NABERS Water

About Water ratings

A NABERS Water rating looks at the amount of water used and recycled within a building. A NABERS Water rating is independent, based on real water data and provides a comparison to buildings like yours.

A NABERS star rating can be used to:

• Understand your water efficiency and potential for savings
• Track progress and demonstrate the impact of changes
• Communicate your performance and commitment to water efficiency

We offer NABERS Water ratings in the following built environments:

• Office buildings
• Shopping centres
• Apartment buildings
• Hospitals (public)
• Hotels
• Residential aged care centres
• Retirement living
• Schools
• … and we’re adding more sectors every year

Don’t see your sector here? If you’d like your sector to be next in line for expansion for a NABERS Water rating, click here to register your interest.

Office Buildings

NABERS Water ratings are available only for a whole building rating. They can be conducted at the same time as a NABERS Energy for offices base building or whole building rating.

A NABERS Water for offices rating covers the water consumption from externally supplied water sources and all water uses within the building used to support the office.

Whole building Water rating: measures the building's water consumption and all externally supplied water to the building, including the base building and tenant-occupied space.

Speak to someone about NABERS Water for your office building: nabers@environment.nsw.gov.au

Offices also have NABERS Energy, Waste and Indoor Environment ratings available.

Shopping Centres

NABERS shopping centre ratings assess the efficiency of the energy and water that is under the control of the shopping centre owner. It includes all facilities provided to retail tenants and the associated back-of-house facilities.

Places like gyms (centrally serviced), cinemas and food courts have the biggest influence on your shopping centre’s water use, so the NABERS rating takes the following into account to give you a fair comparison to other shopping centres:

• Postcode
• Shopping centre area
• Hours of service
• Number of trading days
• Number of food court seats
• Number of cinema theatres
• Gyms

Whole building rating: refers to rating the central services of a retail shopping centre including food courts, cinemas and gymnasiums

Speak to someone about NABERS Water for your shopping centre: nabers@environment.nsw.gov.au

Shopping Centres also have NABERS Energy ratings available.

Apartment Buildings

Operating and maintaining an apartment building is not easy, or cheap. In fact, energy and water expenses can account for some of the largest costs for Owners Corporations. Yet, often little is known about the water efficiency of common property areas – like carparks, ground irrigation and gyms - which makes finding ways to improve and save difficult.

NABERS Water rates the entire common property areas of your strata scheme. This includes (but is not limited to):

• Reception and common areas
• Car Parks
• Gyms, Pools, and other facilities
• Grounds irrigation
• Heating and cooling services

Getting a NABERS Water rating for your apartment block will give you the power to drive down bills, reduce water usage, and add value to your building.

Common property rating: focuses on the common property where apartments are separately metered

Whole building rating: encompasses the entire consumption of the scheme if apartment meters are not present

Speak to someone about NABERS Water for your apartment building: nabers@environment.nsw.gov.au

Apartment Buildings also have NABERS Energy ratings available.

Hospitals (Public)

NABERS Water for Public Hospitals rates the efficiency and environmental impact of entire hospital campuses. The benchmark and methodology were developed using data from real, operating public hospitals.

Unlike other NABERS Ratings, NABERS for Public Hospitals operates through a direct relationship with State Health Departments in partnership with the Australasian Health Infrastructure Alliance (AHIA), rather than via third-party Assessors. Rating are conducted by trained Assessors within Health Departments, to be certified and audited by NABERS.

NABERS adjusts for:

• Peer Group classification (for fair comparison between different hospital types)
• Occupied Bed Days and Commonwealth Funded Aged Care Bed Days
• Number of separations
• Postcode

NABERS Energy and Water for Public Hospitals ratings are reported and disclosed at the discretion of the relevant State Health Departments.

Whole campus rating: NABERS for Public Hospitals is designed to assess the performance of the entire hospital campus. It can account for the variety and diversity of different hospital types.

Speak to someone about NABERS Water for your Hospital: nabers@environment.nsw.gov.au

Hospitals also have NABERS Energy ratings available

Hotels

NABERS Water can be used to rate the efficiency of a hotel. The benchmark and methodology only contain data from real, operating hotels.

NABERS recognises that there are fundamental differences between hotels in each quality star band in both building design and operation. A 5-star hotel is expected to use more water than an equivalent size 3-star hotel. This is due to the range of services offered to guests (e.g. reception, room service, food, gym) and hours of operation of those services. This is an important factor that NABERS adjusts for.

In addition to the hotel quality star rating, NABERS also adjusts for:

• Number of guest rooms
• Number of guest rooms with full-service laundering
• Number of function room seats
• Heated pools

Water collected or recycled from on-site sources such as rainwater tanks is not included in the rating. But, externally supplied recycled water is taken into account.
Disclosure of your NABERS Water for Hotels rating is voluntary.

Whole building rating: refers to rating the water use within hotel common areas, guest rooms, back of house, irrigation and all onsite services offered by the hotel for guests including car-parks, laundries, function and conference rooms, day spas, indoor/ outdoor swimming pools, spas and saunas, restaurants, cafes and gyms.

Speak to someone about NABERS Water for your hotel: nabers@environment.nsw.gov.au

Hotels also have NABERS Energy ratings available

Residential Aged Care

For the residential aged care sector, healthier environments create a positive place where our elderly loved ones can live a life of relaxation and fulfillment.

NABERS ratings for residential aged care centres can be used to identify areas for cost savings and building improvements as well as to promote the environmental credentials of your residential aged care community. This can help attract more residents and reduce vacancies.

NABERS Water rates include shared water use only, or all water use, dependent on your preference and metering. This includes (but is not limited to)

• Occupied bed days
• Heavy laundry processed on site
• Meals cooked
• Heated pools
• Postcode

Speak to someone about NABERS Water for your Residential Aged Care facility: nabers@environment.nsw.gov.au

Residential Aged Care also have NABERS Energy ratings available.

Retirement Living

Environmentally friendly buildings create a healthy space for retired citizens to live a life of independence and leisure.

NABERS ratings for retirement living buildings can be used to identify areas for cost savings and building improvements as well as to promote the environmental credentials of your retirement living community. This can help attract more residents and reduce vacancies.

NABERS Water rates include shared water use only, or all water use, dependent on your preference and metering. This includes (but is not limited to)

• Number of dwellings on site
• Serviced apartments on site
• Retirement village site area
• Heated pools
• Postcode

Speak to someone about NABERS Water for your Retirement Living centre: nabers@environment.nsw.gov.au

Residential Aged Care also have NABERS Energy ratings available.

Schools

Environmentally friendly buildings are not only better for the planet, but they also create healthier and more productive learning environments for our children to thrive.

NABERS ratings for schools offers a robust and low-cost solution that empowers education departments and individual schools to evaluate the sustainability performance of different schools and identify those in need of significant improvements. This can help demonstrate your commitment to a better tomorrow for your students, staff and wider community.

NABERS Water consider factors unique to your school campus to ensure a fair, like-with-like comparison. This includes (but is not limited to):

• Gross floor area
• Students enrolled
• Full-time equivalent employees
• Site area
• Climate and location (remoteness area classification)
• Swimming pool area
• School sector (Government, Independent, Catholic Systemic)

Speak to someone about NABERS Water for your school: nabers@environment.nsw.gov.au

Schools also have NABERS Energy ratings available.