The Green Building Council of Australia (GBCA) has today released A Carbon Positive Roadmap for the built environment.
The discussion paper outlines the steps required for commercial, institutional and government buildings and fitouts to decarbonise.
It provides high-level outcomes, actions, targets and policy positions required. These are proposed alongside changes to the GBCA’s Green Star rating tool to ensure it helps lead industry through the next decade of transformation.
Developed in close consultation with industry and government, and now being released for their feedback, the discussion paper plots a world-leading path to raise the benchmark for sustainable design, construction and building operation in Australia’s built environment.
GBCA chief executive Romilly Madew said the roadmap has been developed to help ensure Australia’s competitiveness and attractiveness for investment while fulfilling international commitments to reducing carbon emissions.
“It proposes a range of policy positions for industry to support and calls for upgrades to energy efficiency requirements in the national construction code and an expansion of requirements for the mandatory disclosure of energy efficiency in buildings and fitouts,” Madew said.
“Broader reforms in the energy sector are also discussed, with practical incentives to support building upgrades and retrofits and the development of carbon neutral products and services."
The roadmap was developed in tandem with Green Star Future Focus – a comprehensive review of existing Green Star rating tools to set leading targets for certification.
Buildings seeking a Green Star rating would have to meet updated requirements – with a proposal that new and existing Green Star rated buildings will have no greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and existing buildings having to meet this target by 2050 or earlier.
Madew said it will drive transformation in the rest of the built environment by promoting policies to retrofit existing buildings, improve new buildings, increase the supply of renewable energy, and phase out fossil fuel use.
She said the roadmap also acknowledges the contractual, policy, and commercial barriers that discourage joint action between building owners and tenants to address whole-of-building emissions.
“Achieving the roadmap’s targets requires a whole-of-building approach,” Madew said.
“Where the building owner has control over the fitouts and energy use changes are easier to implement. However, in buildings where there is a contractual relationship with another party collaboration and cooperation is needed.
“Problems can be overcome by first incentivising decarbonisation, then requiring collaboration between all parties to share energy data. Encouraging the use of operational ratings will drive both parties to use renewable energy.”
The Carbon Positive Roadmap is available at https://gbca-web.s3.amazonaws.com/media/documents/carbon-positive-roadmap-discussion-paper-fa.pdf