Australia’s first national environment building rating system is expected to be finalised by the end of the year, and the Government hopes it will induce a greater investment in sustainable building alternatives.
The National Australian Building Rating System (NABERS) will apply to all commercial, industrial and domestic buildings, and will provide information on the sustainability of existing building stocks.
The Government also hopes it will promote a shift in the way the built environment is focused.
The system will primarily act as a user-friendly reporting mechanism for Government to gather information and determine funding requirements, which will ideally eliminate the need for expert assessors.
A workshop was conducted in Brisbane last month by Environment Australia, during which key components of the proposed system were discussed.
It was concluded that buildings would be rated from 1-5 in the following nine different categories:
- Biodiversity.
- Embodied energy.
- Energy consumption.
- Water.
- Indoor air quality.
- Resource efficiency.
- Location and transport.
- Waste.
- Food.
It is expected that the final NABERS rating will indicate the average rating profile for each building type, allowing owners to compare their buildings performance with that of the average building.
For more information on the NABERS system refer to the Environment Australia website:
www.ea.gov.au/industry/waste/construction/abers.html
