Green gong for GBCA chief celebrates property sector’s achievements

An international award for sustainability recognises the leadership of Australia’s property sector in ESD and diversity worldwide, says the Green Building Council’s chief Romilly Madew.

Madew was presented with the US Green Building Council’s International Leadership Award in Washington at Greenbuild, the world’s largest green building conference, last week.

The award, now in its 13th year, acknowledges vision, leadership and commitment to the evolution of green buildings and communities. Previous recipients include former Mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg.

Presenting the award, USGBC Founding Chairman Rick Fedrizzi praised Madew’s “innovative spirit and infectious passion for sustainable development” and cited her decade-long work with the World Green Building Council as having a measurable global impact.

Madew, who has led the GBCA since 2006, wrote Australia’s first business case for green building. She was the inaugural Chair of the WorldGBC’s Council Development Committee, and today sits on its board of directors.

Madew says the award acknowledges the Australian industry’s achievements on a global stage.

“This award isn’t for me – it’s for our entire industry,” she told Property Australia.

“I’m continually asked how our industry managed to become a world leader in sustainability, and my answer is always the same: we uniquely collaborate.”

Madew says the industry’s commitment to work together to establish Green Star is a great example of this collaborative spirit in action.

Pointing to international benchmarks such as GRESB and the Dow Jones Sustainability Index, which both place Australian companies at the top of the table, Madew says “our industry’s leadership is being recognised because it’s all there in our results.”

“It’s easy to feel that we are not making progress fast enough, but when I talk to my colleagues around the world, it reconfirms how proud we should all be of our industry’s achievements, particularly in the commercial office space.

“Australian case studies are frequently used as best practice examples and the rest of the world frequently seek our industry out for guidance.

“Our leadership in sustainability has shown us that we can tackle other pressing industry issues – like gender diversity, health and wellbeing, and liveability.”

While attending Greenbuild, Madew says her American counterparts were “very impressed with how we are tackling gender diversity”, and notably the Property Council’s Property Male Champions of Change initiative. 

“We may think we’re not moving fast enough to transform our market, but we’re on a long journey and are miles ahead of many other countries. We can pick up the pace confident we’re on the right track.”