NZI Centre's market-leading NABERSNZ rating

Auckland’s NZI Centre has been awarded a 5-star base building Certified Rating for energy use under NABERSNZ, the office building energy rating scheme. The scheme provides ratings between one and six stars, with the NZI Centre’s rating putting it in the ‘market-leading’ category.

The five-storey building was built in 2008 and achieved a 5 Green Star rating at the time of construction for fit-out and design, making it one of Auckland’s most sustainably designed buildings. It is managed by Newcrest, which was also development manager of the NZI Centre project.

NZI Centre. Photo credit: Simon Devitt.

The centre’s sustainability features include a distinctive double skin facade along most of its perimeter, with automatically controlled blinds to moderate glare and sunlight. It also has exposed concrete ceilings to help moderate temperature.

Jacki Johnson, chief executive of tenant IAG, said her staff suspected the building was performing well and NABERSNZ proves it, providing “independent verification that our building uses energy efficiently”.

“While it’s good to get this result, we won’t rest on our laurels, but will continue to work on being resource-efficient - which is in line with our corporate ethos of operating sustainably,” Johnson said.

Alex Cutler, New Zealand Green Building Council’s chief executive, said while smart design creates a blueprint for efficient buildings, how they’re commissioned, maintained and used is crucial in day-to-day performance. While she acknowledged the sustainability features of the NZI Centre, she claims “the key reason it has achieved such a high NABERSNZ score is that there’s a very active building management team who constantly target energy use to ensure the site is comfortable and running efficiently”.

Mike Underhill, EECA’s chief executive, congratulated IAG and the building management team. He noted that most New Zealand office buildings sit around the 2.5- to 3-star mark for energy use and few are likely to reach 5 stars in their first Certified Rating, though energy savings of up to 25% are achievable for most office buildings.