New Green Building Partnership to Push Best Practice Boundaries

Wednesday 2 March 2016 /3BL Media/ - A new partnership between the Green Building Council of Australia (GBCA), the Living Future Institute of Australia (LFIA) and the International Living Future Institute (ILFI) aims to accelerate the creation of healthier, resilient, equitable and ecologically restorative building practices.

All three organisations have signed a memorandum of understanding, which outlines a commitment to work towards common goals in the high performance buildings realm in Australia.

The GBCA’s Chief Executive Officer, Romilly Madew, says the commitment outlines work to align relevant Green Star credits and Living Building Challenge (LBC) Imperatives, research to identify gaps between best practice and high performance buildings in operation, collaboration on events and courses, and promotion of leading practices in Australia.

“We are all working towards a common future. By aligning our activities, our rating systems and our efforts, we can drive the adoption of sustainable building practices at a faster pace, and demonstrate the value of a sustainable future,” Ms Madew says.

“A central part of the partnership will be to identify the connections between Green Star credits and LBC Imperatives, which will help identify a pathway for joint certification. This collaboration will also enable us to explore integrating leading LBC Imperatives into Green Star through our Innovation Challenges.”

LFIA’s Chair, Mary Casey, says “the new partnership is an important opportunity to assess how both rating systems can complement and reinforce each other and continue to move the building industry towards a socially just, culturally rich and ecologically restorative future.

“We are keen to explore how the cross-pollination of LBC and Green Star could lead to better outcomes for project teams using either system and open up opportunities to use them jointly,” Ms Casey explains.

“We are very excited to engage in this exploration with GBCA”, says Amanda Sturgeon, CEO of the International Living Future Institute.

“LBC has created a high bar for sustainable building, and it is one that is becoming increasingly possible. Exploring the connections between LBC and Green Star is a logical step that can take the Australian green building industry to the next innovative level,” Ms. Sturgeon explains.

GBCA and LFIA will deliver a range of events and education programs to provide stakeholders with resources and skills to explore the LBC and Green Star connection points.

“There are many different motivations for wanting to create an ecologically restorative world, and providing a number of pathways recognises the uniqueness of each project. We are confident that this partnership will provide project teams wishing to pursue both LBC and Green Star certification with a seamless process to do so,” Ms Casey concludes.
 

About the Green Building Council of Australia
The Green Building Council of Australia (GBCA) is the nation’s authority on sustainable buildings and communities. The GBCA’s mission is to accelerate the transformation of Australia’s built environment into one that is healthy, liveable, productive, resilient and sustainable. The GBCA works with industry and government to encourage policies and programs that support its mission. The Council educates thousands of people each year on how to design and deliver sustainable outcomes for Australia’s buildings and communities. And it operates Australia’s only national, voluntary, holistic rating system for sustainable buildings and communities – Green Star. www.gbca.org.au

About the Living Future Institute Australia
The LFIA was established in 2012 by a passionate founding committee as a Chapter of the International Living Future Institute. Dedicated to establishing a powerful network of informed, influential, and active global citizens who are committed to redefining humanity’s relationships with the ecosystems we inhabit, the LFIA seeks to redirect our future towards a society that is socially just, culturally rich and ecologically restorative. A chapter of the International Living Future Institute, the Australian Institute provides training, support, and design initiatives across four innovative international programs, including the Living Building Challenge and the Living Community Challenge which call for the creation of building projects and communities at all scales that operate as cleanly, beautifully and efficiently as nature’s architecture. https://living-future.org.au/

About the International Living Future Institute
An inspiring hub for visionary programs, ILFI’s mission is to lead and support the transformation toward communities that are socially just, culturally rich and ecologically restorative. Composed of leading green building experts and thought leaders, the Institute is premised on the belief that providing a compelling vision for the future is a fundamental requirement for reconciling humanity’s relationship with the natural world. The Institute runs the Living Building Challenge, Living Community Challenge, Living Product Challenge, Net Zero Energy Certification, the Cascadia Green Building Council, Ecotone Publishing, Declare, JUST and other leading-edge programs. A global network of more than 400 volunteers across nearly 30 countries drive the local adoption of restorative principles in their communities. http://www.living-future.org