Enabling Innovation in Building Sustainability: Australia's National Construction Code

Abstract

The National Construction Code (NCC) is a performance-based code for building and plumbing, which provides the minimum necessary requirements for safety, health, amenity and sustainability in the design and construction of new buildings.There are two pathways for achieving compliance with the NCC's mandatory performance requirements; (i) developing a performance solution, or (ii) following a prescriptive solution. Typically, performance solutions are unique designs proposed as achieving compliance with respective performance requirements; whereas prescriptive solutions are generic solutions deemed by regulators as complying with respective performance requirements.A recent study has identified that there is a potential productivity gain of $1.1bn by increasing the use of performance solutions within the Australian building and plumbing industry [1].While the NCC has been a performance-based code since 1996, there is still a reliance on prescriptive solutions as it has been difficult to quantify performance requirements [2]. This has resulted in designers and practitioners not being confident in using some performance requirements, such as those for energy efficiency. The Australian Building Codes Board (ABCB) is currently undertaking a project to help increase the use of performance solutions, including in the area of energy efficiency, through quantifying the performance requirements, changing culture, building capacity and removing potential impediments within the industry. This includes looking at appropriate metrics, the use of verification methods, engaging with regulators to improve the tools they use for handling performance solutions and developing educational materials aimed at both residential and commercial building practitioners.The aim of this work is to help increase productivity and innovation within the building industry through enabling the development of tailored innovative performance solutions, and in the case of energy efficiency, aligning methodologies with best-practice voluntary sustainability schemes as appropriate.This paper describes how the NCC facilitates innovation within the building industry in relation to energy efficiency and sustainability performance.