Green building space covered by the national CitySwitch Green Office program has reached three million square metres.
The program, which covers 12 per cent of Australia’s office stock, helps its members to improve energy efficiency, reduce waste and cut carbon emissions. There are 730 offices signed up, with each signatory committing to develop a pathway to energy efficiency, with a target of a four star NABERS rating.
It supports offices with a number of educational resources, and has been a collaborator with The Fifth Estate on our new Greening Your Office Series. See our first instalment Green ICT: Ideas and solutions for your office, and look out for our soon-to-be-released next chapter on office waste.
The program, administered by the City of Sydney, was congratulated by Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore for its achievement.
“Around 80 per cent of the emissions from cities come from commercial office buildings so if we’re serious about the war on climate change, that’s the front line,” Ms Moore said.
“In the past 12 months, CitySwitch members have launched 1463 sustainability projects, reported an average accredited NABERS rating of 4.1 stars and purchased 296,600 tonnes of carbon credits, detailed in the program’s annual progress report.
“Three million square metres is a terrific result for the program – the same size as Uluru, which takes three and a half hours to walk around.”
A recent addition that helped the program tick over to three million sq m was Melbourne’s Green Steps consultancy, based at the Monash Sustainability Institute.
Green Steps business development associate Kate Smith said becoming a CitySwitch member showed a business’s commitment to improving energy efficiency.
“It’s encouraging to be on this journey with other organisations,” Ms Smith said. “As an organisation that provides sustainability training, it’s important that we walk the talk and lead by example.”