New Green Star for Communities rating tool: Have your say

Green Star for Communities has helped to create more connected, resilient and healthy communities across Australia, and into New Zealand and South Africa. Now, the Green Building Council of Australia is reviewing the rating tool and will deliver a new version in 2020 that will better meet the challenges of today and the next decade

We have listened to feedback from across the industry and have developed a new proposed framework for the Communities tool off the back of this feedback. Now we are seeking your views on the consultation paper which will help to inform further tool development and the final release of Green Star for Communities in late 2020. If you have used the tool, will use it in the future, or if you have a professional interest in sustainable precinct development – we want to hear from you!

We have proposed a major set of revisions to the current rating tool including a focus on delivering deep carbon reductions. The five key changes we are proposing are:

1. An approachable definition of a community: a broader scope of issues with a clearer and more accessible language.
2. Delivering deep carbon reductions: with all projects to deliver carbon reductions, and exploring the goal of net zero emissions precincts by 2030.
3. Including a focus on buildings: the rating tool will place greater weight on the sustainability of built form, whilst acknowledging diverse levels of control across precinct types.
4. Meeting clear expectations: ensuring that all projects deliver a minimum set of clearly defined outcomes that align with what stakeholders are wanting in a sustainable precinct, in the short and long term.
5. A more flexible certification process: a nimble and streamlined certification process that can match development timing more effectively.

Green Star for Communities is part of the broader Future Focus program that we are running to reinvigorate the suite of Green Star rating tools. The Future Focus program will deliver higher levels of sustainability leadership through new requirements for 4, 5 and 6 star. It will also allow more flexibility for the tools to respond to different contexts with specific sector credits. Badges will be developed to showcase exceptional achievement in a particular area of category of the tools, and there will be more consistent language across the rating tools and a more streamlined digital submission process.

If you are looking to be one of the first to secure a new Green Star for Communities rating, you can nominate your project for the Early Access Program. We are also looking for partners to help us ensure success in delivering this ambitious new rating tool.

We will continue to consult across the sector throughout 2020 with a view to release the final tool in late 2020.

Make sure your views are heard by submitting feedback through the paper by 30 November 2019, or at an official event. For more information, please get in touch at  FutureFocus@gbca.org.au