Oct 30 2008
The building sector accounts for 33 percent of the world’s carbon emissions and 30 to 40 percent of the global energy consumption. Green building can help reduce the sector’s environmental footprint and as a result 85 percent of Australian architects, engineers, contractors and building owners have embraced the concept - a finding from the Green Building Market Report 2008.
The Green Building Market Report 2008 is a watershed study on the adoption and ramifications of green building in Australia and the Asian region. It is the follow-on report of the inaugural Green Building Market Report published by BCI Australia and the Green Building Council of Australia in 2006 and includes a large-scale empirical market study conducted by the BCI Group of Companies between late 2007 and early 2008.
Its purpose is to establish the current state of play of green building in Australia and to contrast the assessment made against the status quo of 2006, as well as the situation currently found in major Southeast Asian economies, Hong Kong and Mainland China.
The Green Building Council of Australia (GBCA) participated in this research and provided its own contributions on the progress of Green Star certifications in Australia.
Green building is becoming a mainstream market phenomenon in Australia. Although energy costs have been increasing significantly since 2006, it is more the awareness of our carbon footprint that is driving the trend to green building.
At the same time, the positive business impact of green building (rising value premium of green projects, increasing appreciation of operating cost savings) is more and more beyond question. Green building regulation – be it through the GBCA’s Green Star ratings or a pending national standard for green products - is widely supported.
BCI Australia CEO, Dr Matthias Krups, said the results showed a higher level of involvement & commitment to green building: “Our research shows that Australia is well placed to take on a leadership role in sustainable design and green building in the region.”
Other key findings of the survey include:
- The fundamental motive for architects to be involved in green building is the desire to be ‘part of an industry that values the environment’ (84 percent, in comparison to 77 percent in 2006). Whilst for building owners the motivation to build green is to ‘achieve lower lifecycle costs’ (100 percent).
- Strong growth is expected in government & commercial office green buildings.
- ‘Reducing climate change and carbon emissions’ and ‘protecting the environment’ are the most salient reasons for architects, engineers, contractors and building owners involvement in green building.
- Energy cost is seen as the most important driver of green building (77 percent).