Development process for New Australian Embodied Carbon Rating Tool Announced

7th Dec 2021

The National Australia Built Environment Rating System (NABERS) have announced the development of a new rating tool for embodied carbon, due to be completed in 18 months.

The tool aims to create a national baseline and will roll out as a voluntary rating for commercial buildings, with the potential to become a mandatory part of planning policy in the future.

Much like EPDs, the new tool will help industry to benchmark and compare in a transparent way.

NABERS director Carlos Flores explains, “If you’re building a new office tower and you want to make it very low in embodied carbon, you can measure the carbon footprint of that building relatively well.”

“But the question of, ‘are you actually using less embodied carbon than other buildings’ is not that easy to answer because to do that you actually need benchmarks, you need to know what the typical office building is.”

The NSW government has committed at least $4.8million to fund the program in recognition of the importance of a standardised framework.

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