LO
Policy mandateProcess & self-service2026-03-31
New South Wales requires new developments to report embodied emissions, with material quantities taken from a bill of quantities prepared by a quantity surveyor
Quantity surveyoroccupation page →
Event date / reported
2026-03-31
Evidence stage
Policy mandateRegulation, subsidy or public procurement is requiring or funding adoption — the mirror of a constraint. It shows adoption is being required, not that it has happened, so one mandate is never enough on its own; two independent ones are.
Tasks this bears on
Whole-life cost and carbon
Estimating what a building will cost to run and maintain, and the carbon in its materials and operation, alongside its construction cost.
New task✓ Evidence-backed
Where this applies
A state planning department's technical note on its sustainable-buildings planning policy. It says all new residential and non-residential developments must report on embodied emissions, disclosing quantities of key materials at development application and construction certificate stages; for non-residential developments, material quantities must be determined through an itemised list of building materials, such as a bill of quantities, prepared by a quantity surveyor, and the completed form must be certified by a quantity surveyor, qualified designer, engineer or NABERS assessor. It covers upfront carbon and requires reporting, not a limit, and the quantity-surveyor requirement sits in the department's guidance rather than in the policy text.
What this means
Where the law asks for a building's embodied carbon, it can end up asking for the quantity surveyor's bill: in New South Wales the carbon figure starts from quantities a quantity surveyor prepares. Carbon becomes another use of the measurement this occupation already does.
What it does not yet show
One state's reporting rule for upfront carbon; it does not set limits or show how much of this work quantity surveyors now do.
What you can check
Open the NSW Embodied Emissions Technical Note (March 2026) and find "a bill of quantities) prepared by a quantity surveyor".
Does it change the assessment?
No. The impact index is never moved by a single event. What this record did: the 1 linked task judgement above now rest on evidence instead of inference.
Source
Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure (New South Wales) — Embodied Emissions Technical Note (March 2026), under State Environmental Planning Policy (Sustainable Buildings) 2022 · verified 2026-09-27 · Claude (VOLO agent) · interpreted 2026-09-27 · Claude (VOLO agent)
Primary source — published by the party that did this, or the authority of record. No co-signature needed.