Houses next in line for green assessment

Jane Henley's group is growing rapidly. Photo / Paul Estcourt

New Zealand has 30 environmentally certified buildings but more properties are being assessed as the scheme expands.

Jane Henley, Green Building Council chief executive, yesterday told the organisation's annual conference in Auckland that 60 buildings were being evaluated under the Green Star rating system.

Houses are next on the agenda so people can find out how environmentally friendly and energy-efficient their places are.

"We are now moving into the unwieldy residential sector, developing the tool to assess single and medium-density dwellings. This will be ready next year," Henley said.

She said the council had 410 members and was growing rapidly. A new tool for assessing performance of completed Green Star buildings was being introduced.

Some of the big commercial Auckland buildings rated include 21 Queen St, 80 Queen St, Britomart buildings, NZI Centre on Fanshawe St, CourierPost's building at Highbrook and BNZ Quay Park 1.

Joe Van Belleghem, managing director of Canadian developer Windmill West, told about building the Dockside Green project in Victoria, British Columbia, where a contaminated harbourside industrial site was converted into a mixed-use commercial, retail and residential building development.

He is a founder of the Canada Green Building Council and has been on the board of directors for the United States council for several years.

A sewage treatment plant and biomass gasification plant were developed at Dockside. The treatment plant handled all waste from more than 2500 residents and the office workers, he said. The gasification plant produces energy at Dockside.

Construction of 26 buildings with low-energy consumption needs started in 2006. All stormwater was treated on-site and used for watering plants and toilet flushing. Soon, it would go to washing machines, he said.

A creek system winding through the estate was now home to 20,000 fish and 6000 crayfish.

Roof-top vegetable gardens and thousands of fruit and nut trees had been planted, Van Belleghem said.

A car-share system was introduced so residents could borrow a car but did not need to own one. Discounts were given to residents who did not demand a carpark with their apartment.

Even solids or sludge from the sewage treatment plant were refined and used to produce energy for the estate.

Dockside tenants and residents could check their energy and water usage via the internet, he said.

And more than 632,000 people a year used a regional bike trail giving non-vehicle access from ferries.