Inside Green Star, 21st edition, September 2024

11 Sep 2024

A word from Taryn Cornell, Senior Manager Strategy & Development, GBCA

Spring is finally here, and at the GBCA it's all about new growth and the next generation of our Green Star rating tools.

GBCA is proud to be collaborating so closely with industry to drive the green building movement, and as we look forwards, it's exciting to see how the Green Star Future Focus rating tools are on the cusp of some big developments. Each and everything we do is the culmination of years' worth research, engagement with industry experts, and importantly, feedback from people like you.

Our strategic approach is guided by the GBCA Board and the Board’s Green Star Advisory Committee, while our Technical and Industry Advisory Groups provide essential insights into the way industry responds to Green Star. The Strategy and Development team have been busy working with them on some big deliverables, several of which we are excited to announce today.

And on that note, for Green Star Fitouts, we’re proud to announce the following project teams have been accepted into the Early Access Program.

  • Commonwealth Bank of Australia
  • ADP Consulting
  • Westpac
  • Laminex
  • Country Road 
  • REST
  • LCI

Further development on the detail of the rating tool will be out for consultation in November — and as always, we are eager to hear what you think. 

Green Star Communities v2 will be launching at the end of October, and we are thrilled to hear that across the pond, Green Star Buildings has launched in New Zealand. We launched consultation on Green Star Buildings version 1.1 and opened the Green Star Performance Online Platform.

GBCA now has more resources to better explain Green Star Buildings to different applicants and future users, including the key differences between the Design and As-Built and Buildings rating tools. We have also issued over 50 additional FAQs for teams delivering Green Star on their projects.

The Green Star Operations Transformation team is also providing updated guidance for projects seeking alternative certification pathways. There are different certification pathways available to streamline your eligible projects, including volume certification and Site-Wide credits approach pathway. You can learn more about the certification pathways available to you by clicking here.  

We are excited to have more sector specific credits up for grabs, including Leasing for Healthy Tenancies, and Waste Reduction - Industrial. If you want to know more about these specific credits, you can find them here.

If you would like to discuss your eligibility for any of the pathways, please contact the GBCA’s Market Engagement team who are always ready to help.

As you may be aware, we updated our digital systems at the end of July including the launch of a new website portal for GBCA account holders. To experience the new portal, please set a password for your existing GBCA account if you have not already done so, or create an account with us if you do not have one. For more info, please see our FAQs. The team greatly appreciates your patience with this process and will continue to improve the user experience for all our account holders.

On a personal note, I am endlessly grateful for the ongoing conversations I have with the people who are delivering on Green Star projects, and those who provide feedback during pivotal consultations. I look forward to continued discussion, and hearing from you on these updates.

Green Star Buildings v1.1 consultation is now live

Version 1.1 will influence buildings up to and beyond 2035. Because of this, there are several major changes to account for both the current successes delivered by the rating tool, but also additional expectations that the stakeholders throughout consider important. The critical changes are:

  • Climate Positive Pathway:
    • Mandatory requirement for all-electric buildings and revised energy consumption benchmarks
    • Larger focus on grid-interactive buildings
    • Amendments to upfront carbon to align with the proposed NABERS Embodied Carbon methodology
    • Addition of refrigerant GWP limits
    • Amendments to offsets requirements due to challenges in market
  • Nature category: a rebalancing of points and the introduction of key nature-related metrics
  • Circularity in life cycle: The shift towards encouraging circular thinking in building design and construction, and metrics to measure outcomes
  • Stepped points: Increasing the ability for project teams to be recognised for outcomes in certain credits.

The proposed v1.1 of the Green Star Buildings rating tool will address feedback on individual credits and provide technical amendments, clarifications and improvements identified by project teams through application of the rating tool. This will ensure we all continue working towards delivering better buildings, for today, and tomorrow.

Consultation is now in progress for Green Star Buildings v1.1 until 4 October. This is the OPPORTUNITY TO HAVE YOUR SAY. 

Click here to read the paper and fill out the survey Click here to join our free briefingf on the consultation

Green Star Performance v2 update

Green Star Performance v2 has been open for registration for just over a month now, with compulsory registration for all new Performance projects beginning on 1 January 2025. The team has also released technical resources to assist projects applying for Performance v2 - these can be easily accessed by logging into your account.

If you haven't already seen, we’re excited to share a brand-new set of resources for Green Star Performance v2.

From factsheets for landlords, facility managers, tenants and investors, to a business case, and a comparison between Green Star Performance v1 and Green Star Performance v2. These new resources provide a comprehensive overview of the tool and how it can help your assets be future ready, whether you’re beginning your certification journey or applying for recertification.

Download the new resources

Assessor interactions

The Assessor Interaction process is an opportunity for a project contact to discuss with the Certified Assessor project subtlety not easily conveyed with submission documentation, or clarify comments in the results if the usual process of Clarification of Assessment Comments do not adequately facilitate clarity of documentation requirements for the project team.

This can happen at different times in the certification process. 

To find out more about this please look at our Definitions webpage for more information.

See the Definitions here

Celebrating the first industrial certified Green Star Building

Eumemmerring Business Park in Dandenong South, Victoria, is the first industrial, and the second ever project to achieve a Green Star Buildings certification, with a 5 Star Green Star rating representing Australian excellence.

Read more about how they achieved the rating