SR271 Evaluation of Environmental Choice New Zealand as a best-practice ecolabel and comparison with the GBCA framework (2012)

This is the first of a series of reports prepared in order to better understand the assessment of environmental impacts of construction materials and products in building environmental rating tools in order to inform a plan to move to a more holistic, robust assessment process that considers materials and products in the context of the building in which they are used.

This report reviews governance, transparency and standards development at Environmental Choice New Zealand (ECNZ) and assesses how its procedures compare with a best-practice framework developed for this work based on international standards and guidance for ecolabels. The report also assesses the equivalency of ECNZ to requirements in the Green Building Council of Australia’s Framework for Product Certification Schemes, both of which provide alternative pathways for obtaining credits for materials in the New Zealand Green Building Council’s building environmental rating tool Green Star.

The report focuses on potential improvements to the current process that can be considered in the short term and comprises one of several reports that will set out recommendations for a move to materials and products assessment in the context of the building in which are used.