Sustainability

Sydney has draft environmental upgrade agreements: the race is on

It’s got Richard Branson and his Carbon War Room and potentially billions of dollars of investment in the United States. Australia is also in on the act and Melbourne and Sydney are vying to be the first to market.

 It’s the race to roll out the first batch of energy efficiency retrofits for commercial buildings that pay for themselves through savings on the power bills, and use private investment funding repaid through local government rates.

 The City of Sydney has recently posted a draft template for what an environmental upgrade agreement template might look like and Parramatta and North Sydney councils are close behind. The NSW Office of Environment & Heritage has posted a set of guidelines for the state wide legislation that governs the agreements.

 Melbourne already has its guidelines for a program confined initially to its 1200 buildings program and could be close to the first deal involving a building of more than 40,000 and a retrofit worth between up to $14 million. Continue reading

Are you managing your Energy Reporting Risk ? As come November the Penalties are harsh !

Commercial Building Disclosure (CBD) is a national program designed to improve the energy efficiency of Australia’s large office buildings.

Transitional Provisions Ending this Year

The current transitional provisions of the CBD program that require only a NABERS base building energy rating to be disclosed will end on 31 October 2011, with full mandatory disclosure requirements commencing on 1 November 2011.

From 1 November 2011, the Building Energy Efficiency Disclosure Act 2010 (BEED Act) requires corporations selling, leasing or subleasing certain large (>2000sqm) office spaces to register a full Building Energy Efficiency Certificate (BEEC), not just a NABERS rating.
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