Background

Buildings have a significant impact on the environment, consuming 32% of the world's resources, including 12% of its water and up to 40% of its energy. Buildings also produce 40% of waste going to landfill and 40% of air emissions. In Australia, commercial buildings produce 8.8% of the national greenhouse emissions and have a major part to play in meeting Australia's international greenhouse obligations. A commercial building sector baseline study found that office buildings and hospitals were the two largest emitters by building type, causing around 40% of total sectoral emissions.

The property industry is well placed to deliver significant long-term environmental improvements using a broad range of measures. More importantly, it is unique in that it can directly influence and create behavioural changes at all stages of the supply chain. Although a strong business case can be made for their implementation, there are barriers within the property industry that often prevent efficiency measures from being adopted.

The Green Building Council of Australia was created to in order to address some of these barriers. The Council's objective is to promote sustainable development and the transition of the property industry by promoting green building programs, technologies, design practices and operations.

After an industry survey conducted by the GBCA, Green Star was developed to be a comprehensive, national, voluntary environmental rating scheme that evaluates the environmental design and achievements of buildings.

Green Star has built on existing systems and tools in overseas markets including the British BREEAM (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method) system and the North American LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) system. In addition, VicUrban, in its work with the Melbourne Docklands' ESD Guide, provided the intellectual property to assist in the development of a local system.

Green Star has established individual environmental measurement criteria with particular relevance to the Australian marketplace and environmental context.

References:

Environmentally Sustainable Buildings: Challenges and Policies' - a report by the OECD, 2003
'Australia State of the Environment' Report, Commonwealth Department of Environment & Heritage, 2001