The Green Building Council of Australia (GBCA) has released a national rating tool, which is being lauded as the standard that will ‘transform Australia’s cities and communities’.
Green Star – Communities is the highly speculated upon new rating system that goes beyond the certification of singular buildings and offers to raise the standard of and recognise sustainable communities.
“Green Star – Communities is one of the world’s first rating tools designed to encourage higher levels of sustainability across a broad range of issues,” says GBCA’s Chief Executive Romilly Madew. “Green Star – Communities will support the planning, design and delivery of communities, precincts and neighbourhoods that prioritise environmental sustainability – such as minimising energy and water consumption, and reducing dependence on motor vehicles – alongside broader issues such as economic prosperity, liveability and community health and wellbeing.”
Under the system, communities will be rated in each of the following categories: Liveability; Economic Prosperity; Environment; Design; Governance; and Innovation.
The system will become one of this country’s, and certainly the GBCA’s first, holistic community rating system, offering incentive and encouragement for greener lifestyles under community orientated sustainable urban planning.
“Green Star – Communities joins a growing suite of Green Star rating tools trusted by industry. Green Star – Communities will be a game changer,” says Madew. “We now have a practical, holistic rating system able to transform the talk about the future of our communities into actions and results.”
Even with the rating system only just released, it is already gaining the strong support of leaders Australia-wide in both industry and government sectors.
ACT Deputy Chief Minister, Treasurer and Minister for Economic Development, Andrew Barr supports the tool, stating that it will lift the bar for developments nationally.
“The introduction of the Green Star – Communities rating tool can only continue to improve our standard of building and planning, and I look forward to the benefits of its implementation in future developments around the ACT,” says Barr.
The Planning Institute of Australia (PIA) welcomes Green Star – Communities for the support it will offer in delivering ‘better planned communities’. PIA President Dyan Currie notes the new found motivation the rating tool will offer the industry in order to reach a new, higher standard of urban development.
“This rating will become cherished by community developments in the future as it’s awarded to projects that tick the environmental sustainability boxes,” says Currie.”To receive this rating, community planning and design projects will have to meet certain criteria in water and energy saving and reduction in the dependence on motor vehicles. It’s a great incentive for the industry”.
With such clear support from both industry and governmental forces, the GBCA are truly reaffirming their position as this country’s green authority. The support this new tool, and many others, have offered the industry has been a driving force behind the success of green building Australia; a success that is sure to continue with this latest addition.
Minister for Transport and Infrastructure Anthony Albanese will officially launch the rating tool at the Built Environment Meets Parliament conference in Canberra later this month.
