On January 21st, the Green Building Council of Australia (GBCA) published its ‘Green Star \u2013 Design & As Built Consultation Paper Feedback Report’, containing industry feedback on the proposed new Green Star – Design & As Built<\/i> rating tool. Edge Environment’s sustainable property and infrastructure expert Marlon Kobacker is a member of the Technical Advisory Group for the new tool, which will be taking some bold steps forward. The tool will be significantly streamlined, using an online certification platform, and apply to a range of building sectors. Broader sustainability issues are being explored such as adaptation and resilience, life cycle assessment, supply chain sustainability, employment creation and social return on investment.<\/p>\n
When asked what kinds of issues the new Green Star – Design & As Built<\/i> rating tool should address, the top three responses were:<\/p>\n Additional suggestions included: social and economic sustainability, local sourcing of materials and products, supply chain sustainability, embodied energy and embodied water. As we’ve seen BREEAM, LEED and the ISCA Infrastructure Sustainability tool start to tackle these issues, it seems Green Star is likely to follow suit.<\/p>\n This is a bold step in line with the global trend towards life cycle assessment and triple bottom line transparency. Social risks in the supply chain are now being assessed. Social return on investment is being calculated for larger developments and contributing to the business case for public funding. Environmental impacts are being quantified for whole buildings. Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) are making life cycle assessment easier. Whole of life costing is now being used to find the optimal balance between CAPEX and OPEX rather than \u2018value engineering\u2019 CAPEX down as far as possible. Instead, whole of life costing is engineering value into projects from the outset.<\/p>\n This is a very exciting time for sustainability in the built environment. We are entering an era of quantifying its value, and utilising triple bottom line transparency to make informed decisions and achieve optimal returns. We congratulate the GBCA on their efforts to date and look forward to seeing the public release of the new Green Star – Design & As Built<\/i> rating tool.<\/p>\n\n