Sustainable principles paying off

As investors and tenants become increasingly concerned about triple-bottom-line reporting, a commercial property market is emerging for premises that fit these principles.

In July 2003 the Green Building Council of Australia (GBCA) introduced a ‘green star’ rating system that relates to commercial buildings, providing a rank out of six stars.

The State Government was quick to endorse the green star rating system and recently announced that, from July 1 2006, the Government will only consider proposals to accommodate an agency in premises that achieve a 3.5-star rating or better.

Property Council WA executive director Joe Lenzo said green and sustainable buildings provided savings to energy costs, but also were concerned with design, which made the environment for staff healthier and more productive.

“There is a real demand from tenants for sustainable buildings, and we are advising property owners to look at sustainability as an essential issue,” Mr Lenzo told WA Business News.

“The Government is really leading the charge with their policy, and we are endorsing the GBCA rating system as well.

“If the green star principles are incorporated in buildings there will be a comparative advantage on other buildings and therefore a better return on an investment.”

Director of architecture firm Cameron Chisholm Nichol, Dominic Snellgrove, said there was a misconception that green buildings cost more money, when in fact the opposite was true.

Before joining Cameron Chisholm Nichol’s Perth office, Mr Snellgrove was the concept architect for Lend Lease’s new offices in Sydney at 30 The Bond, the design of which is nationally acknowledged to have embodied fundamental principles of sustainability.

“The economic, social and environmental benefits are not always separable – they relate to each other,” Mr Snellgrove said.

“The critical component is the economic one; once this benefit is established, the rest just flows. It isn’t rocket science, but it can have a powerful impact.

“Tenants are now beginning to show more concern, which tends to feed back to developers and their briefs for buildings.”

He said the principles were not just available to new buildings, with some of the best opportunities for incorporating sustainability in the existing building sector.

“There is a real opportunity to implement green initiatives to substantially increase the performance of existing buildings, and the GBCA have been instrumental in developing rating tools,” Mr Snellgrove said.

“Incrementally, these initiatives are being absorbed by the marketplace, but ultimately the most powerful influence is the end user.

“If the market is valuing green initiatives, that will be the most powerful motivator for change.”

Property sales and leasing firm Colliers International associate director, John Pirovich, said the Government’s firm leadership stance in relation to office sustainable energy principles was to be applauded.

“We recognise that the destiny and future of the property business community is the responsibility of those who chose to lead by example,” he said.

“In the last few years we have undertaken over 20 energy audits leading to proactive engineering upgrades by our corporate clients.

“Green principles are very firmly on the agenda, and we will certainly see the incorporation of some of these ideas into the several building proposals in the Perth CBD at the moment.”

GBCA executive director Maria Atkinson said the green star system relied on a holistic evaluation of buildings and was linked to several different factors.

“There were several drivers for developing the green star system – there is community demand that buildings address environmental issues, but no common language or rating system for developers to use to convey this,” Ms Atkinson said.