ESD AND ENERGY EFFICIENCY IN AUSTRALIA (3) - ABGR

This is from ABGR's website:
http://www.abgr.com.au/About_ABGR/

QUOTE:

About ABGR

The Australian Building Greenhouse Rating (ABGR) Scheme is a 'world first initiative' to help building owners and tenants across Australia benchmark their greenhouse performance.
Benefits of ABGR:

* Provides market recognition and a competitive advantage for low greenhouse emitters and energy efficient buildings;
* Encourages best practice in the design, operation and maintenance of commercial buildings to minimise greenhouse emissions

Administered nationally by the NSW Department of Environment and Climate Change (DECC) and locally by leading state greenhouse agencies, the ABGR scheme rates buildings from one to five stars with five stars representing exceptional greenhouse performance. Current market best practice in Australia is three stars.

Key features of ABGR:

* It’s voluntary – a rating can be initiated by a building owner, manager or tenant;
* It rates a building according to its actual performance, using 12 months’ energy data;
* It can be used for the base building (central services), whole building or individual tenancies;
* It allows developers to “badge” the greenhouse performance of their new office development from the outset on the proviso that DECC will rate its actual operational performance and advise the tenants;
* It’s available now for all Australian office buildings.

Now, I would briefly talk about some practical situations of ABGR.

As I mentioned earlier, though officially ABGR is "voluntary", there are other forces that make ABGR "semi-regulation" or "psuedo regulation":

* The NSW state government have a policy that existing offices need an ABGR rating. If it is not 3 star ABGR or above, then it should be retrofit to 4 star or above. (see link below)
* When a state government authroity or office build or rent a new office building or space, the space should achieve 4.5 stars minimum. (See http://www.premiers.nsw.gov.au/pubs_dload_part4/prem_circs_memos/prem_memos/2004/m2004-04.htm )
* Development Control Plans (DCP's) of many local councils also require that new office buildings to have an "Energy Performance Report" (EPR) or simply have an ABGR committment of at least 4 stars. (Check the DCP link above for Green Star)
* It is also a requirement of Green Star buildings to have a minimum of 4 star ABGR to be eligible for the application of Green Star. (ENE-1 & ENE-2)

So you can see there are many things that require the use of ABGR. It is actually not "voluntary".