The Green Building Council of Australia (GBCA) has been ardently backing a complete retrofit of all ‘brown’ or sustainably unfit operational buildings in this country. Which is only logical, as these buildings, particularly in the commercial sector, join together to become the largest carbon emitters in Australia.
Their move to transform these unfit buildings has received a huge boost recently, with the support of Australand for their Green Star – Performance rating tool.
The rating tool will become the backbone of the GBCA’s work moving forward, as it will most precisely “help building owners, operators and occupants to measure and monitor the environmental impact of their buildings and take practical action to improve their buildings’ performance”.
The council has marked the support of Australand as invaluable, with Chief Executive Romilly Madew stating that it is through the backing of major Australian industry companies that environmental benchmarks can be reached, leaving the construction and design sector revolutionised.
It has also been marked as the only way to truly accomplish a ‘holistic’ management of operational buildings in this country.
“Closing the gap between Green Star Design and As Built is essential for the industry to ensure that green designs are translating into better performing buildings for owners, users and the community” says Australand Executive General Manager Sean McMahon.
The Green Star – Performance rating system promises to enable efficiency in both water and energy use and help facilitate a reduction of waste through its best practice benchmark guidelines, which allow for the creation of easily understandable and achievable set targets, explains Madew. Herein lies the promised success of the system, which also encourages productivity, health and learning.
“The US Green Building Council’s rating tool for Existing Buildings’ Operations and Maintenance, LEED-EBOM, has driven more certifications in one year than all the other LEED tools have done in their history” says Madew, “We expect Green Star – Performance to have the same impact in Australia, and are thrilled to be working with Australand on this revolutionary project”.
Testing of the Green Star – Performance rating tool will begin this year.
