Chief Executive hosts Climate Change Session

Chief Executive, Romilly Madew chaired the Climate Change Session at the recent Built Environment Meets Parliament event in Canberra.

Australia is at a cross roads.

We have a new Federal government that understands the importance of the Built Environment - we, as an industry, have a tremendous opportunity.

However, if you read the Garnaut Review and Green Paper you could be mistaken for thinking that we did not live, work and play in buildings - by their poor inclusion.

That is what BEMP is about - a collaboration of likeminded organisations involved in the Built Environment - aimed at highlighting the importance and influence of buildings to Parliament.

Collaboration is a crucial word.

We need to collaborate with government to identify the barriers to buildings achieving the best abatement opportunities; barriers such as environmental red tape.

We need to collaborate with industry to set targets for reducing carbon, water and waste.

We need to collaborate with our members to focus on green capability building within their organisations.

We need to collaborate with ASBEC to continue to develop the business case for green buildings.

To achieve the GHG abatements needed to reverse climate change we need a process where groups likes us that can disagree, come together to identify common interests, define common problems, and seek solutions that reach beyond what any one of us could accomplish on our own...

BEMPs policy proposals doe climate change include:

• Establish an economy wide national emissions trading framework that includes the built environment;
• Establish a green building initiative - a nationwide building tune-up and retro-greening program;
• Commit to eco efficiency targets for carbon, water and waste efficiency along with air quality;
• Establish a R & D Fund to develop the technology that will enable low carbon, water and waste buildings;
• Provide incentives for retrofitting existing stock in the form of green depreciation;
• Cut environmental red tape.

We need BEMP - Built Environment Meets Parliament - to highlight the untapped potential of buildings not only to decrease GHG emissions but to be part of a truly sustainable place for us to live, work and play.