Offices lag on energy upgrades
Few New Zealand office buildings achieve high scores for energy efficiency five years after New Zealand adopted a system to measure and promote that.
Fewer than 10 commercial properties score ‘‘excellent’’ or ‘‘marketleading’’ for the whole of the building under an energy efficiency rating system, called NABERSNZ, adopted in New Zealand in 2013 by the then government and administered by the New Zealand Green Building Council (NZGBC).
The system is based on the Australian system NABERS, which stands for the National Australian Built Environment Rating System, whose success was applauded in Australia at the recent 20th anniversary of its introduction.
The system grades buildings on energy use, giving a score from 0 to 6. A rating of 4 is ‘‘excellent’’, 5 is ‘‘market-leading’’ and 6 is ‘‘aspirational’’. Zero is ‘‘very poor’’.
The tool measures parts of the building and the whole for energy efficiency, such as the base building, which are the common spaces in the building such as foyers and lifts, its tenanted parts, and the two of those together.
Only one building in New Zealand has reached 5.5 for the whole building – the IAG building in Show Place, Addington, Christchurch.
NZGBC’s website shows that no office building in the country has scored the top rating of 6 for the whole building, though one has for the base building – the Meridian building in Wellington.
Another ‘‘market leading’’ building is 15 Stout St in Wellington, with a score of 5 for the whole building.
Five office buildings scored 4 and 4.5 for the whole building, according to NZGBC’s website. Another 14 achieved 4 to 5.5 for either tenanted portions or the base building.
NZGBC chief executive Andrew Eagles said there was opportunity to improve for building owners.
The council’s main focus was to get building owners to seek a rating. Last year the number of ratings doubled on the previous year.
Once it became standard to have a building energy rated, the energy efficiency grades would rise.
The Australian experience showed that, Eagles said. In 2009 it became compulsory in Australia for offices of more than 2000 square metres to have a NABERS rating, after the Property Council of Australia and large commercial property owners backed it.
Then 18 months ago the bar was raised again when a NABERS rating was mandated for offices of 1000sqm or more for lease or sale in Australia. That affected a lot more buildings and had resulted in $44 million in savings in energy use in Australia and $168m of productivity gains, Eagles said.
‘‘Hence we are expecting some move to compulsion in the next couple of years for office buildings,’’ Eagles said. ‘‘The first step is just to get ratings happening.’’
While some property owners in New Zealand might be concerned about that, others such as Kiwi Property Group, Argosy Property, the Auckland Council and Stride Property were already setting targets for that.
The move to compulsion was supported by the Property Council of New Zealand and its Australian counterpart, Eagles said.
In the past five years there have been 99 NABERSNZ ratings, including 27 last year.
The 99 comprised ratings for the base building (44), for tenancies within a building (30), and whole building ratings (25), including 22 re-ratings.
The expense of upgrading energy systems has been a deterrent while some landlords pass all energy costs to the tenants.
Another issue is old metering systems. To measure energy consumption the correct metering has to be in place.