The current economic climate has made some sections of industry question the importance of sustainability, according to Romilly Madew, CEO of the Green Building Council of Australia.
Speaking at a Property Council of Australia event, Madew said she is often asked if sustainability is dead because of the challenging construction market, the changing political landscape and a sense of "green fatigue."
"However, I don't think it's dead; I think it's still integral to projects, but it is just being described differently," she said adding that sustainability has a long life span ahead of it.
"The Harvard Business Review identifies sustainability as one of the world’s unstoppable mega-trends, comparable to mass production, globalisation and the digital revolution."
Madew does admit that the overall topic of sustainability may have dropped down the agenda, but it is still being worked into development projects in different ways. “
These include concerns about resource efficiency, cost of living and a pressure to do less with more,” she said.
According to Madew, these pressures are influencing projects such as Grocon’s redevelopment of Legion House on Castlereagh Street in Sydney, where the building will have net zero carbon emissions and will generate its own electricity. The surplus will be used to supply the building next door.
A survey by World Green Building Council—World Green Building Trend 2013—shows that, of 60 companies involved in the construction industry, 51 per cent believe their work will be green by 2015.
Australia remains one of the countries with the highest per-capita emissions of greenhouse gases in the world—coming in third behind the United Arab Emirates and Brunei. Australians are also among the world’s biggest litterbugs with each person throwing away 1030 kg of rubbish every year.
"We also build the largest houses in the world,”Madew said with a typical home being around 215 sqm—a figure which has grown by 10 per cent in the last decade and which is more than twice the size of a new home in the UK.
