Building law changes put the environment first

Ōtautahi - New Zealand is taking action to reduce waste and lower emissions from the building and construction sector in significant Building Act amendments.

Energy performance ratings are to improve energy efficiency in commercial, public, industrial, and large multi-level apartments and mandatory waste minimisation plans are to reduce construction waste.

By enabling mandatory energy performance rating requirements for buildings, and waste minimisation plans for construction and demolition projects, new proposals will help build a better future for generations of New Zealanders.

Aotearoa can expect more severe weather events, such as heatwaves and flooding due to climate change, and we know that it will impact tenants and building owners. The new government proposals provide a clear signal that considering climate resilience, and the emissions impact of buildings is a core responsibility of the sector.

Energy performance ratings are already mandatory for some buildings in Australia and are popular with many building owners and the wider sector, because they help improve understanding of energy use while acting as an extra incentive for making better energy efficiency decisions.

The ratings could help lower energy bills and reduce costs, by providing building users with the tools to better manage peak electricity demand.

A higher rating could even increase a property's value or rentability. One study has found an eight per cent increase in asset value of energy performance rated buildings.

By some estimates, construction waste accounts for up to half of all the waste which goes to landfill nationally.

Having a reduction plan in place will encourage us to confront the amount of waste produced on-site, design with waste in mind, re-use building materials, incentivise recycling and increase the uptake of local waste diversion schemes.

Reducing waste can also deliver cost savings during the build process by reducing over-ordering of building materials and in turn reducing waste disposal costs.

An Auckland University of Technology study found that around $31,000 of building materials are wasted in every house build.

Designing with waste in mind and reducing the over-ordering of building supplies will also help mitigate short-term challenges such as supply chain constraints as it frees up building materials rather than converting them to waste.

These waste minimisation plan requirements support the work to transform the waste system with a new national waste strategy, as well as our investment in construction and demolition resource recovery infrastructure.

Early analysis indicates that these proposals could support emissions reductions of 12.6 Mt CO2-e between now and 2050. For comparison this equates to nearly 19,000 plane trips between Wellington and Auckland per year until 2050.