Green Star has become a default standard for the design of environmentally sustainable buildings. As it is a voluntary rating system it has been, until recently, confined to CBD buildings being developed with a visionary zeal. As time has passed many tenants have evolved their own environmental standards for buildings they lease and are starting to specify particular Green star ratings as threshold requirements. Although Green Star is voluntary, developers are starting to find that to attract quality tenants, achieving a Green Star rating is essential. In addition to this we are being told that financiers, seeing the trend to greener buildings, are putting pressure on developers to develop Green Star rated building as a form or future proofing and risk management.
The trend to greener building is pushing out into the suburbs and regional areas and can present some serious challenges. A Green Star building is not a simple add on feature, it is not business as usual. It is a whole process and involves all aspects of new building delivery. It can get very complex. Ideally, we suggest Application Solutions is involved at the earliest stage of design and or pre tender to help map out the approach to the project. It is very easy under the pressure of tender conditions to miss the fine print about the Green Star aspects of the project. We try to identify these issues so they are considered and costed into the project from the beginning.
Davis Langdon have produced an excellent online handbook to enable developers, property owners and builders to come to grips with the overwhelming mass of information and requirements surrounding energy efficiency and sustainability in the property sector. The handbook is available on the Green Building Council of Australia web site at: The Road to Green Property
