This month brought some major milestones. We launched NABERSNZ Water, helping businesses use our most precious resource more efficiently. We also closed the financial year with the second-highest number of Green Star registrations ever—a strong signal of the sector’s commitment to low-carbon, healthy, efficient buildings. Last year’s registered projects represent $3.7 billion in value, with the current pipeline exceeding $9 billion.
We recently celebrated a New Zealand first! A 6 Star Green Star cold storage facility—A.P. Moller – Maersk’s integrated cold chain site at Ruakura Superhub in Hamilton. We continue to see new, diverse building types certifying, with more standout projects nearing completion.
Looking ahead, I’m excited to catch up with many of you at our Green Property Summit in a few weeks’ time. The programme is packed with international expertise, including Matt Kean, Chair of Australia’s Climate Change Authority, and the always insightful Jorge Chapa from our Green Building Council of Australia.
Among the biggest moments this month was a hard-fought regulatory win. When proposed rollbacks to insulation standards surfaced, with your support we came out strongly - challenging claims that H1 improvements were driving up costs or causing overheating. We worked closely with officials, Certified Builders, BRANZ,and others, and presented detailed modelling directly to Minister Chris Penk. The result: MBIE confirmed it will retain the current insulation standards. This was modelled as delivering up to 40% energy savings for households. This win helps ensure 30,000 families a year will continue to benefit from warmer houses. Ka rawe!
MBIE's announced it is also removing the schedule method, meaning the calculation or modelling method will need to be used. Tools like ECCHO are already helping the sector lead the way, and we now need to ensure everyone is supported to use them effectively. It’s worth noting that these changes will go ahead despite the Building Code freeze announced over the weekend.
Finally, after six years, the Healthy Homes Standards are now mandatory for all landlords—a vital step in improving our housing stock. It’s something we must build on, and we’ll continue to advocate for more, in particular to move to a transparent register and to allow qualified personnel to carry out the checks. We support the New Zealand Institute of Building Inspectors Chief Executive Graeme Blissett’s call for a move away from the current “mark your own homework” approach.
Thanks for your continued support and mahi – as we crack into the new financial year, no doubt there are plenty of wins ahead. See you at the Green Property Summit!