Many of Australia’s older buildings were constructed with scant regard for energy efficiency, but now that we better understand the financial and environmental benefits of sustainable building, where do we start in the process of making them ‘greener’?
After working for more than two years with various sectors of the industry, the Green Building Council of Australia (GBCA) has launched a new rating tool that will enable building owners and managers to identify ways to improve the environmental and financial sustainability of their assets over time.
According to the GBCA’s Chief Executive Romilly Madew, the Green Star–Performance rating tool will help tackle the challenge of improving the efficiency of our existing building stock.
“Most of Australia’s buildings were built at a time when little thought was given to issues such as energy efficiency, water use or indoor environment quality.
“Green Star–Performance will enable us to transform these ‘brown’ buildings into the green buildings we need and reduce their operating costs”, Ms Madew said.
The Performance tool joins the suite of Green Star rating tools for offices, building interiors, retail and industrial facilities, healthcare, public and education buildings, and multi-unit residential dwellings. It is able to rate every type of building, with the exception of single detached homes.