NABERS has released the Embodied Carbon rating tool, a major milestone towards driving sustainable building practices.
It enables new buildings and partial rebuilds to measure and compare their upfront embodied carbon with similar buildings.
The tool was launched by Josh Wilson, Assistant Minister for Climate Change and Energy at the EEC’s Building Energy Performance Summit in Melbourne.
Buildings will be able to get a NABERS Embodied Carbon certificate once they reach practical completion, and up to two years after.
The tool will provide a certified measure of carbon intensity, incorporating material, transport and construction emissions.
The NABERS Embodied Carbon rating tool will:
- Include all major sources of emissions including the superstructure (above ground), substructure (below ground), envelope and building services.
- Exclude emissions from demolition of previous structures and promote material reuse by assigning zero emissions to elements that are reused in their original state.
- Exclude emissions from fit outs such as fixtures and fittings, and internal doors due to limited data and the fact that these sources are a small proportion of the upfront emissions. NABERS will look into expanding the tool to measure embodied carbon in fit outs.
NABERS acting director, James Elks, said the tool is a testament to what can be achieved when government, industry, and experts work together.
“With this tool we can accurately measure embodied carbon emissions with confidence, supporting Australia’s journey to net zero,” he said.
Where enough benchmarking data is available the rating will include a star rating result. The list of buildings eligible for a star rating will be provided after benchmarking is complete.
In Australia, embodied carbon from construction activity accounts for 10 per cent of the nation's emissions, most of it generated upfront – in other words, before or during construction.
Projections made by Infrastructure Australia, show up to a 23 per cent reduction in upfront embodied carbon emissions can be achieved by 2027 through the application of simple decarbonisation strategies.
Reducing embodied carbon will help us Australia’s net zero and 2030 targets.
NABERS will conduct Assessor training sessions in 2025.