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by Emma Green, NATSPEC Communications
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What’s On 03
Taking action for a greener future
By Emma Green, NATSPEC Communications
In Australia, buildings produce nearly a quarter of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions. Green buildings refute the built environment’s reputation for environmental damage.
When news about climate change seems to include only devastation and despair, the good news often goes forgotten: sustainable actions work. As confirmed in research by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), we have it in our collective power to halve harmful emissions by 2030. All industries have their role to play in making this change, particularly the built environment.
In Australia, buildings produce nearly a quarter of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions. Green buildings refute the built environment’s reputation for environmental damage. According to the IPCC, for global warming to be limited to around 1.5°C, the world’s greenhouse gas emissions need to peak before 2025, and be reduced by 43 per cent before 2030. Already halfway through 2022, the window for action is now.
At this crucial point to limit climate change, green buildings are one of the industry’s best tools for longterm success. As defined by the Green Building Council of Australia (GBCA), a green building is energy efficient, water efficient, has good healthy spaces, and is built responsibly on sites that are not critical natural areas. It unites economic, ecological and social sustainability.
The GBCA maintains the Green Star sustainability rating system, including Green Star Buildings, released in 2021. Green Star is an internationally recognised system that highlights environmental and social sustainability excellence. Since the system’s beginnings in 2003, it has made an exceptional mark on the way the design and construction industry approaches sustainability. Across the country, hundreds of thousands of people live, study and work in a range of Green Star-rated buildings, homes and communities.
When specifiers and building designers are making environmental considerations and choosing sustainable practices, documentation is essential. The specification puts design decisions into effect. Sustainability must be designed into a project from the start. In the context of green buildings, the role of the specification is to enable the full sustainability potential of the design to be achieved.
By specifying sustainable, fit-for-purpose materials, products and techniques from the beginning of the design process, building designers can ensure that the project’s final result is exactly as environmentally friendly as they intended it to be.
Specifications are particularly important for any specifier working on a project that is aiming for a Green Star Buildings rating. For any building to be certified with a Green Star rating, it must first meet fifteen Minimum Expectations credits. These Minimum Expectations ensure that all Green Star rated buildings meet the basic definition of a green building.
After meeting the Minimum Expectations, a project requires additional credits, measured by points. The number of points achieved determines whether it is awarded a 4-, 5- or 6-Star rating. What’s On 03
What’s On 03
In line with the goal of improving the quality of the built environment, NATSPEC cites Green Star Buildings in numerous National Building Specification worksections. NATSPEC’s April 2022 update includes new guidance clauses referring to Green Star Buildings credits to further promote sustainable design. Guidance text notes that the associated text in the specification targets the requirements that may be needed to achieve Green Star Buildings minimum expectation credits.
A greener built environment is the industry’s shared goal. It pushes everyone to work together, pooling their knowledge to find solutions. One solution for specifiers and building designers is the new publication Specifying for Green Star Buildings using NATSPEC, published by the GBCA in May. When specifiers and building designers are making environmental considerations and choosing sustainable practices, documentation is essential.
This document lists each Green Star Building’s credit with a NATSPEC worksection classification number, clause number and title where these credits are covered in the National Building Specification, as well as recommended evidence as required by Green Star. This saves specifiers time and energy, encouraging them to define and stipulate sustainable development in project documentation.
With less than three years before damage caused by climate change becomes irreversible, every action counts. Not every person, and not every industry, has the power to effect change on a large scale, but the combined effort makes a difference. In even the smallest way, the principles that drive Green Star Buildings can inform all design and construction work, making Specifying for Green Star Buildings using NATSPEC an indispensable resource.
In the global challenge of mitigating climate change, the built environment has a responsibility to act. Designing sustainability into a project and documenting these decisions in specifications is one reliable way to work towards a greener future. Reducing global warming is possible – and the strategies to achieve it work.
Above: Hanging Gardens of One, Central Park, Sydney
NATSPEC is a not-for-profit organisation owned by Government and industry. It maintains the National Building Specification and has been a valued part of the Australian construction industry for over 45 years.
