by Brianna Crandall — December 20, 2010—The Green Building Council of Australia (GBCA) announced December 15 that it is developing a new Green Star rating tool to assess the operational performance of existing buildings. Green Star – Performance will assess the full range of existing buildings in the market—which GBCA says constitute 95 percent of the current market—regardless of building type.
The new methodology will enable building owners to gain a holistic assessment of the operational performance of their buildings, regardless of whether they have previously achieved a Green Star Design or As Built rating, says GBCA.
The tool is also expected to help GBCA and others compare Green Star-designed buildings with non Green Star-designed buildings in operation in order to provide a better understanding of holistic sustainability performance in the market.
Tools such as the National Built Environment Rating System (NABERS) already address buildings in operation, but the new Green Star tool is expected to address gaps in the NABERS system by covering all nine Green Star environmental impact categories—management, transport, indoor environment quality, land use and ecology, emissions, materials and innovation—in addition to energy and water, which are already sufficiently covered by NABERS, notes GBCA.
Green Star – Performance will also consider the combined impact of the various sustainability categories and deliver one single Green Star rating. Green Star-specific credits will be developed to address operational environmental impacts not addressed by other tools.
