NABERS Waste

The NABERS Waste tool measures how well a building manages waste generation, recycling and resource recovery, and supply chain management.

Waste services available

There are three tiers of service available depending on the sector you are in. They are the following:

The NABERS Waste Platform is available for every building type. The platform allows you to upload and track your building’s waste data month-to-month which is then converted into useful management insights. The different graphs on the platform represent key performance waste metrics that are designed to demonstrate how well a building separates its waste into streams that can be composted and recycled.

The NABERS Waste Verification Report is available to the following sectors:

• Apartment buildings
• Corrective services
• Data centres
• Hotels
• Office tenancies
• Overseas buildings
• Residential aged care and retirement living
• Warehouses and cold stores

It is designed so that you can report on your building’s waste performance using a respected industry standard. By inputting data into the NABERS Waste Platform and verifying on-the-ground performance with a NABERS Waste Accredited Assessor, you will generate a report that enables you to prove your commitment to reducing your building’s environmental footprint.

A NABERS Waste Rating follows the same rigorous check and balances as a NABERS Waste Verification report. You’ll get a NABERS star rating which is easy to understand and can be used to highlight your success in improving your waste management practices. This is currently only available for commercial office buildings as it has been through a benchmarking process with like-for-like buildings.

We also have the NABERS Waste Data and Measurement Standard available for third party reporting systems that would like to align to the NABERS method.

Waste Platform

We have developed an online platform to make it simpler to understand your waste data. The platform provides visibility of the waste streams leaving your building and your recycling rate. These insights should lead to improvements and may improve your recycling performance.

Access to the platform is included as standard if you have bought a NABERS Waste rating, or a NABERS Waste Verification Report for your building. If your building does not have either of these available yet, then you can use the waste platform for a small fee until a NABERS waste solution is available for your sector.

The platform can be used to monitor:

• Recycling rate
• Material stream composition
• Waste intensities
• Frequency of waste collections
• Volumes or weights collected
• Waste collection costs

How do I use the platform and get a rating?

You will need:

• A login to the platform.
• Information on the building, including information on your waste management contract, and the number and types of bins on the premises.
• Someone to regularly upload the data spreadsheet. This could be you, your waste contractor, or a data management company.

Complete the NABERS Waste setup information form and email it to the NABERS team. Find out more about the pricing here.

Waste Verification Report

A NABERS Waste Verification Report is an independent measure of the recycling and resource recovery performance of a building. The Waste Verification Report process assesses buildings on how well they separate and divert waste generated in the building into streams that can be re-used and recycled, and whether those materials are likely to go to a facility that will recover them. 

To obtain a verification report, you need to upload 12 months of your operational waste data to the Waste Platform, collect some data about your building through waste audits, and engage a NABERS Accredited Assessor to complete the rating process. 

You’ll receive the following results in your verification report:

• Identifying information about your building
• Validity period for the information
• Total landfill waste: The total weight of all waste going to landfill.
• Total recycled waste: The total weight of waste avoiding landfill.
• Waste Intensity: The total weight of all waste generation for a site compared to the sites allocated metric over a year.
• data quality score achieved through a combination of weight-based waste data, audits, bin counts, verification and a reasonableness check.

The report also includes a Verified waste score, this is a composite metric of the building’s NABERS Verified Recycled Rate (VRR) and the Material Recovery Score (MRS) of each waste stream, as described below. This score can be used to compare between similar buildings, for example a hotel to another hotel.

• The Verified Recycling Rate (VRR) is the adjusted recycling rate after the assessor has assessed the data quality score it has been applied to recycling rate.
• The Material Recovery Score (MRS) recognises a building’s contribution to better resource recovery and reduced potential pollution, by rewarding the best feasible recovery of material.

Is my building eligible for a verification report?

Currently, the NABERS Waste Verification Report is available to the following sectors:

• Apartment buildings
• Corrective services
• Data centres
• Hotels
• Office tenancies
• Overseas buildings
• Residential aged care and retirement living
• Warehouses and cold stores

If you are interested in a verification report for your sector, please contact NABERS and a team member will reach out shortly to assist. Find out more about the pricing here.

Waste Rating

A NABERS Waste Rating has undergone the same rigorous process as a Verification Report. A benchmarking exercise has been done to allow comparison to other like-for-like buildings. With a NABERS Waste Rating, you get all the insights from the waste management platform, as well as the results in the waste verification report PLUS your waste outcomes are also expressed on a NABERS six star rating scale. This lets you see how you compare to peers.

Rating types

NABERS offers two benchmark options for the rating:

• Base building: Measures only those wastes contracted by the building owner. This rating provides insights into the management of the building, irrespective of which tenants are in the building.
• Whole building: Measures any waste that leaves from the building, where it can be reliably measured. This rating suits a building with highly engaged tenants who are working with building management.

Watch the video below to learn more about a NABERS Waste Rating.

Is my building eligible for a rating?

Currently, the Waste rating is only available for commercial office buildings. If you are interested in a waste rating for your sector, please contact NABERS and a team member will reach out shortly to assist. Find out more about the pricing here.

Complete the NABERS Waste setup information form and email it to the NABERS team.

Waste Data and Measurement Standard

The Data and Measurement Standard guide is primarily for use by third party reporting systems that would like to align to the NABERS Waste data and measurement standard. This Data and Measurement Standard establishes a robust and comparable method for commercial buildings to analyse and report on their waste performance. It underpins the NABERS Waste method.

The standard was developed through seven years of experience of major property portfolios in Australia seeking to understand their waste data and use it to drive improvements.

Download the NABERS Waste Data and Measurement Standard Guide v1.0.

More info?

Learn more about the Waste tool:

• NABERS Waste fact sheet
• NABERS Waste Verification Report fact sheet

If you want to find out more about Rules, Rulings, or any user support guides, please visit our NABERS Waste and support documentation page.