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Sustainable building

Sustainability includes environmental, social and economic factors. A sustainable building meets social and cultural needs, ensures resources are equally available and causes no irreversible damage to the environment during its entire life cycle.

Building sustainably is about using practices and systems that lessen impact on the environment, lower running costs and make homes healthy, accessible and comfortable. It includes energy efficiency, the move to a net zero-carbon economy and building resilience against hazards such as earthquakes, storms and flooding.

Resources for designers and builders

The BRANZ Level website is the primary source of information for designing and building sustainably.

BRANZ also provides tools and resources for life cycle assessment, carbon footprinting, thermal efficiency, universal design, reducing building and construction waste and the costs and benefits of building sustainably.

  • CO₂NSTRUCT: Embodied carbon and energy datasheet

    CO₂NSTRUCT provides values for embodied greenhouse gas and energy for some construction materials. Embodied energy is provided as a total and divided into energy from non-renewable and renewable sources.

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  • LCAQuick: Life cycle assessment tool

    LCAQuick is a free tool developed by BRANZ that helps architects, designers and structural engineers make sustainable design decisions. It evaluates the carbon footprint and other environmental impacts of a building design.

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  • Level: The authority on sustainable building

    Level will help you design and build homes that have less impact on the environment, are healthier and more comfortable and have lower running costs.

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  • Sustainability video series

    The BRANZ YouTube channel covers a range of topics related to sustainability.

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  • BRANZ Facts: Sustainable construction

    This BRANZ Facts series is the result of a BRANZ search for robust technologies that are less common yet provide significant environmental benefits, such as passive solar design, photovoltaic design and Trombe wall design.

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  • BRANZ Facts: Valuing sustainability

    This BRANZ Facts series is part of a larger BRANZ study on placing a value on sustainability and resilience features in New Zealand housing.

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  • Up-Spec: Specifying higher-performing homes

    Up-Spec provides data on practical and cost-effective measures to improve the performance of new homes. Specific data is provided across nine New Zealand climate zones, focusing on comfortable temperatures, energy efficiency and water management.

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  • REBRI: Resource efficiency in the building and related industries

    Resource efficiency is all about using materials, energy, time and money more effectively. REBRI's main focus is on reducing the amount of building material wastes generated at C&D sites that would otherwise be sent to landfill.

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  • Universal design

    Universal design is about making buildings accessible to all people of all abilities at any stage of life. It includes people who use wheelchairs or other mobility aids, people with impaired vision and people who are elderly or very young.

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  • Eco Design Advisor

    Whether you are building a new home, renovating or looking for options to improve the comfort, health and performance of your existing home, you’ll find a wealth of information within this website.

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  • Reducing carbon videos

    BRANZ has produced five short videos around how to remove carbon from construction. Each one is just a few minutes’ long and in plain English.

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