The GBCA has been a driving force behind Australia’s shift toward more sustainable building practices. Fundamentally, however, Ms Madew says the shift – and the GBCA itself – has been industry driven.

“The industry needs to be given a pat on the back for the fact that they did it; they created the Green Building Council, with the government.”

Industry driven

The GBCA was established in 2002 to develop a sustainable property industry in Australia and drive the adoption of green building practices.

Following the success of the ‘green’ Sydney Olympics in 2000, the industry wanted to capitalise on the green learnings that came out of the experience. As Ms Madew explains, what the industry needed were the guidelines setting out the ‘how to’ of green building.

“There is so much information available that the industry wanted a framework to build and design green,” says Ms Madew.

The GBCA now has approximately 750 member companies, 142 Green Star certified projects and 460 Green Star registered projects. Programs operated through the GBCA have resulted in 2,500 Green Star Accredited professionals, 12,000 people educated on Green Star and 25,000 monthly visitors to the GBCA website.

Ms Madew has been involved with the Council since 2005, when she first started working on its Dollars and Sense 2006 publication. When Maria Atkinson, who established the Council, returned to Lend Lease in 2006, Ms Madew took the helm.

She explains that the industry has come a long way since 2005 – now the second biggest GBC of the 14 GBCs around the world. Fundamentally, she says the GBCA is a product of industry and government working together.

“What’s really interesting is that in the emerging GBC markets, like South Africa and New Zealand, in some areas it is still back to those early days we experienced of – give me the business case [for going green], whereas in Australia we are now so beyond that …we are recognised as a leader internationally,” she says.

It’s not easy being green…but Australia’s leading the way

Green Star is the framework the GBCA uses to assess buildings and rate them accordingly. It covers nine categories that assess the environmental impact that is a direct consequence of a project’s site selection, design, construction and maintenance.

In short, achieving a high Green Star rating is not just a matter of checking boxes and walking out with a shiny wall plaque.

And Ms Madew says that while initially there may have been some “cynicism in the industry and from other groups”, once they realised how comprehensive the tool was the majority came on board. She adds that the industry recognises that Green Star is its mark and self regulates when some within it are not doing the right thing.

“The industry is really good at pulling up organisations that greenwash. If organisations make claims about buildings that aren’t true, our members will email us. In some cases we will receive a photo of the greenwash within 24 hours of its publication” she says.

The rapid uptake of the Green Star framework and the green building market is “extraordinary”, she says. In 2005–06, the GBCA had 56 new projects registered for Green Star certification. Just one year later, these figures had increased to over 400 registered projects.

An industry-government collaboration

While the industry has been the driver, Ms Madew says Australian governments – federal, state and local – have also played a key role in the shift to green buildings.

Over two years ago, the Federal Government mandated that all new buildings should achieve a minimum 4.5 NABERS (the National Australian Built Environment Rating System) Energy rating, which has resulted in significantly greening Canberra and today, Ms Madew says the government is listening, involving the industry in round table discussions and other forums.

On the state government level, aggressive greenhouse gas reduction targets of as much as 40 per cent have been set. Then there is local government where Ms Madew says capital city governments, particularly, are demonstrating green leadership.

“It’s clear from our work benchmarking government policies that some states have progressed dramatically since we first assessed their performance in 2007. We’re pleased to see broad industry and government uptake of green building issues,” says Ms Madew.

There are, of course, improvements that could be made at all levels to the ‘green tape’ required that would help increase and accelerate green building practices. Ms Madew believes the current ‘fragmented’ approach to sustainability and other reporting is one issue governments need to address.

Federally, the industry has a requirement to report on corporate greenhouse gas emissions, energy production and consumption, and energy efficiency in government operations, and in the future there will be mandatory disclosure requirements for commercial buildings’ energy efficiency. Currently, these different reporting requirements are not linked. Ms Madew argues that if the industry is to achieve greenhouse abatement, then these reporting requirements need to be streamlined and administered together. The industry, she says, has no problem with reporting but consistency is vital to making greenhouse abatement the winner through it all.

