In recent weeks we've seen the world's financial markets in crisis, talk of a global recession, stocks tumbling, house prices collapsing, a retail sector slump and a wave of pessimism across Australia's economy.
It would be easy, as a result, to be gloomy about the prospects of our nation's green building industry. We've already heard people talking about how we simply cannot afford to focus on energy efficiency, low carbon and green building when financial concerns loom so large.
Now is the time to work harder to ensure that green building remains high on the national agenda.
At SB08 recently, the Green Building Council of Australia released The Dollars & Sense of Green Building 2008, which confirmed that green buildings consume less energy, less water and generate less waste, and create a healthy and productive environment for employees.
Green building practices can reduce a building's operating costs by as much as 9 per cent, increase building values by 7.5 per cent and realise a 6.6 per cent increase in return on investment. What's more, going green can increase occupancy ratios by 3.5 per cent and rent ratios by 3 per cent, as well as increase worker productivity by as much as 10.9 per cent.
Green buildings will save money, energy and the planet. They will create good, green, local jobs. As just one example, a report released in June 2008 used the latest CSIRO modelling to predict that more than 251,500 'green collar' jobs will be created in Australia's property and construction industry by 2025 - that's 45 per cent of the total number of new jobs, providing new opportunities and employment for many Australians.
We cannot lose sight of our mission to develop a sustainable property industry for Australia. Now is the time for every one of our 615 member organisations, our 2,800 Green Star Accredited Professionals and our 11,000 Green Star trained advocates to work together to deploy the expertise and capacity we've already created to impel the green building movement forward. Let's work together to ensure that green trumps greed.
Source: Green Building Council of Australia
