All new buildings must be emissions-neutral by 2030 and all existing buildings by 2050 if Australia is to meet its climate change targets.
As part of this process the Green Building Council of Australia (GBCA) is developing a new ‘Carbon Positive Roadmap’ in close consultation with industry to drive carbon positive buildings and communities.
The GBCA has launched a discussion paper, A carbon positive roadmap for the built environment, at the Green Cities 2017 conference in Sydney yesterday.
The discussion paper outlines how the built environment can help Australia meet its greenhouse gas emissions reductions targets, in line with the Paris Agreement on climate change, and asks for industry feedback by Friday, April 28, 2017.
GBCA CEO, Romilly Madew, said more than 170 nations – including Australia – have agreed to limit global temperature rises to less than 2˚C, and to strive towards global temperature rises of no more than 1.5˚C.
“As the built environment is responsible for 23 per cent of Australia’s greenhouse emissions, the property and construction industry has a central role to play in meeting these targets," Madew said.
“We are working with the 1.5˚C target, and this means that all new buildings must be net zero emissions by 2030, and all existing buildings must be net zero emissions by 2050.
“The discussion paper asks industry what this means for Green Star buildings – and especially for world-leadership Green Star buildings.”
The GBCA has identified four key priorities: promoting energy efficiency through passive design and efficient systems; driving investment in resilient, renewable energy infrastructure; increasing markets for net zero carbon products, materials and services; and promoting offsets for remaining emissions.
“We believe this approach will be a cost-effective pathway for buildings and portfolios, and will also achieve other positive outcomes for Australia – such as efficient, comfortable and healthy buildings, energy security and a thriving renewable energy industry, jobs growth in emerging sectors, and enhanced biodiversity," Madew said.
Stockland’s general manager of sustainability, Davina Rooney, said local industry has a strong-track record delivering sustainable buildings and precincts, and now has the world’s most sustainable market according to the Global Real Estate Sustainable Benchmark.
"We have demonstrated how carbon reduction strategies can reduce costs, boost health and wellbeing of building occupants and enhance the value of assets," Rooney said.
Fraser Property Australia, general manager of sustainability, Paolo Bevilacqua, said a Carbon Positive Roadmap will help industry to take action, address current barriers and drive a carbon positive future
Lendlease group head of sustainability, Geoff Dutaillis, said large-scale climate positive developments like BarangarooSouth in Sydney and Elephant & Castle in London are using innovation, technology and collaboration to demonstrate that the built environment can play a leading role in delivering real action on climate change and the transition to a carbon-neutral future.
The discussion paper can be downloaded from the GBCA website: https://gbca-web.s3.amazonaws.com/media/documents/a-carbon-positive-roadmap---final-doc.pdf