Governments often talk about slashing red tape, but don’t always follow through.
Good news from last week then, with the federal parliament repealing a piece of regulatory double-handling in the form of the Energy Efficiency Opportunities scheme.
The well-intentioned EEO scheme worked on the assumption that if you are forced to measure energy efficiency, you’ll do something about it.
Unfortunately the actual measurement was quite expensive and unnecessary. EEO merely duplicated existing business practices and the many other schemes which commercial building owners already participate in, including: section J of the building code, mandatory commercial building disclosure, appliance energy standards, NABERS and Green Star.
And of course the Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark (GRESB) has just found Australian REITs are among the world’s greenest.
The first rule of good regulation: if there’s no market failure, there’s no need to regulate.