About the framework

This section identifies the intended users of the New Zealand whole-building whole-of-life framework and how can they interact with and contribute to it.

The framework is aimed at three stakeholder groups:

Manufacturers, importers and exporters of construction products and their sector bodies/trade associations can develop and publish LCA-based data about their products, which can be used to evaluate building environmental impacts through tools such as LCAQuick (stakeholder group 1).
Architects, designers, structural engineers, specifiers, quantity surveyors, other design professionals and their clients who are involved in evaluating building designs can set environmental performance targets (such as greenhouse gas emissions) and use carbon footprinting or LCA during the design process to track progress (stakeholder group 2).
The third stakeholder group is building environmental rating tool providers, such as the New Zealand Green Building Council and the International Living Future Institute, who are increasingly recognising building LCA in their rating tools. Since requirements can change over time, we do not provide specific information here - please visit www.nzgbc.org.nz and www.living-future.org.

Contribute to the framework

Stakeholder group 1

Organisations may choose to publish environmental product declarations (EPDs) to:

get recognition in building environmental rating tools such as the New Zealand Green Building Council's Green Star tool
inform customers of the environmental attributes of products
demonstrate a leadership position with respect to transparency
raise environmental performance up the corporate agenda by benchmarking performance and using this as a basis for implementing environmental improvements - continuous improvement is a key attribute of quality management
look for opportunities for efficiency gains and cost savings
provide input to research and development activities by evaluating and understanding environmental implications.

Contribute your data

If developing an EPD is not an option and you have quality LCA-based data for your products, BRANZ can incorporate your data into LCAQuick and CO₂NSTRUCT - a database that provides embodied greenhouse gas and energy figures for different materials and products used in New Zealand.

If this is of interest, please contact zerocarbon@branz.co.nz.

Stakeholder group 2

Consider the use of carbon footprinting or LCA on a project. Clients can consider setting a greenhouse gas target for the design so that the design team can report performance against this during the design process. BRANZ can provide free training and support in the use of LCAQuick whilst members of this stakeholder group learn how to undertake this form of assessment and incorporate it into workflows.
Provide feedback to BRANZ on the resources we develop (such as CO₂NSTRUCT and LCAQuick). We are keen to know what works, what doesn't work and how we can improve these resources. This will help inform our priorities for further research.
Consider providing us with the LCAQuick results for your assessed building (with client permission) so we can look at the potential to incorporate this into our reference building library. Even if you would prefer that the building is not incorporated into LCAQuick as a reference building, it can still be helpful for our research.

We are also keen to develop some case studies that illustrate the use of carbon footprinting or LCA in design. If you have a building that you would consider for this (with client permission), please contact zerocarbon@branz.co.nz.

Supporting reports

Two key study reports providing information on the framework:

Other BRANZ study reports concerning LCA and the framework: