Sustainable Certifications: NABERS UK.

Knight Frank research for the 2021 Active Capital report found that offices with NABERS Energy ratings of up to 4.5 stars are worth an average of 8% more than unrated buildings, on a per square metre basis. This premium jumps up to 18% among offices with five and six star ratings.

- Knight Frank

NABERS UK administration is currently being transferred over from BRE to CIBSE and will be fully operational again in the coming weeks (as of 16th April).

NABERS UK is an energy performance based certification for office buildings in the UK. It provides commercial owners an understanding of their buildings performance versus similar buildings, providing a benchmark for progress. Unlike other energy performance certifications, NABERS rating is awarded on the basis of actual energy performance rather than energy performance design. Energy performance data anyone?

Why get a NABERS UK assessment? “Knight Frank research for the 2021 Active Capital report found that offices with NABERS Energy ratings of up to 4.5 stars are worth an average of 8% more than unrated buildings, on a per square metre basis. This premium jumps up to 18% among offices with five and six star ratings.”

SCORING

There are two forms of NABERS UK certification, Design for Performance to drive energy efficient design in new buildings, and NABERS Energy ratings to measure the energy efficiency of existing buildings. The differentiating factor for NABERS certification is that it is not design based, but performance based and measures how a building energy efficient actually performs rather than how it was designed to perform.

Across NABERS schemes, assessed facilities are awarded ratings of between one and six stars. The number of stars awarded to a participant is calculated by benchmarking the assessor’s findings and comparing results against those of other facilities in the same category.

NABERS attributes labels to its star ratings, indicating where premises rated at each level are positioned.

1 – ‘Making a start’
2 – ‘Below average’
3 – ‘Market Average’’
4 – ‘Good’
5 – ‘Excellent’
6 – ‘Market leading’

THE PROCESS

NABERS rating requirements looks at four categories when assessing a building’s rating:

• Energy: measures energy efficiency, for example reviewing lights, lifts and air-conditioning usage

• Water: measures water used and recycled

• Waste: measures waste produced and recycled and looks at supply chain management

• Indoor Environment Quality (IEQ): looks at the comfort of people within a building, measuring air quality, lighting, temperature and acoustics.

The rating system employs a comparative approach to similar buildings and focuses solely on aspects within the control of building owners/managers that can be enhanced. For instance, the effectiveness with which a building segregates waste for recycling. Consequently, a six-star rating is potentially attainable for any building.

The NABERS ratings system evaluates performance over a 12-month span to encompass various operational scenarios, such as fluctuations in energy usage during both summer and winter months. It showcases operational efficiency and building sustainability throughout the entire year, presenting it in a straightforward star rating format.

THE UTOPI IMPACT

Utopi’s data collection and metering system can provide you a comprehensive view of your asset/portfolio’s energy and water consumption, while our multisensors provide context to this data and a clear picture of Indoor Environment Quality. The Utopi platform dashboard also provides users with a simple export for sharing ESG data to make the certification process simple. 

See our next piece in this series on Fitwel!