Why design or build a green public building?

The benefits of building green in the public domain

The benefits of green building continue to stack up. Designing or building a green public building delivers a range of business benefits including:

>    Leadership in the community
>    Demonstrate financial responsibility
>    Reduced delivery timeframes and resources
>    More awards grants and partnerships

Leadership in the community

  • Building green is a clear expression of commitment to the environment. Increasingly, people around the world perceive green buildings as modern and ethical – and companies, councils, governments and community organisations associated with green buildings benefit from these perceptions through community pride, satisfaction and well-being.

Demonstrate financial responsibility

  • Green Star buildings provide a bricks-and-mortar demonstration of an organisation’s commitment to financial responsibility.
  • Increasingly, leaders in both the public and private sector have a financial responsibility to deliver assets that are affordable and represent value for money over the long-term. Green Star buildings and communities do just that. 

 

Green Star certification sends a clear message to our
community that we are committed to building longterm
assets that are sustainable, productive and fiscally
responsible.

Lord Mayor of Parramatta, Cr John Chedid

 

With a $1.6 billion urban renewal project underway, Parramatta City Council was the first local government in Australia to specify Green Star requirements for each building across an entire precinct, and to register to achieve a Green Star – Communities rating.

Read more about Parramatta City Council’s leadership

 

Compressed schedule

Key to the Green Star process is an integrated team approach to design, which often leads to fewer design conflicts and changes in the development process.
  • Developers on Green Star-rated buildings often report that a clear vision helps time and resources to be used more efficiently from day one.
  • According to the World Green Building Council’s Business Case for Green Building (2013), there has been an overall trend towards lower design and construction costs as building codes become stricter, supply chains mature and the industry becomes more skilled at delivering green buildings.
The Green Star process helped all team members to commit
to achieving the same sustainable outcomes. It also
resulted in team members encouraging each other to push
the boundaries and find more effective and efficient ways of
delivering key elements of the project.

John Moynihan, GSAP and Director of Ecolater

In achieving a Green Star rating for the $45m The Corso at North Lakes, Moreton Bay Regional Council realised a number of unexpected benefits.

Read a case study of The Corso at North Lakes.

More awards, grants and partnerships

Increasingly green buildings are examples of innovation and awards winning design that attract award, grants and other partnerships.
  • The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors’ report, Green Value: Growing Buildings, Growing Assets (2006) found that green building practices are more likely to attract grants, subsidies and other inducements that demonstrate environmental stewardship, increase energy efficiency and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The Green Star-rated Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre set a new global standard for convention centre design. The MCEC’s innovation and ingenuity has led to more than $1 billion of economic activity for Victoria, as well as acknowledgement with dozens of awards, including the 2010 Victorian Architecture Medal.

Read the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre case study.

 

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