Green Building Council - Sydney, Australia

The Green Building Council of Australia was on our itinerary for today. We arrived at the Council’s headquarters, and we met with Robin Mellon who is the Executive Director of Advocacy. Robin led us into a GBCA boardroom and began with a power point presentation. The council has 3 mail goals which are the following:
Rate
Educate
Advocate

GBCA operates as a non-profit organization. It currently staffs 60 employees, and it has a member base of 900 and growing. They use the Green Star system to rate their buildings.
Robin informed us that Green Star was developed for the property industry in order to do the following:

• Establish a common language
• Set a standard of measurement for green buildings
• Promote integrated, whole-building design
• Recognise environmental leadership
• Identify building life-cycle impacts
• Raise awareness of green building benefits

Green Star should be considered to lower operating costs, greater tenant attraction, enhanced marketability, a healthier place to live and work, demonstrate of corporate social responsibility and a competitive advantage.
The nine categories included within all Green Star rating tools are:

• Management
• Indoor Environment Quality
• Transport
• Water
• Materials
• Land Use & Ecology
• Emissions
• Innovation

The following Green Star Certified Ratings are available:
4 Star Green Star Certified Rating (score 45-59) signifies 'Best Practice' in environmentally sustainable design and/or construction

5 Star Green Star Certified Rating (score 60-74) signifies 'Australian Excellence' in environmentally sustainable design and/or construction

6 Star Green Star Certified Rating (score 75-100) signifies 'World Leadership' in environmentally sustainable design and/or construction

The GBCA office space added these sustainable elements which helped them be the most efficient space in the building.

• Fresh air ventilation
• Automatic roller shades
• No hot water
• No suspended ceiling
• C02 sensors
• Wastewater tank

The class was shown an indoor worm farm located right in their kitchen right before we left!

These guys are certainly bringing sustainability to another level. The class pitched the idea that Dr. Forgey should have his own worm farm on campus too.
Dr. Forgey aka the “Worm Wrangler” how does that sound?
This was a great informative session provided by the GBAC.