Information on other organisations:

Green Star

Green Star is a comprehensive, national, voluntary environmental rating system administered by the Green Building Council of Australia that evaluates the environmental design and construction of buildings. Green Star was developed by the GBCA to:

• establish a common language
• set a standard of measurement for built environment sustainability
• promote integrated, holistic design;
• recognise environmental leadership;
• identify and improve life-cycle impacts; and
• raise awareness of the benefits of sustainable design, construction and urban planning

Green Star covers the following nine categories to assess the environmental impact that is a direct consequence of a project site selection, design, construction and maintenance: management, indoor environmental quality, energy, transport, water, materials, land use and ecology, emissions and innovation. There are points awarded in each of these categories and if a project team successfully achieves a certain number of points they will be awarded certification. The number of points determines what level of certification a project achieves: 4 Star Green Star Certified Rating, signifies ‘Best Practice’; 5 Star Green Star Certified Rating, signifies ‘Australian Excellence’ and finally 6 Star Green Star Certified Rating, signifies ‘World Leadership’.

There are four separate tools for Green Star certification: Design and As Built, Interiors, Performance and Communities.

For more information on Green Star go to: https://new.gbca.org.au/green-star/

NABERS

NABERS is the National Australian Built Environment Rating System which is a performance-based rating system for existing buildings. NABERS rates a building on the basis of its measured operational impacts on the environment, and provides a simple indication of how well these environmental impacts are managed compared with peers and neighbouring buildings.

NABERS was originally developed by the Australian Department of Environment and Heritage and is currently managed by the NSW Office of Environment and Heritage. NABERS Ratings are available for apartment buildings, office buildings, shopping centres, data centres and hotels.

These ratings are typically within the following four categories:

NABERS Energy: assess Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions as a measure of energy efficiency;
NABERS Water: assess potable and non-potable water consumption as a measure of water efficiency;
NABERS Waste: assess general and recyclable waste generation rates as a measure of waste and recycling efficiency;
NABERS Indoor Environment: assess thermal and acoustic comfort, indoor air quality, lighting and layout as a measure of indoor environment efficiency.

For more information on NABERS go to: https://www.nabers.gov.au/

WELL

The WELL Building Standard is the first standard of its kind to focus exclusively on the wellbeing of the occupants of the building. It was developed by the International WELL Building Institute (IWBI) and first released in October 2014. An internationally recognised rating tool that was developed in the United States through years of research and consultation has incorporated health related building features from best practice strategies from all over the world. There are prescriptive and performance requirements within the features of seven concepts: air, water, nourishment, light, fitness, comfort and mind. The performance verification aspects of WELL require that testing of the building once it has been built occurs for various elements such as air quality, water quality, lighting quality, thermal comfort metrics, etc. Any type of project can pursue WELL Certification.

For more information on WELL go to: https://www.wellcertified.com/ or download the app!