Spending more time on sustainability and less time on paperwork

We know our vision to lead the sustainable transformation of Australia’s built environment is one many individuals, organisations and communities share.

At the Green Building Council of Australia (GBCA), we help companies and partners to deliver sustainability across their projects, our urban landscape, and our nation.

So we have teamed up with the Infrastructure Sustainability Council of Australia (ISCA), who share our goal for a more sustainable built environment.

We are making it easier for proponents who want to confirm their sustainability credentials through our ratings tools to achieve that more efficiently.

Together we have created a guide to explain how our leading ratings tools can be used and integrated for projects seeking dual certification.

The Guide for Projects Seeking Dual Certification, released this month, is intended for use by industry, government, operators and asset owners to achieve certification under both the GBCA’s Green Star – Design & As Built and the ISCA’s Infrastructure Sustainability (IS) Design & As Built rating tools.

The guide identifies the rating tools’ common elements, allowing greater efficiencies when applying for certification.

We believe this collaboration will help to cut the compliance burden for our partners, while reducing the risk of non-compliance at an earlier stage in the process.

It is a whole of life approach to the assets and projects, where sustainability is built into each stage across multiple elements.

We want our partners to spend more time on sustainability and less time on paperwork.

We understand built environment projects are catalysts to activate precincts and infrastructure. That’s why it makes sense for us to work together.

If sustainability is to be achieved across buildings, precincts and cities, we all need to work together in an integrated way to deliver economic and social value, while furthering our sustainability outcomes.

An example of a project seeking dual certification could be a transit-orientated development such as a train station with a mixed-use precinct around the transport hub.

The process is collaborative, and the GBCA and ISCA can work with proponents throughout all stages from planning to design, detailing, construction and operation to ensure a positive outcome.

There are differences between the sustainability assessments of the GBCA and the ISCA. We will provide clear expectations for the ratings tools.

Throughout the planning phase we will undertake a shared GBCA, ISCA and workshop. We believe this is a critical stage to influence the future sustainability of the project.

Here we will identify the most important aspects of sustainability being targeted, and how that can be achieved through contracts and procurement.

Throughout the project, we will keep in touch to make sure we are all on the same page for future certification. We believe it is important to have a collaborative and integrated project team throughout the project delivery.

There are equivalent elements of the GBCA and ISCA ratings tools, and in many cases the intent is aligned.

We believe this guide is another step on the journey to increasing sustainability across Australia’s built environment.

Amid increasing demand from stakeholders to grow environmental outcomes, we believe making it easier and more efficient is important to incentivise and realise our shared goals.

We thank you partners for the shared vision and commitment to sustainability.