Australia's green building industry is on the rise

Builders and projects managers are more interested in green construction than ever before, with over 100 Green Star projects certified this year. On top of this, 134 new Green Star projects were registered, showing the green building industry is rapidly developing in Australia.

Green Star is the mark of quality for design and construction of sustainable buildings, communities and fitouts in Australia. It is effectively a rating system for many types of building projects, designed to establish a common language in the green building industry and set a standard of measurement for environmental sustainability in building projects.

Romilly Madew, chief executive of the Green Building Council of Australia, says there are now 641 Green Star certified projects across Australia, and 486 further projects registred to achieve ratings.

“We are particularly proud of the fact that 20 per cent of Australia’s office space is now Green Star certified - a phenomenal achievement in just ten years,” Ms Madew adds.

Lend Lease, a property and infrastructure company, received six new Green Star ratings for 122,000 square metres of floor space this year. This makes it the highest achiever for number of projects and area of floor space in the Green Star ratings. It also received the first ever Communities Green Star for its Barangaroo South project in Sydney.

Cundall, an environmentally sustainable design consultancy firm, took the cake for most new projects of 2013, managing 14 new Green Star projects.

WSP and AECOM were the frontrunning consultants working on Green Star projects. The former worked on 39 projects in various development stages, whereas AECOM participated in 16 certified projects .

Clients are increasingly looking to strengthen the performance of their buildings, as well as focus on environmental effects, according to WSP Built Ecology Director David Jarratt.

"We know that our clients look to develop and manage buildings that are stronger in performance, with environmental performance definitely at the fore. The growth of the Green Star suite of tools is reflective of this and proof that our clients want to benchmark themselves against the best, irrespective of building type,” Mr Jarratt says.

The program aims to promote integrated, holistic design as well as recognise  the industry's environmental leaders. Projects with a Green Star certification are seen to identify and improve life-cycle impacts of designs and construction, as well as raising awareness of the importance of sustainable design.