SR418 New Zealand whole-building whole-of-life framework: LCAQuick v3.4 (February 2020)

This report sets out the underlying basis for the modelling and data behind LCAQuick v3.4 and the reference residential buildings that it contains. Reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, together with increasing calls globally for climate change action, mean that tools such as LCAQuick that can be used to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions during building design are needed to help designers and their clients respond.

To this end, v3.4 of LCAQuick also includes a worksheet that illustrates the climate change impact of a building design in comparison with a carbon budget. The carbon budget is a “carbon allowance” calculated for new New Zealand residential and office buildings. Achieving a design that is calculated to be within this carbon budget provides an indication that the building can be constructed and operated within natural limits (or planetary boundaries) required to meet New Zealand’s Paris Agreement commitments, now enshrined in the Climate Change Response (Zero Carbon) Amendment Act 2019.