Australia: Green Star Buildings

Green Star Buildings is a sustainability rating system where projects can earn points for making sustainable building decisions. The Green Star Buildings certification can be achieved with One Click LCA’s software. Green Star Buildings operates on a 6 star rating system, with 4 to 6 being passing marks for the Green Star Buildings certification. 

One Click LCA can be used to help achieve the Upfront Carbon Emissions credit, worth up to 6 points and the Life Cycle Impacts credit, which is worth 2 points.

Upfront Carbon Emissions credit

The Upfront Carbon Emissions credit is part of Green Star Building's 'Climate Positive Pathway'. Completing the requirements for the Upfront Carbon Emissions credit allows you to earn up to 6 out of a potential 15 credits of the pathway. To achieve the upfront carbon emissions credit, you will need to reduce the upfront carbon emissions of the building (A1-A5) by at least 20% compared to a reference building and offset the demolition works. This will earn 3 points. An additional 3 points can be earned through Exceptional Performance by reducing the upfront carbon emissions of the building (A1-A5) by at least 40% compared to a reference building.

Life Cycle Impacts credit

To achieve the life cycle impacts credit, you will need to reduce the project’s life cycle impacts by 30% when compared to standard practice. All Life Cycle Stages from A-D must be included in the Life Cycle Assessment. This credit will earn 2 points. Results for this credit must be reported in square metres of Gross Floor Area (GFA). The Credit Achievement cannot be claimed if the calculated impact in any one category (after normalization and weighting) is worse than -10%. Your results from the LCA will need to be input into the GBCA LCA calculator which will apply normalization and weighting. 

The same Life Cycle Assessment can be used for both credits, paying attention to the different requirements to achieve each credit. The upfront carbon emissions credit will only focus on Life Cycle Stages A1-A5, while the life cycle impacts credit will focus on all life cycle stages A-D.

The following materials needed to be included in the LCA at a minimum:

Concrete (total)	Masonry (brickwork and blockwork) and stone including grout
Steel, structural and reinforcement	Pipes and conduits, including plastic and metal
Structural timber and frames	Internal wall and ceiling lining including plasterboard, fibre-cement, timber cladding
Internal and external glass and glazing, including framing	Roofing including tiles and sheet metal
Façade materials and cladding	Floor coverings for example, carpets, ceramic tile, and floor panels

In addition, the LCA must include at least 90% of the materials used and at least 90% of the financial value of the building products. If there are any materials not already listed above that constitute a significant portion of the upfront carbon emissions, they still must be included. 

1. Create a new design
   
   
2. Fill in the building materials query of the design either manually or by import. Add all of the materials required by the calculation scope (see above). This information will be used to calculate the raw material harvesting, transportation and manufacturing impacts in A1-A3.
   
   
3. Once the correct materials and quantities are provided, set the transportation distances from material manufacturer to the project site and transport methods. The default transportation distances can be set up from the project’s LCA parameters page. If they are chosen, any material will use the average distance unless a more specific one is given in the query. This information will be used to calculate the impacts of material transportation in A4.
   
   
4. Check the material service life. This information will be used to calculate the material replacements for B4-B5. Material service life means how long each material will last in your building. If the service life is less than 60 years the material will have to be replaced. From an environmental impact point of view, this means additional emissions from the production of new material that is needed to replace the old one. Each of the materials in One Click LCA database has a default service life. However, as the exposure conditions of the materials may vary, it may be good to check that the service life matches the condition of your building. It is especially important to check the external wall and roof material service lives’ as the weather conditions may vary greatly between areas.
   
   
5. Adjust the localization of each material as needed (expert feature). This information will be used to compensate for any material data chosen from another area to match your project’s local material manufacturing conditions.
   
   
6. Fill in the building area query. This information will be used as a divider for the results in a separate result row and it will help you to understand how the results compare to other projects. Gross floor area is required.
   
   
7. Set your calculation period as 60 years as the requirement for this certification. 

Next steps:

• After you have done one LCA calculation you can create as many additional designs as you wish either by copying the first one or by creating a new empty one. This can be used for creating a reference building to then make reductions against. To copy a design click its name and choose 'Copy'. To create a new one press the '+ Add a design' button on the project main page.
  
• Once you have a proposed and a reference building, you can go to the results page of the proposed building, and click 'Compare Designs' then choose to compare with your reference building. This will then allow you to see the percentage reductions you've been able to make in your results table. Results can be seen for each life-cycle stage, and results per square metre are available at the bottom of your results table.