Green Star Interiors - for any building type

Romilly Madew, Chief Executive
Green Building Council of Australia

The Green Building Council of Australia is committed to helping more people enjoy comfortable, healthy and productive indoor environments, and the new Green Star – Interiors rating tool, launched today, does just that.

Green Star - Interiors can assess the interior fitout of any building type – whether that’s a hospital, a hotel, a school, a shop or an office.

When Morgan Stanley’s tenancy at 30 The Bond in Sydney achieved the first Green Star rating for an office interior, it signalled the beginning of a new era for office workers around Australia.

Heralding a future in which ‘green’ would become inextricably linked with ‘high performance’, the company’s Chief Executive Officer, Steve Harker, said that his firm strove to be “an employer of choice and provide staff with the best infrastructure and environment” in order to work to their full potential.

Today, Morgan Stanley is one of dozens of companies around Australia operating from a Green Star-rated office fitout. These companies understand that a sustainable workplace can boost productivity and act as a powerful recruitment and retention tool.

In fact, the Colliers International 2012 Office Tenant Survey, published in July, found that 95 per cent of office tenants want to occupy a ‘green’ building – up from 75 per cent just two years ago. “Green is now the norm – where it used to be a bonus in a building, it is now expected,” says Simon Hunt, Colliers International Managing Director of Office Leasing.

In the six years since Morgan Stanley achieved its 5 Star Green Star - Office Interiors v1 certification, the rating tool has encouraged higher levels of environmental sustainability in office fitouts by providing best practice benchmarks for everything from natural light and fresh air, to waste management and low-emissions materials.

Beyond the office, the evidence is clear that green building principles, when integrated into building interiors in schools, hospitals and retail centres, deliver massive health and productivity benefits.

A focus on good lighting and ventilation in education facilities has been found to deliver a 15 per cent increase in student learning, a 25 per cent increase in student test scores and a 41.5 per cent improvement in student and teacher health.

Similarly, a range of international studies has confirmed that green healthcare facilities provide better patient care and reduce the length of stay required in hospital. One study found a 41 per cent reduction in the average length of stay for patients in sunlit rooms over patients in dull rooms.

In the retail sector, a just-released study from the US has found that bank branches operating from facilities rated using the USGBC’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating tool opened 458 more consumer deposit accounts and had US$3 million more in consumer deposit balances per facility per year over non-certified properties. 

Companies operating from Green Star-rated offices are reporting spikes in productivity of up to 15 per cent. Imagine the possibilities for our collective health and wellbeing, and the health and wellbeing of our economy, if we could transfer those productivity improvements to our schools, hospitals and retail centres?  

Download the rating tool and technical manual today or find out more: www.gbca.org.au/interiors