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How to use the new steel credit (Mat-8) in Greenstar rating for your new building

Submitted by Bruce Duncan on Tue, 04/10/2016 - 4:14pm

In the last issue of Scope we described how you can finally claim Greenstar points for use of steel in your building design without the requirement for post-consumer recycled content. After several years of discussion the new Mat-8 Steel v3.0.0, now requires as a pre-requisite that 90% of the steel used in the building comes from a “Responsible Steel Maker”.  

This means the steel making facility must have:

Valid ISO 14001 Environmental Management System (EMS) certification or Enviro-Mark NZ Diamond level certification; and

Be a member of the World Steel Association’s Climate Action Programme

Having met this pre-requisite, up to three points can be awarded for steel roof or wall cladding under Criterion A “Product Sustainability”,  which can be demonstrated by one of several additional initiatives, including -

Third Party Certification 

And you can then get up to 3 points as follows 

1 point when at least 30% of all steel used complies;

2 points when at least 60% complies; and

3 points when at least 90% complies.

The only New Zealand steel manufacturer, New Zealand Steel, provides ZINCALUME ® unpainted and COLORSTEEL® painted steel on ZINCALUME ®  base.  Pacific Coil Coaters makes ColorCote® painted steel also on ZINCALUME ® base.   

Members of NZ Metal Roofing Manufacturers Inc use all three products, (ZINCALUME ® and the two painted products using ZINCALUME ® as a base) for making high quality roof and wall cladding products and rainwater goods. Metal tile manufacturers either use ZINCALUME ® as a base or use COLORSTEEL®.

New Zealand Steel’s steelmaking facility complies with the prerequisites for Responsible Steel Maker.

New Zealand Steel has used the Third Party Certification route to demonstrate Product Sustainability and has chosen ECNZ (Environmental Choice) to obtain an Eco-Label Level A, which under Mat-8 provides the maximum weighting of 1 to the points. 

In 2015 ECNZ reviewed EC41-09 and replaced it with EC41-15 which recognises the oxygen steelmaking route and covers Flat Products as well as Long Products, and NZS made a submission to the DRAFT EC-41-15 Specification in June 2015.

NZ Steel was successfully assessed to EC41-15 in March 2016 and its products which carry the ECNZ label can be found at http://www.environmentalchoice.org.nz/specifications/ec-41-15/.  This covers currently ZINCALUME® which is used unpainted or painted as COLORSTEEL® or ColorCote® ® as above.

This means that using NZ Steel’s ZINCALUME ® alone or as a base for coated NZ made roof or wall cladding and rainwater goods qualifies for claiming up to 3 points for Greenstar rating under Mat-8 : “To encourage responsible sourcing and the reduction of environmental impacts of steel building materials” .