NZ celebrates first 5 Star Green Star NZ buildings

NZ celebrates first 5 Star Green Star NZ buildings

The New Zealand Green Building Council is proud to announce the certification of New Zealand’s first two Green Star NZ - Office Design buildings.  The Meridian building, owned by Dominion Funds on Wellington’s waterfront and 80 Queen St, Auckland owned by Multiplex have both achieved a 5 Star Green Star NZ rating, representing New Zealand excellence.

Jane Henley, CEO of the NZGBC congratulates the project teams and adds “These projects have now set the bar for new commercial office space.  Both of these projects have contributed a lot of time and effort to inform the Green Star NZ development process as pilot projects.  Such knowledge sharing has ensured that the Green Star NZ tool adaptation process from the Australian version is robust and meaningful to New Zealand.

Phil Brown, GM Investment for Dominion Funds and Project Director of the Meridian project says “Dominion are delighted to have achieved the 5 Star benchmark for this quality asset.  Its important to note that the Green Star NZ Tool not only allows the industry to assess a buildings environmental impact but also measures the quality of the work space environment.
“Dominion thanks Jane Henley and the NZGBC team for collaborating with industry leaders to platform the tool against New Zealand outcomes.  We also congratulate Meridian Energy for their vision and dedication to sustainability within New Zealand.”

"Multiplex as developer, builder and owner of 80 Queen Street has worked closely with BNZ in a true partnership structure to achieve Auckland’s first 5 Star rated high rise building and are delighted to achieve this level of excellence. The process was robust, very professional and the experience will be extremely useful as a benchmark for our future developments.  We could not have achieved this level of excellence without the total commitment and buy-in from BNZ and our project team” said Multiplex's Managing Director, Property, NZ, Peter Wall.

Geoff Wicks of Multiplex Constructions, who led the Multiplex design team, commented that the process, while demanding, was a great learning experience and complimented the Green Building Council on their procedures and rating system.  “The rating not only enhances the building value but ensures a very high level of tenant comfort and commitment to sustainability."
Romilly Madew, Chief Executive of the Green Building Council of Australia, added “This is a fantastic milestone for the New Zealand Green Building Council and it is great to see the impact that Green Star NZ has had on the industry already.

“Green Star in Australia has experienced amazing growth over the past twelve months, with almost 400 projects currently registered, and I predict that Green Star NZ will continue to revolutionise the market the same way.”

Green Building is economically, socially and environmentally beneficial for both owners and users of these buildings.  The New Zealand Green Building Council has approximately 20 buildings in the process of certification for Green Star NZ approval.  There are over 600 building professionals that have completed Green Star NZ training over the past seven months.  With the Government mandating the use of the Green Star NZ tools, the market shift towards Green Building has almost become standard building practice overnight.
Supplementary information on Green Star NZ

Green Star NZ is New Zealand’s first comprehensive environmental rating system for buildings.  Green Star NZ – Office Design is used to assess the environmental impact of offices.  Released in April 2007, Green Star NZ evaluates building projects against eight environmental impact categories.  Within each category, points are awarded for initiatives that demonstrate that a project has met the overall objectives of Green Star NZ and the specific criteria of the relevant rating tool credits.  Points are then weighted and an overall score is calculated, determining the project's Green Star NZ rating.

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