The evolution of Green Cities

05 Jun 2018

5 June 2018

After more than a decade of leadership to help successfully embed sustainability as a core value and operating principle in Australia’s built environment, the Property Council of Australia and Green Building Council of Australia (GBCA) are excited to be evolving their partnership with a new direction for Green Cities.

For the past 12 years, the annual Green Cities conference has brought together thought leaders, industry experts and individuals, to inspire sustainability initiative.

It has helped drive market transformation, mainstream sustainability and see Australian property companies achieve an unbroken seven-year record as world leaders on sustainability as ranked by GRESB.

Building on this success, the two organisations are taking a new approach to how together they best deliver this ongoing influence, advocacy and leadership with their members.

From next year the Property Council and GBCA will continue to support a renewed focus on sustainable cities through a revitalised Green Cities Leadership Dinner and a new program of complementary Green Cities initiatives, replacing the single conference event in 2019 and beyond.

GBCA Chief Executive Officer Romilly Madew and Property Council Chief Executive Ken Morrison said they looked forward to continuing their close partnership and building on past achievements.

“Industry has made great strides forward in stepping up and showing true leadership to confront a broad range of sustainability challenges,” Ms Madew said.

“Leadership, collaboration and innovation have all been critical ingredients in seeing Green Star deliver more than 27 million square metres of certified building space in Australia since its introduction 15 years ago. This is an outstanding result but we need to keep pushing the boundaries to maintain this momentum and respond to both local issues and emerging global megatrends impacting our cities.”

“Members of both our organisations are responding to an increasing breadth and depth of sustainability issues and it is critical that we also evolve and adapt our offering in order to best support their efforts,” added Mr Morrison.

“We are entering the ‘metropolitan century’ – an era of increasing urbanisation and more diverse competition around the world. Sustainability is now core business for the property industry in Australia and it is vital we continue our global leadership across the three pillars of environmental, social, and governance sustainability. The work we do together is critical to ensuring Australia’s major cities continue to attract global talent and capital and are well positioned to respond to the challenges we face.”

Media contact:  Matt Francis | M 0467 777 220 |  E mfrancis@propertycouncil.com.au

Fiona Benson | M 0407 294 620 |  E fiona.benson@gbca.org.au