Approximately twenty per cent of Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions come from buildings, with commercial buildings accounting for ten per cent of those emissions [1]. As a result, and as part of its campaign to tackle climate change, the government is putting the energy-efficiency of buildings high on its agenda. New Commonwealth legislation, slated to come into force in the second half of the year, will mean commercial building owners who sell or lease office space of more than 2,000 square meters will be obligated to disclose their energy-efficiency information. While the details are still to be finalised, this compulsory disclosure is likely to involve providing a purchaser or potential tenant with a greenhouse rating from the National Australian Built Environmental Rating Scheme (NABERS).

NABERS measures a building’s environmental performance and provides a way to benchmark the greenhouse impact of a building using a one to five ‘Green Star’ energy rating – one star being the highest greenhouse impact and five stars the lowest. Currently NABERS can provide ratings for commercial offices, hotels, and residential buildings. The key impact areas assessed are energy use and greenhouse emissions, water use, waste, and the indoor environment. The rating can be used as a simple indicator, to demonstrate how successfully the building manages these key impact areas, and to compare these results to surrounding buildings and those of an equivalent nature.

Mandatory Disclosure

The proposed legislation will no doubt lead to a change in the way commercial building owners view sustainability, making energy efficiency a serious priority for the coming year. The scheme will mean responsibility for reporting will lie solely with building owners and as a result will force them to look in earnest at their environmental performance if they are not already doing so. In addition, as an indirect consequence of publicly declaring a building’s ‘green’ status, developers and building owners will need to include energy efficient technologies in their buildings.

Local governments and councils have leapt aboard the energy reduction challenge by setting specific targets for commercial buildings, making it even more important for businesses to begin actively engaging in NABERS. Brisbane City Council has set the specific emission reduction target of 50%, requesting that organisations commit to energy management. Similarly, the Australian Capital Territory Government is also targeting electrical consumption by stationary sources, such as office buildings, due to their above average (70%) generation of greenhouse gas emissions [2]. Both Brisbane and the ACT have also set the long-term goal of achieving zero net emissions.

Across all industries and markets, consumers are displaying an increasing appetite for sustainable goods – and buildings will be no different. As a result, developers will now need to include energy-efficiency targets when planning new projects and upgrades to existing buildings to boost their sustainability credentials.

Amongst commercial property owners, there already appears to be an increased uptake of technology such as metering and reporting solutions for energy, solar, water and gas usage, as well as control systems for lighting, AV and air-conditioning, to make the most of a building’s resources. From monitoring solutions, such as systems for use in foyers, lobbies, and shopping centres (which display real-time and historical data on building energy and environmental performance), to complex energy reduction solutions like fully integrated building control systems, building owners should be using technology and specialised consultants to maximise energy cost savings and reduce the carbon footprint across all types of projects.

In the current climate, where legislation is changing, it is imperative businesses begin undertaking the necessary implementation of energy saving technology as soon as possible. For existing buildings, early adoption of energy efficient solutions will lead to more significant reductions in ongoing operational costs. Owners and operators of new buildings need to be aware that it is more cost effective to install these solutions from the beginning, rather than altering systems that are already in place once the legislation comes into effect later this year.

For further information about NABERS – National Australian Built Environmental Rating Scheme – see the NABERS website.

To assist property owners and developers, NABERS provides a list of accredited assessors on their website under the ‘offices’, ‘retail’ and ‘hotels’ links.

Peter Garrett is a Director at mySmart

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More information about this topic in our construction section

References:

[1] Australian Government, Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts; http://www.environment.gov.au/sustainability/energyefficiency/buildings/

[2] ACT Government, Department of the Environment, Climate Change, Energy and Water; http://www.environment.act.gov.au/actsmart/your_business/CitySwitch_Green_Office

Image: Salvatore Vuono / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Written by Peter Garrett

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