NABERS Embodied Carbon Reporting

Embodied Carbon Rating FAQ's

• Why are Gross Floor Area (GFA) and Fully Enclosed Covered Area (FECA) important in embodied carbon reporting?

  Gross Floor Area (GFA) and Fully Enclosed Covered Area (FECA) are used to ensure a fair and consistent benchmark for a building type. 

• Is as-built material quantities for Embodied Carbon Rating mandatory?

  No, Bill-of-Quantities (BoQ) can be used. However, the result rating maybe higher if as-built materials quantities are used.

   

   

• What is an Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) and why is it important?

  An Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) is a standardised, third-party verified document providing data on the Green House Gas (GHG) potential of a product per unit of measure. Using EPD's ensures reliable and comparable data in assessments. By encouraging the use of product-specific EPDs,  its proliferation across all manufacturers and will eventually adopt EPDs as the standard for measuring GHG. 

• How are as-built material quantities obtained for an Embodied Carbon Rating?

  Material quantities are taken from invoices, delivery dockets, purchase order and returnable schedules. 

• What is an emission factor and how does it affect the Embodied Carbon Rating?

  An emission factor is the number that specifies the kg of GHG emission per unit of a material of product. There are two types of emission factors, they are: default and product-specific. 

  Transport emission factors account for the Embodied Carbon Emissions when materials are moved from the manufacturer site to the building site. There are two types of transport emissions factors, they are: specific source location and default source location. 

  Construction energy emission factors account for the Embodied Carbon Emissions during the construction period of a building site. There are two ways construction energy emissions can be captured, they are: default emission factors or a complete record of all energy used on-site. 

  When specific emission factors (product/transport source location/construction energy) are used, the Embodied Carbon Rating will be more accurate and result in a higher NABERS Star rating.

• What is carbon removal in Embodied Carbon Rating?

  Carbon removal accounts for products used in the building that inherently removed carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

  They are:

  Stored biogenic carbon or

  Carbon offset associated with Climate Active certification 

• How does land use and land use change (LULUC) impact embodied carbon results?

  If the building site was a Greenfield, the change of land use will need to be recorded in the Embodied Carbon Rating. This is to account for the potential loss of land biomass associated with the original condition.