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.
Under the existing Green Star rating tool, Design & As Built NZ v1.1, projects can target a point for identifying best practices for the project's operational waste. Under Green Star Buildings NZ this will become a minimum expectation for all projects to achieve.
Due to this elevated priority towards ensuring all Green Star projects manage operational waste sustainably, we are partnering with Waste Management to create new best practice guidelines that can be used to support your application.
These guidelines will be developed with and for the New Zealand market, and will replace the current best practice standards approved by Design & As Built NZ v1.1, which are based off the City of Sydney’s (council) guidelines.
How you can get involved
To ensure the guidelines meet the needs of all the major building typologies, we would like to request your assistance.
(1) The draft version of the New Zealand Best Practice Guidelines for Operational Waste is planned to be released in the coming months. If you would like to receive this draft version to provide commentary prior to the final version being released, please let us know by emailing Brad Crowley whose details are below. We can add you to the mailing list and ensure you receive future updates.
(2) As part of the updated guidelines, we are creating new waste generation rates and a new waste calculator. We have heard your feedback that the waste generation rates from the City of Sydney guidelines significantly overestimate the waste volumes, and subsequently demand very large waste areas. The aim here is to make the calculation more accurate for the New Zealand market, leading to more appropriately sized waste areas.
This is where we need your help!
To create an accurate calculator, we need accurate data. We are asking if you can supply the below information to us so enabling us to create a waste calculation per 100m2 per building typology.
a. The building typology (property / activity type)
i. Industrial / Warehousing
ii. Commercial Offices
iii. Education
iv. Healthcare
v. Aged care
vi. Accommodation (Hotel or Dormitory)
vii. Retail
viii. Restaurant
ix. Supermarket / Grocery
x. Public / Community
xi. Mixed Use (Commercial & Residential)
xii. Other – please state
b. The size of the building(s) in m2.
If your building has multiple activity types, and you can provide a m2 per activity (i.e. 400m2 office + 15,000m2 warehouse), that would be beneficial but not required.
c. The operational waste (not construction waste) generated for at least the past 12 months (longer if available).
If you do not have this data, please engage with your waste service provider(s) to provide you with weight (kg) and/or volume (m3) data for all waste collected e.g. general waste, mixed recycling, paper, cardboard, shrink wrap, wood, food waste etc.
Please email this information within an excel worksheet to Brad Crowley at brad.crowley@nzgbc.org.nz
Photo by Alfonso Navarro on Unsplash.