A report released by the Green Building Council of Australia (GBCA) has found that Green Star-rated buildings emit around a third of the greenhouse gas emissions and use a third of the electricity when compared with the average Australian building.
The Value of Green Star: A decade of environmental benefits, report analysed data from 428 Green Star-certified buildings and fitouts and compared it to the ‘average’ Australian building and minimum practice benchmarks.
“Hundreds of buildings around Australia, from offices to factories, shopping centres to schools, libraries to hospitals, have achieved Green Star ratings,” explains Romilly Madew, the GBCA’s Chief Executive.
“This is the first time we’ve quantified Green Star’s overall impact on Australia’s built environment. This new report complements the large number of case studies and substantial anecdotal evidence of Green Star’s transformative effect on sustainability at the individual building level,” Ms Madew says.
The report examines the impact of Green Star on greenhouse gas emissions, operational energy and water consumption, and construction and demolition waste.
The findings revealed that the 428 Green Star buildings in the study had reduced electricity consumption by 580,000 megawatt hours or 2,088,00 gigajoules per year, saved 3,300,000 kilolitres of potable water a year and diverted 564,000 tonnes from landfill due to good waste management practices.
“The savings that Green Star is delivering for the built environment – financial, social and environmental – are just too good to ignore,” said Ms Madew.
