“A no-brainer”: council urges greater disclosure of building sustainability credentials

The City of Melbourne is pushing the federal government to expand its Commercial Building Disclosure Program further as it seeks greater transparency from property owners and tenants regarding their building’s energy performance.

As part of an implementation update on its Retrofit Melbourne plan heard at the September 10 Future Melbourne Committee meeting, the council has called on the federal government to go even further in forcing disclosure of sustainability standards.

The council has cited the need for more information on buildings’ energy performances to develop effective local regulations, with older commercial buildings accounting for more than 60 per cent of the municipality’s emissions.

The council’s sustainable building portfolio lead Cr Elizabeth O’Sullivan-Myles said that “nowhere in Australia can we look at how to retrofit our commercial properties without the federal government making moves in this work.”

“The advocacy here is absolutely essential,” Cr O’Sullivan-Myles said.

We’ve had bipartisan support on this for many, many years now. It’s a no-brainer. Let’s get a move on with it.

Advocacy forms a key component of the council’s Retrofit Melbourne plan, which aims to accelerate the upgrading of mid-tier commercial buildings to achieve the city’s target of net zero emissions by 2040.

The Commonwealth’s current Commercial Building Disclosure Program introduced in 2010 requires companies to disclose energy performance when they’re selling, leasing or subleasing office spaces of 1000sqm or more, with some exceptions.

This involves getting a National Australian Built Environment Rating System (NABERS) energy rating and a tenancy lighting assessment through an accredited assessor. The program has led to a 35 per cent reduction in base building energy use per sqm for buildings affected by the program.

The federal government’s proposed changes would expand the scheme to offices of 500sqm or more, as well as large hotels, shopping centres, public hospitals and data centres. It has also proposed minimum energy performance standards for large office buildings.

In its submission to the Department of Climate Change, Energy, Environment and Water’s Commercial Building Disclosure Program, the council’s CEO Alison Leighton said that it commended the federal government’s leadership on the issue.

Ms Leighton said that while the council supported the proposed changes, it urged it to consider several recommendations, including mandating disclosures every two years, regardless of whether the building is for sale or rent. 

She added that the council would also like to see the program expanded to more building types, including aged care, retail stores, schools and warehouses, however the federal government’s proposed roadmap doesn’t moot including these buildings until closer to 2030.

Acknowledging the cost of compliance, the council recommended subsidies to access energy-saving technologies, especially for renters, owners’ corporations and small businesses.

“We need faster disclosures, and we need more buildings to be disclosed. Until that happens it’s very difficult to establish local regulatory frameworks that can help us bring down the carbon emissions of the buildings whose emissions would be disclosed under that Commonwealth legislation,” the council’s planning chair Cr Rohan Leppert said.

As part of Retrofit Melbourne, the council has developed voluntary clauses for commercial property owners who want to include decarbonisation plans in their leases. The clauses will be the first of their kind in Australia and include terms for obtaining a NABERS energy rating.

Cr O’Sullivan-Myles said Retrofit Melbourne was “the most important thing this council group has done in the last four years”.

“I cannot wait to see where it will go and I have absolute confidence in our team and I have absolute confidence in our community to see that we will very soon retrofit Melbourne,” Cr O’Sullivan-Myles said.

“Climate change is the greatest modern challenge we will have and how we mitigate and prevent the effects of climate change is the biggest challenge we will have for future generations. We cannot do that without addressing the emissions produced by our existing built environment.” •