An Industry First for Sustainability as NABERS Hits Hong Kong

The workplace is in a state of major transition globally, with words like wellness, health, energy efficiency and sustainability now synonymous with the office.

Combined with increasing evidence of the benefits of sustainable building design, the goal posts are shifting in office markets worldwide, with energy performance taking precedence as a mainstay in today’s modern cities.

In Australia and New Zealand, the National Australian Built Environment Rating System (NABERS) has helped lead the charge towards more efficient building operation and performance, creating a benchmark that enables property owners, facility operators, managers and designers to monitor and manage the energy performance of an asset. For over ten years, NABERS has helped property owners, managers and tenants across Australia to improve their sustainability performance, reaping financial benefits and building their reputation. In this space of time, over 72% of the Australian national office market has now been rated with either a base building or whole building rating.

Assessing the performance of property under a scheme like NABERS facilitates energy accounting, comparing a facility’s energy use to similar facilities to identify opportunities for improvement, and quantifying/verifying energy savings with the goal of informing and motivating performance improvement.

Last month marked a particularly exciting time for the global property industry, with Asia’s largest real estate investment trust, Link REIT, signing on to pilot the NABERS scheme in Hong Kong – an industry first to undertake NABERS assessments in the greater China region. Link REIT is the first real estate investment trust in Hong Kong and the largest in Asia in terms of market capitalisation, with a portfolio comprising more than one million square metres of retail space.

This pilot project is indicative of the growing number of owners and fund managers in Australia, New Zealand and now Asia, seeking proven approaches to verify the sustainability of their portfolios.

Commercial building energy performance benchmarking is a foundational element of an organisation’s energy management strategy; because you can’t manage what you don’t measure. It serves as a mechanism to measure energy performance of a single building or entire portfolio over time, relative to other buildings. There is no standardised method for benchmarking energy performance on a global scale, however NABERS is continuing to undertake relevant research and rigour to take steps in this direction – and this project is evidence of the strides being taken in this area.

The lessons we learn from this pilot project will be instrumental in the program’s development and expansion, ultimately creating a greater framework for sustainable building design and improving the environmental performance of real estate globally.