17 Dec 2025
Before we step into 2026, we're looking back at the stories, commitments and achievements that have made 2025 a year of milestones that we shared with you across our channels. Here we look back at the moments that caught your attention, inspired your work and sparked change.
A 2025 career outlook with Richard Evans - Podcast
Our chats with Richard Evans are consistently popular with our audience and his early 2025 podcast with GBCA's Lucy Harris was no different. It landed at a time when many of you were settling into the new year, creating new to do lists and perhaps pondering if 2025 was the year of the career change. Richard's wisdom included tips on how to progress your working life, ways to leverage your network to score your dream job, and he shared the all-important salary trends of 2025
Did Richard's predictions come true? Or do you want to check out other episodes of Green Building Voice: The Podcast? Listen in on Spotify
Naala Badu: An Art Gallery for the Future - Case study
The case study section of our website showcases benchmark breaking buildings, interiors, communities and residential projects from around Australia. The stories are about Green Star journeys, challenges, leadership and real outcomes and each year they are among the most visited pages on our website. In 2025 one project rose above the rest - Naala Badu, formerly known as the Sydney Modern. True to its name, which in Dharug language means "seeing waters", the gallery connects with the natural surrounds of its harbourside home with 8,000sqm of green roofs and landscaped areas and 50,000 Australian native plants. .
Naala Badu is a world leading space where art meets sustainability through ecological design, energy efficiency and water conservation - we take you on a tour here
A practical guide to circular procurement - Guide
Launched in March, A practical guide to circular procurement for new buildings and major refurbishments, offers clear steps for embedding circular strategies into procurement practices. Written with developers, architects, procurement managers, and government agencies in mind, the guide shares practical strategies, tasks, and deliverables for every stage of the building lifecycle to minimise waste and pollution, reduce embodied carbon, keep products circulating at their highest value for longer, and extend the life of buildings.
There are many reasons why this document was the most downloaded and visited guide of its type in 2025, find out why here.
A wicked problem - Green Building Voice newsletter
In April this headline captured the attention of our Green Building Voice readers days before the Federal election, making it the most opened newsletter of 2025. Our CEO Davina Rooney’s monthly contribution acknowledged the housing affordability crisis was “decades in the making” requiring a coordinated response spanning beyond one election cycle. That month we also launched our own Federal election policy platform, outlining five key policy priorities for an Australia that is future-ready and competitive in a changing world.
If you’re ready to revisit the wicked problem, you can do so here
Mid-year accolades and celebration - LinkedIn
In June we were recognised as a 2025 Australian Financial Review Sustainability Leader, taking out the top award in the Property & Construction category. The award was a nod to our Future Focus program for its contribution to decarbonisation, electrification and positive social outcomes across 700 buildings, valued at over $20 billion, and collectively set to avoid at least 4 million tonnes of carbon emissions. The figures showing reach and engagement on this LinkedIn post were also high, and it was here where Jorge Chapa, our Chief Impact Officer declared, “This recognition is a testament to our incredible team and the thousands of project teams using Green Star to create better outcomes for people and the planet.”
Marketing Rules & Style Guide for Green Star Projects - Downloads
If you’ve been part of a Green Star certified project, you’ve worked hard to meet your ambition and the outcome is a story worth sharing with stakeholders, clients and the wider industry. That’s why we have the tools you need to promote your work, from registration through to certification and beyond. In 2025 our Marketing Rules & Style Guide for Green Star Projects was the most downloaded document on our public website. GBCA is with you on every step of your Green Star journey and our guidelines clearly outline how to promote your Green Star project at every milestone.
These guides are packed with tips, rules, and style secrets and we’ll continue to evolve them in 2026
Cundall reaches new heights with 500 certifications - Instagram
The celebrations have continued right up until the end of 2025 with 20-year GBCA member Cundall achieving 500 certifications around Australia. This work can be seen in basketball stadiums in Melbourne, office towers in Sydney’s CBD, master planned communities in Western Australia and mass timber industrial facilities in Queensland. Davina Rooney congratulated Cundall in November, saying, "Every certification represents a team choosing to do better – to create spaces that are healthier for people and lighter on the planet. As we look to the next 500, it’s partnerships like these that will help us scale sustainability across every corner of the built environment.”
This was an achievement worthy of a collaborative celebration, so we had some fun with Cundall on Instagram and it led to our most popular reel of the year, watch it here.
As 2025 concludes we want to thank our audience for your support, engagement and encouragement-your passion, ideas, and commitment make progress possible.