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 Green Star Technical Clarification Rulings

Technical Clarifications for Green Star represent our answers to Technical Questions submitted by projects, and provide further guidance and reference to others. The list is regularly updated.  

There are two types of Technical Clarifications listed in the table below:

General Clarifications

These are extensions to the guidance provided in the Submission Guidelines. They clarify and sometimes supersede the original Credit Criteria or 
Compliance Requirements. General Clarifications set precedent for future project teams to follow. Should a project team wish to apply a general clarification to its project, there is no requirement for further Technical Questions to be submitted. NZGBC Assessors will also use them as precedents to assess submissions.

Project Specific Clarifications

These are published as references for other projects but, unlike General Clarifications, they do not set precedent. They often relate to special 
situations where multiple prerequisites exist for a particular project and are less likely to reoccur to another project. Therefore, rulings set for Project Specific Clarifications are often conditional and will likely vary for other projects. Each project still needs to submit its own Technical Questions and provides evidence relating to its own building in order to have a similar ruling approved for that specific building. 

Should you wish to apply any Technical Clarification for legacy rating tools to your projects, please submit a Technical Question to the NZGBC to 
explain why and how it applies. You can access the online Technical Question form here

Technical Question Title Tool Version Date Released Credit Name Sub-credit Name TC Link
Alternative Calculation for Timber Costs DABv1, DABv1.1 November 2024 20 - Responsible Building Materials Timber
Approved Ruling:

The NZGBC is aware that doors can unproportionally impact the outcome of the cost calculation for credit 20.2 Timber on some project types due to their high cost.  

Rather than use the whole cost of the doors in the calculation, the project team may determine the cost of the timber and machining and use that within the calculation.  For example, where the cost of the timber and machining makes up 30% of the total cost of the doors ($10,000) a cost of $3,000 can be used in the calculation.  Where project teams are including labour costs within their calculation the same percentage can be applied to the labour proportion.  Using the same example, if the cost of labour is $5,000 then the labour cost would be $1,500 (30% of the total) and the total cost used in the calculation would be $4,500 where labour costs are included.

If the project team wishes to use the same approach for other composite building components, a TQ should be raised.