Reporting improvements aside, Ms Madew is confident that governments are on board and considering ways to streamline processes and reduce building emissions. Consumer demand, including government demand, is vital to driving the industry toward more sustainable practices and outcomes. In this respect, she says government leadership – local and federal – needs to be recognised.

Building greener bases

Talk of leadership leads Ms Madew to the current economic climate. She says that when the global financial troubles started last year, the GBCA watched and saw that sustainability remained in business plans.

“We have seen a slowdown in the number of Green Star buildings registering (due to a slowdown in the market) but there is not a slowdown in regulation, education, and in thinking about green buildings,” she says.

If anything, Ms Madew believes the global financial crisis has shifted people’s thinking towards green buildings for different reasons. One of these, she says, is a flight to quality for differentiation so that when Australia emerges from the crisis, companies and their buildings literally have a better grounding to attract tenants, investment and ensure their future.

“We regularly hear industry leaders such as Matthew Quinn from Stockland and Daniel Grollo from Grocon saying you have to keep Green Star in because if you don’t the building will be obsolete in the future. The effects of the global financial crisis will pass but climate change will not,” she says.

In another policy area, the GBCA has been working to ascertain where the building industry fits under the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS). The GBCA is supportive of the scheme but would have liked to see a higher reduction target set. That aside, Ms Madew says the complementary measures are critically important because it is the energy efficiency and renewable energy measures that concern the building sector.

“The government was clear that they would not consider buildings in the first round of the CPRS, and instead wanted to focus on the top 1,000 emitters,” says Ms Madew. “So we don’t believe we have missed the boat, and will work towards the next iteration of the CPRS.

“What we need to do is to work together as an industry. Australians are very good at this. When we do work together, that’s when we can work out how we can unlock the potential of buildings. All research shows you that buildings are the best way of unlocking the [carbon reduction] potential.”

Challenges and opportunities Retrofitting and education for regeneration

A major challenge for Australian emission reductions is its existing buildings. According to McKinsey & Company’s An Australian Cost Curve for Greenhouse Gas Reductions, the building sector offers 60 million tonnes of carbon reduction abatement opportunities by 2030, the majority of which are able to be implemented today. The GBCA is working with the government and industry to address the problem.

Tenancy is often cited by building owners and managers as preventing sustainable retrofitting; however on the flip side Ms Madew says that tenants – especially large companies – are increasingly looking for more sustainable buildings.

She says that for older buildings, when tenancy rates are declining is the time to look at improving building design and efficiencies.

An example of tenant leadership is the workplace6 building, developed by GPT Group in conjunction with the Citta Property Group, in Pyrmont, Sydney. The 6 Green Star building is now home to Google and Accenture who have both registered their fit out to be Green Star as well.

To achieve the 6 Green Star rating, workplace6 implemented a footprint that allows natural light penetration across internal work spaces via an atrium; solar devices to building facades, operable windows for natural ventilation and improved air quality; chilled beam cooling; harbour heat exchange for cooling in lieu of traditional cooling towers, and grey and black water recycling.

“The design and construction of the building is green and now with Google and Accenture’s green requirements everything going into the building is also green,” says Ms Madew. “And they [the developers and tenants] did that because that was their philosophy.”

Tenant education is another “huge” area that Ms Madew says needs more resources and time. It is an area the GBCA is currently working on because the gains of a 6 Green Star building can be undone by tenant operations.

Future growth

Green building is more complicated than just flicking a switch but with Australia’s industry largely committed to sustainable building, consumer demand and knowledge growth, the shift towards a greener future is occurring rapidly.

The GBCA has a comprehensive feedback program – constantly gathering feedback from industry stakeholders. At the end of each year, the council takes two months to consider the feedback and revise Green Star to keep it in line with changes in technology and thinking.

The challenge for building greener buildings is achieving green outcomes by finding a balance between passive designs, technology, and making a building usable for the tenant. The future is looking greener but to get there requires industry, government and tenant commitment.

“It’s going to take a very comprehensive approach. It’s not just going to be one thing, but a number of things – such as policy and incentives – that leads to the best outcomes,” Ms Madew says.

“Everybody is shifting into the new world which we live in. And they are looking at new ways they can build their buildings.”