NABERS Waste

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

Summary of Waste tools available

The NABERS Waste program includes several offerings, with the appropriate ones depending on your sector. 

The NABERS Waste Platform is available for every building type. The Platform allows you to upload and visualise your building’s waste data month-to-month which can reveal useful management insights. The different graphs on the platform dashboard represent key waste performance 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 is an independent assessment of a building’s resource recovery performance, designed to help you report using a respected industry standard. It applies a consistent method of measurement to evaluate how effectively waste generated on-site is separated into streams that can be readily recovered, and whether those materials are likely to be processed at facilities that recover them efficiently. By entering data into the NABERS Waste Platform and verifying on-the-ground performance with a NABERS Waste accredited Assessor, you’ll receive a report that aligns with global sustainability reporting standards and demonstrates your progress in reducing your building’s environmental footprint.

A NABERS Waste Rating follows exactly the same rigorous process as a Waste Verification to evaluate a building’s performance, and then expresses it on a star rating scale according to an industry benchmark. This allows you see how your building compares to others of a similar type. In addition to the verification report, you’ll receive an easy-to-understand certificate which highlights your success in improving your waste management practices.

Currently, this rating is only available for commercial office buildings, as these have been benchmarked against comparable 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.

If you are interested in any of the above, please start by reading the relevant section(s) below and contact NABERS if you have more questions.

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. The dynamic dashboard also makes it easier to share visual, actionable insights with staff, tenants and other stakeholders.

The NABERS Waste Platform provides the basis for the Waste Verification and Waste Rating tools. Access to the platform is included as standard when you purchase a NABERS Waste Rating or Verification  for your building, but you can use the waste platform for a small annual fee without doing a Rating or Verification.

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

Information on pricing can be found on our pricing page.

How do I use the platform and get a rating?

You will need:

• A login to the platform. Information on getting setup on the platform can be found below.
• 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.

If you are ready to sign up to the platform and begin your building setup, please complete the NABERS Waste setup information form and email it to the NABERS team. Find out more about pricing here.

Waste Verification Report

A NABERS Waste Verification is an independent measure of the recycling and resource recovery performance of a building. It is identical to a NABERS Waste Rating in every way, except that you won't receive a star certificate as the benchmarking exercise has not yet been completed for your sector. The Waste Verification 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. By entering data into the NABERS Waste Platform and verifying on-the-ground performance with a NABERS Waste accredited Assessor, you’ll receive a report that aligns with global sustainability reporting standards and demonstrates your progress in reducing your building’s environmental footprint.

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 Waste Assessor to complete the verification process. 

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

• Total material generated: The total weight of reported waste generation over a year, regardless of outcome.
• Material sent to landfill: The total weight of all waste going to landfill, including contamination from recovery streams.
• Material diverted from landfill: The total weight of waste avoiding landfill, including material recovery and waste-to-energy
  outcomes.
• Total recycled material: The total weight of discarded material successfully segregated and prepared for reprocessing to
  make new material.
• Waste Intensity: The total weight of all waste generation for a site compared to the site's allocated activity metric over a year.
• Data Quality Score achieved through a combination of weight-based waste data, audits, bin counts, secondary data verification and data integrity checks.
• The Material Recovery Score recognises a building’s contribution to better resource recovery and reduced potential pollution, by rewarding the best feasible recovery of material. Our report includes a breakdown of the total waste generated according to 5 levels of material outcomes.
• The Verified Waste Score is the final adjusted score, composed of a verified landfill diversion rate that incorporates data quality,
  and material recovery score that considers resource recovery as described above. This score can be used to compare between similar buildings, for example a hotel to another hotel.
• We also include a carbon emission value based on the amount of waste which was directed to landfill, which can be used as an input for a Carbon Neutral rating.
   

Is my building eligible for a verification report?

Currently, the NABERS Waste verification report is available to most building sectors, including, but not limited to:

• Apartment buildings
• Data centres
• Hotels
• Office tenancies
• Residential aged care and retirement living
• Shopping centres
• 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. Alternatively, if you would like to engage an accredited Assessor to do everything for you (for an additional fee), please visit our Assessor page to find an accredited Waste Assessor.

Waste Rating

A NABERS Waste Rating has undergone the same rigorous process as a Waste Verification. In addition, a benchmarking exercise has been done to allow comparison to other like-for-like buildings. With a NABERS Waste Rating, you gain all the insights from the NABERS Waste Platform and the detailed results from the verification report PLUS your rating outcomes are expressed on a NABERS six-star rating scale, allowing you to demonstrate how your building compares to its 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.

If you are ready to sign up to the platform and begin your building setup, please complete the NABERS Waste setup information form and email it to the NABERS team.

Alternatively, if you would like to engage an accredited Waste Assessor to do everything for you (for an additional fee), please visit our Assessor page to find an accredited Waste Assessor.

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
• NABERS Waste Basics is our free modular tutorial series providing an overview of the entire Waste Platform for users and anyone interested in how the platform works in practice 

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