The Green Building Council of Australia

The Green Building Council of Australia (GBCA) is a national organisation supported by the federal government, which aims to develop and encourage Australia’s adoption of green building practices through market based solutions and engineering advances.

The GBCA also aims to improve “green building” solar technology and practices, while promoting green building initiatives that will contribute to Australia’s overall efforts in carbon reduction.

As a tangible measure for achieving these goals, the GBCA released the Green Star rating tools in 2003. These have since guided buildings and infrastructures on how they can cut down energy consumption, improve water systems and set high standards for what it means to be a green building in Australia.

The Green Star rating of a building is determined by the environmental impacts of the building and the innovation that it provides in the following categories;

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

The Green Star rating tools use 'stars' to rate performance;

• 4 Star Green Star Certified Rating (score 45-59) signifies 'Best Practice'
• 5 Star Green Star Certified Rating (score 60-74) signifies 'Australian Excellence'
• 6 Star Green Star Certified Rating (score 75-100) signifies 'World Leadership'

Currently Australia has 4 million square meters of Green star certified space across the country and another 8 million square meters or registered space.

The green star rating has been very important to set the uniform standards of environmental protection across all parts of Australia, and has been very successful.

Now the rating system has become a universal blueprint for all future buildings and had made significant impacts for the adoption of solar power in Australia and other renewable energy sources and environmental friendly measures.