It was back in July 2009 that the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) agreed to introduce a scheme of mandato ry disclosure of energy efficiency for all Australian buildings.
The Commercial Building Disclosure scheme, or CBD, is now effective for office buildings of a certain size and with specific conditions. But there are also plans in place to expand its scope to other types of non-residential buildings and eventually, as one of the final goals of the National Building Energy Standard- Setting, Assessment and Rating Framework, to all classes of resi dential and non-residential developments in Australia.
Manuel Basiri
Work is already underway to develop and deploy the Residential Building Mandatory Disclosure of Energy Efficiency, or RBMD, by 2012; it is one of the main areas of focus under the National Framework for Energy Efficiency.
In the simplest terms, the Mandatory Disclosure of Energy Efficiency requires owners of resi dential and non-residential build ings to demonstrate the energy efficiency performance of their building, before it can be adver tised for lease or purchase, using regulated rating tools and by showing a standard performance metric in form of star ratings.
Like any other emerging regu lation there are those for and against the RBMD, be it political ly or from technical and econom ical points of view. The Property Council of Australia has criticised the CBD scheme for including areas of uncertainty and unclear definitions, as well as exceptions to rules which could pose a risk of unfair penalties to landlords.
There are also concerns amongst professionals and asso ciations regarding potential increases in the cost of design and development for new resi dential buildings. They have also cited ‘a non-proportional cost benefit ratio’, which comes about when improving the ener gy efficiency of existing buildings places them in a disadvantaged position, and one which is very expensive to resolve.
The Federal Opposition labels the whole policy as yet another hollow promise trying to paint the impression of activity on environment.
On the other hand, indis putable evidence means there are strong arguments proving there would be enormous bene fits from a well-considered RBMD regulation. If successfully deployed, these would be realised across our economy, environment and industry. In fact, the ACT has had a Mandatory Disclosure scheme for residential buildings for over 10 years. The territory´s example boasts credi ble statistical evidence that a higher star rating in single dwellings results in a higher mar ket value far exceeding the initial investment required for the nec essary improvements.
The RBMD scheme will encourage more energy-con scious design practices and sup port technologically advanced approaches for building services, including elements which would eventually translate to lower national energy consumption, less greenhouse gas emissions and a more competitive and responsible building industry.
Under the current government, the RBMD scheme will be launched in 2012 for all Australian states and territories, if it follows the current plan. But even if it suf fers delays, similar to what it has already experienced, its eventual implementation is certain.
When RBMD does become mandatory, it will mean the addi tion of another evaluation metric to the array of residential schemes, adding to the remark able changes affecting all areas of the residential building indus try, from design all the way to marketing and maintenance.
For architects and building designers, incorporating effica cious energy efficiency and sus tainability elements into designs will cease to matter as a regula tory compliance issue, as they will directly contribute to the marketability, desirability and final value of their products. In a competitive market the design ers who fail to add as much value as possible to their build ings using the newly added eval uation metric with introduction of minimum or no extra cost to the owner will be eventually margin alised.
The study of the Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) of houses in ACT versus their market value between 2005 and 2006 shows that, on average, a single star rating improvement in the EER of a house translates to approxi mately 3 per cent increase to market value of a house. By smart passive design and edu cated utilisation of nominal and innovative building elements the design could have a high star rating with no tangible increase in the construction costs, which will be offset many times over by the development’s added market value. Architects will continue to be asked for evermore sustain able designs and the introduc tion of RBMD will see the logic behind developing sustainably become easier to grasp.
We also know that sustainability must be one of the pillars from conceptual design all the way through the construction and commissioning stages since, because without a well planned passive design, achieving a high rating building becomes more and more expensive as the design phase progresses. There can be little doubt that skills and knowledge in various areas of sustainability are growing in importance as fundamental element of the set of core competencies at any architectural design practice.
Manuel Basiri is the founder and director of Eco Certificates, a specialised consultancy practice focused primarily on energy efficiency studies of residential and commercial developments. Basiri is a MIEAust, ABSA and NABERS accredited assessor and Green Star accredited professional with a Civil Engineering and IT background.
