INNOVATIVE INSULATION BUILDING SUPPLIER CARTERS AND K N A U F I N S U L AT I O N H AV E T E A M E D U P T O P R O V I D E A S U S TA I N A B L E A N D I N N O VAT I V E S O L U T I O N F O R M E E T I N G T H E H 1 R E G U L AT I O N S F O R N E W H O M E I N S U L AT I O N .
B U I L D I N G C O D E U P D AT E S
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n July 2021, just before the new H1 changes were announced, a Climate Action Tracker study revealed that the carbon emissions from New Zealand buildings were overall seen to be highly insufficient,” says Steve Smith, Knauf Insulation's Product and Systems Manager for the Asia Pacific region. Climate Action Tracker is an independent international scientific project that tracks government climate action and measures it against the global Paris Agreement aim of holding warming well below 2°C, and pursuing efforts to limit warming to 1.5°C. The Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment (MBIE) sees these new Building Code regulations as a step in the right direction, and called for these changes in their 2020 Building for Climate Change programme. If New Zealand is to achieve its climate change goals, the building and construction sector must play its part. To see just how much of an increase in energy efficiency the MBIE is calling for with the new regulations, see the summary on the right. This shows how much the R-values have increased in the three insulated areas of the home:
RO O F S Previous
New
R2.9 to R3.3 dependent on climate zone
R6.6 across all climate zones
WA L L S Previous
New
R1.9 to R2.0 dependent on climate zone
R2.0 across all climate zones
U N D E R FLO O R Previous
New
R1.3 across all climate zones
R2.5 to R3.0 dependent on climate zone
