Investing in energy-efficient buildings is critcial for Australia’s future which is why the 2013 CitySwitch Green Office Awards which were held last night are so important.
The awards recognises energy efficient buildings across Australia that have cut emissions over the past 12 months.
The Royal Automobile Club (RAC) of Western Australia took out the top accolade for National Signatory of the Year, reducing its carbon emissions by 242 tonnes a year and electricity consumption by 10 per cent under the national CitySwitch program.
This year a new award for national partnership of the year was won by WT Sustainability and the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) while J Goddard & Co and UXED from Sydney were recognised for their innovative mobile and desktop ‘Leasa’ app.
The app assists commercial office tenants to decide on the most energy-efficient space to lease and is driving market transformation by helping tenants make smart choices about cost effective and energy efficient space. Other NSW winners included Envizi and Goodman Group.
The City of Sydney-led program represents over 12 per cent of all Australia’s CBD office space and helps companies significantly cut their carbon emissions, become more energy efficient and reduce energy costs.
Lord Mayor Clover Moore presented the winners with their awards at a ceremony last night at Sydney Town Hall and praised the RAC as being a green leader with impressive levels of staff engagement and use of innovative monitoring systems to help manage energy usage.
Moore said the commercial office building sector accounts for about 80 per cent of city emissions.
“It’s important that Australian businesses are proactively taking significant action on climate change and making their buildings more efficient,” she said.
Moore said CitySwitch is Australia’s leading office energy efficiency program covering over two million square metres of floor space and over 493 tenancies nationally.
The national judging panel included representatives from the Green Building Council of Australia (GBCA), Property Council of Australia, Energy Efficiency Council and the CitySwitch National Steering Committee.
The RAC achieved a 4.5 star NABERS energy rating in their West Perth building. The organisation has future plans for renewable energy including a solar installation to reduce energy consumption further.
Wallmans Lawyers from Adelaide were recognised as national new signatory of the year.
GBCA chief operating officer, Robin Mellon, said two reports issued by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) today paint a potentially grim picture of the nation’s future.
“We cannot continue to increase our energy consumption and expand our population without expecting severe consequences for our environment,” Mellon said.
The ABS has found that Australian households are using 12 per cent less electricity than they were three years ago, but four per cent more energy overall and that total household energy expenditure on all forms of energy including natural gas, petrol, diesel, LPG, solar and wood has increased by nearly 60 per cent.
Households and the manufacturing industry were the two largest domestic energy users, accounting for around one quarter of total energy use each.
Concurrently, the ABS has released population projections, which reveal that, based on medium growth, Australia’s population may double by the year 2075.
By 2040, Western Australia’s population is projected to almost double to 4.7 million, and Queensland will grow to 7.3 million. By 2053, Melbourne and Sydney are expected to be home to 7.9 million people each.
“Yet the good news is that we know that buildings designed and constructed to meet Green Star benchmarks consume a third of the energy and electricity of their non-green counterparts. These buildings are not only energy efficient, but future proofed to withstand higher utility costs,” Mellon said.
“Green Star ratings should be the ‘gold standard’ for all new apartment buildings to ensure that the homes we build for our growing population are energy efficient and cost-effective.”
