A new chapter in the industry’s sustainability story
“Sustainability is now core business for the property industry,” says Property Council chief Ken Morrison. And that means evolving and adapting to the needs of our members.
From tackling climate change to meeting the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, and from driving the diversity agenda to addressing modern slavery in supply chains, our idea of sustainability has expanded rapidly in recent years.
As the concept of sustainability evolves, the Property Council’s response does too, says Francesca Muskovic.
Policy manager Muskovic leads the Property Council’s sustainability agenda and says a recent milestone reveals the property industry’s progress.
“The most successful program ever established to drive emissions reduction in commercial buildings, NABERS, has just turned 20,” Muskovic says.
“NABERS is a foundational tool for property companies, so it’s easy to forget we didn’t always have a functional program or collegiate environment between industry and government. We had to work at it.
“We still have to work at sustainability – but the challenges are very different to those we faced 20 years ago.”
Muskovic was recently appointed chair of the NABERS steering committee for stakeholders. She says three new “game-changers” were launched last week: NABERS for Apartments, NABERS Waste and NABERS Co-Assess, a streamlined application process which helps tenants rate their office space.
This comes at a time when NABERS is working on its strategy for the next five years and an ambition to expand its reach into other market segments.
“This is an important and exciting time for NABERS,” Muskovic says, but warns that expansion “cannot compromise the core principles that have made NABERS so successful”.
“We still don’t have the comprehensive suite of policies we need to get to net zero by 20. NABERS will be an important part of this, but it’s not the whole story and we need stronger leadership from the federal government on a range of policies for the built environment,” she adds.
Energy beyond efficiency
Energy efficiency remains a high priority for the Property Council’s policy team, Muskovic explains. This includes a “tremendous amount of work” with the Australian Sustainable Built Environment Council (ASBEC).
Chief executive Ken Morrison chairs ASBEC’s Energy and Emissions task group and is currently leading a project to update the policy toolkit within Low Carbon, High Performance to reflect changes to international best practice. Published in 2016, the landmark report found that energy efficiency in the built environment could deliver more than $20 billion in savings by 2030.
Among other projects, the Property Council is leading the industry response to the “significant step up” in energy performance requirements heading industry’s way in the 2019 update to the Building Code.
Meanwhile, ASBEC’s Building Code Trajectory project will set out industry’s ambition for long-term targets for the National Construction Code, consistent with mid-century decarbonisation.
And in April, the Property Council partnered with the Energy Efficiency Council and ACOSS on consumer research for Energy Bills and Energy Efficiency, which found 88 per cent of voters want governments to invest in energy efficiency.
“This research shows that it’s not just the business community that is on board – everyone is concerned about their energy bills and think governments could be doing more,” Muskovic says.
The Property Council is also championing the potential of distributed energy and is leading industry advocacy for the National Energy Guarantee. Another partnership with the Clean Energy Finance Corporation will deliver a report identifying barriers to distributed energy.
Shedding light on social sustainability
Muskovic is currently diving deep into supply chain governance, as the Property Council consults with the Australian Government on the exposure draft of legislation to tackle modern slavery. The next step will be to work with industry partners including the Supply Chain Sustainability School to “examine codes of conduct, how we better share data and develop a platform for supplier prequalification,” Muskovic explains.
In March, the Property Council released A Common Language for Social Sustainability, a report which establishes common definitions for social sustainability, and unpacks many of the industry’s big buzzwords – shared value, ethical governance and social return on investment among them.
The report is also chock-full of case studies for inspiration and ideas.
Muskovic says the social sustainability roundtable has identified the top priorities for collective industry action and is currently testing these with external stakeholders.
“It’s an exciting time to be working in sustainability – the opportunity to have a positive impact on people and planet has never been greater,” Muskovic concludes.