Local skills, regional application: developing a smart, sustainable ASEAN

The newly launched ‘Australian Green Building: Developing a Smart, Sustainable ASEAN’ report, produced by the Green Building Council of Australia and Austrade, celebrates what makes Australian companies ‘global green leaders’ and looks at examples of our ingenuity across sustainable building design, materials, equipment, construction and management.

It also profiles a number of award-winning Green Star buildings that have helped to establish Australia’s reputation for excellence in the field.

Importantly, this reputation also means that we are well positioned to share our knowledge and help manage sustainable growth across the ASEAN region.

ASEAN is pegged to be the world’s third-largest economy by 2030. In that time, an additional 90 million people will call its cities home.

Driving this urbanisation are global factors such as investor demand (which is expected to drive green investment of more than $3 trillion USD to ASEAN by 2030) and the challenge of a low carbon future.

Thanks to our proximity to ASEAN nations, Australia’s green building expertise opens many opportunities for knowledge sharing and creating new partnerships.

Australia has one of the world’s most mature green building markets as well as a property and construction supply chain that fundamentally understands sustainability.

Our investment in sustainability is paying dividends - both environmentally and through better returns to investors

GRESB, the global real estate sustainability benchmark, has ranked Australia’s market first in the world for the last seven years in a row.

Launching the report, the Federal Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment the Hon. Steven Ciobo MP pointed out that businesses in Australia’s property and construction sector are already carving out a niche in the region’s markets, providing their knowledge and expertise through urban projects.

Australian businesses “can deliver buildings with lower operating costs, higher values and improved environmental and productivity outcomes” he said.

Ahead of the launch, the report key messages were presented to members of the World Green Building Council Asia Network, who were visiting Melbourne for the recent Green Cities Conference.

At the networking event hosted at Cox Architecture’s Melbourne office, attendees from all over the ASEAN region heard how Australia’s global leadership is delivering better, greener buildings across the region.

As a founding member of the World Green Building Council’s Asia Pacific Network, the Green Building Council of Australia collaborates on cross regional projects and research, and has strong relationships with green building councils in China, India, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia.

With the launch of the report, Romilly Madew, GBCA CEO observed, “Australian companies, through the Green Building Council of Australia, have forged strong partnerships with many counterparts in ASEAN, as we work together to accelerate the uptake of sustainable building practices in the world’s economic powerhouse.”

The GBCA is looking forward to continuing to build these partnerships in collaboration with Austrade in the months ahead.