldehyde E0 or E1 compliance
• EMICODE
• Blue Angel

The NZGBC only accepts the following evidence for products and materials to demonstrate compliance with the Design and As-Built NZ and Interiors NZ Indoor Pollutant credit 13:

• Recognized eco-labels in the Indoor Pollutant column on our website, OR
• Test certificates from accredited laboratories to show the nominated products meet relevant limits specified in the Submission Guidelines.

It is granted conditionally for a project to demonstrate the compliance to this credit when the main contractor achieved ISO 14001 certification part way through the project. 

The Telarc assessment to achieve ISO 14001 goes through various stages to test and confirm that the applied business processes meet the standards as laid out by that particular ISO standard. The first stage is to access the company policies and management documents to ensure they comply. Once confirmed the Telarc auditors then return and assess the “systems in Action”. For this to be granted, the following comments shall be addressed by further evidence.  

1. If changes were made to the Company Policy and Process (as part of the stage 1 Telarc Audit) to achieve the accreditation, then the project could not have been operating to the required standard and therefore cannot demonstrate compliance as per the credit criteria. Please provide evidence of the company systems audit and summary of the process undertaken to prove compliance without any significant change. 

2. If the project was required changes to their process and/or significant defects were noted that were later remedied to meet the ISO requirements (Company processes) then this method of proving compliance with this credit cannot be approved. This in effect would show that the project was not set up to the required standard before and during the construction period. Please provide evidence that the project was operating to the required Standard and no significant deviations were identified.

‘Warm Charging’ technology is considered an energy-reducing process in steel reinforcement production and project teams may demonstrate compliance with Energy-Reducing Processes in Steel Reinforcement in the Green Star – Design & As Built Rating tool on the condition that:

• The steel manufacturer has had their ‘warm charging’ process peer reviewed by an independent third party LCA Practitioner and agrees to comply with any recommendation made by the peer reviewer; and
• The steel manufacturer provides annual updates on the process that are publicly available, to help educate the wider industry on the benefits of warm technology process. 

The benchmarks for steel reinforcement quantities remain as per the Submission Guideline whereby at least 60% (by mass) of all reinforcing bar and mesh is produced using energy-reducing processes in its manufacture.