As environmentally sustainable building practices gain momentum in Australia, and worldwide, it is easy to forget the times of past, when the building industry wasn’t so environmentally aware, and financial cost and construction deadlines often seemed to take precedence over environmental considerations. As public awareness of environmental issues grew, so did awareness within the building industry - but without a standard rating scheme it was difficult to gauge the overall environmental design and achievements of buildings in relation to one another.

And so entered the Green Building Council of Australia (GBCA) - an open, non-profit membership coalition of the diverse sectors of the building industry. The GBCA is part of the World Green Building Council - a federation encompassing councils from Spain to India to Japan, with the common objective, as stated on their website, of supporting the “development and implementation of high performance/green building principles, standards, rating and certification systems, performance measures, technologies, products, resources and projects” - certainly a worthwhile aim!

Central to the meeting of this lofty objective is Green Star - “a comprehensive, national, voluntary environmental rating scheme that evaluates the environmental design and achievements of buildings.”

According to the GBCA website, Green Star assesses the environmental impact of a building as a direct consequence of site selection, design, construction and maintenance - taking into account nine categories, such as energy, transport and materials. The categories are grouped into credits, each of which addresses an initiative that improves or has the potential to improve environmental performance - and it is on this basis that points are awarded. The credits are assessed and a percentage score is calculated, to which environmental weighting factors are applied - the factors applied vary from state to state, to reflect local conditions and concerns.

The resulting scores are then converted to a 4, 5 or 6 star rating. A 4 star rating signifies ‘Best Practice’, 5 star rating, ‘Australian Excellence’, and 6 stars for ‘World Leadership’.

Green Star is not the only green rating system in Australia - with 13 others in operation. This can lead to some confusion, however the systems are in their infancy and as they develop and grow, the systems will become clearer and easier to understand - both within the industry, and by the public.

Both financially and time wise, the planning and construction of buildings, such as Workplace6 in Pyrmont and 30 The Bond in Millers Point, that strive to meet the Green Star objectives is more costly than traditional buildings. In my view, however it is a worthwhile price - if we ignore these concerns now, the future cost to the environment will be one we cannot afford.