The bright spot of sustainable building

While the world's global financial crisis continues to dominate the end-of-financial year headlines, results from the Green Building Council of Australia (GBCA) suggest that sustainable building is a bright spot for the Australian economy.

The GBCA has now been operating for nearly eight years. In that relatively short time, our membership has grown to nearly 800 organisations, making it the world's second largest green building council after the USA.

In the same time, we have moved from zero to more than 165 Green Star certified buildings and more than 400 buildings registered for Green Star.

We are extremely proud of the industry's commitment to greening our built environment. Today, Green Star is almost synonymous with new commercial office developments in Australia's capital cities, and 11 per cent of CBD office space is Green Star certified.

In the last financial year, we've set our sights further afield, and have launched five new Green Star rating tools: Education and Retail tools in July 2008, Industrial in October 2008 and Healthcare and Multi Unit Residential just in the last month. We now have a considerable number of projects registered under these new tools, and just recently certified our first Green Star - Multi Unit Residential project under the PILOT program.

The Green Star team has been exceptionally busy this year. Aside from tool development, we have developed new streamlined guidelines for Green Star, and undertaken an ongoing review of Green Star which has culminated in the release of two new assessment frameworks.

The Assessment Framework for Forest Certification Schemes will create a level playing field for certification schemes, simplify compliance requirements in the Green Star 'Timber' credit and encourage the use of Australian timber over illegal imported timber.

The Assessment Framework for Product Certification Schemes will raise the Green Star best practice benchmark expectations both for manufacturers and suppliers of fitout products, as well as certification schemes.

On the international stage, we've worked closely with our counterparts in the World Green Building Council on a number of initiatives, including developing common metrics to measure emissions of CO2 equivalents for buildings.

We have also established a new Asia-Pacific Committee to create stronger links within our region and promote the benefits of sustainable green building practices.

Australia has also demonstrated that it punches well above its weight in the international green building arena, with our own Chairman, Tony Arnel, appointed to lead the World Green Building Council in September last year.

The GBCA's advocacy team worked closely with local, state and federal governments this year, and have had a number of policy 'wins', including the Council of Australian Governments' move towards increasing the energy efficiency requirements of the Australian Building Code and moving to a minimum six star energy efficiency ratings for all new Australian homes.

We published the Dollars and Sense of Green Building 2008 to provide a comprehensive snapshot of the green building industry in Australia, and present the solid business case for sustainability in the built environment. We also launched The Green Guide to Government Policy, which details federal, state and capital city financial incentives and support programs to encourage our industry to reduce carbon emissions and build sustainably.

Further, in association with other members of the Australian Sustainable Built Environment Council (ASBEC) Climate Change Task Group, we were involved in the publication of The Second Plank - Building a Low Carbon Economy with Energy Efficient Buildings report, developed in response to the CPRS green paper.

The GBCA, in partnership with the Property Council of Australia, Australian Institute of Architects, Planning Institute of Australia and Association of Consulting Engineers Australia, hosted the second Built Environment Meets Parliament (BEMP) series in Canberra, an annual conversation with government about the important role of the built environment.

With such impressive results in 2008/2009, where to from here?

Our first and foremost focus in the next financial year will be to continue our support of the industry's adoption of Green Star rating tools, and demonstrate to investors, tenants and the broader community that green buildings are the smart choice - both economically and environmentally.

We'll also continue to work closely with governments around Australia to ensure we unlock the emission reduction potential in the built environment, particularly in the lead up to the United Nations' meeting on climate change in Copenhagen in December.

We will continue to work with industry to find ways to address the challenge of making our cities more sustainable. We are currently working with a range of stakeholders on a pathway to a precincts/communities framework rating tool. With more than 50 per cent of the world's population now living in cities - and this figure expected to rise to 70 per cent by 2050 - our challenge of sustainable, liveable, green cities has never been greater.

The Green Building Council of Australia firmly believes that the secret to a prosperous future is sustainability. The future of our built environment rests on energy and water efficiency, systems that promote cleaner indoor air, the use of recycled and more sustainably developed materials, and communities that live in harmony with their environments.

We look forward to working with our members and the broader property industry over the next financial year to continue to realise this vision.

Romilly Madew
Chief Executive
Green Building Council of Australia