Every Building Counts

Every building counts: A practical plan for emissions reduction, is a policy toolkit jointly developed by the Property Council of Australia and Green Building Council of Australia (GBCA) focused on emissions reduction across the property industry.

Launched in October 2019, the plan sets out a practical pathway for transforming Australian homes, workplaces and other buildings into low carbon, high-performance structures while cost-effectively reducing emissions.

Buildings account for over 50 per cent of Australia’s electricity use and almost a quarter of our carbon emissions. This plan includes 75 recommendations to federal, state and territory and local governments, designed to help transform Australia’s built environment and achieve net zero emissions by 2050.

The recommendations cover residential, commercial and public buildings, both existing and new, and include proposals to: introduce a single national rating for the energy performance of homes; leverage the Climate Solutions Fund and other Government policies like City Deals to drive emissions abatement; incentivise high performance with cut-through tax incentives; and expand the mandate of the Energy Security Board to balance demand and supply side policy, driving energy productivity.

In developing the plan and recommendations, we completed a comprehensive review of global and local policies with a proven record of emissions reduction to inform recommendations with the best value for governments and industry.

Various policy options were assessed against three key criteria:
1. Impact: Emissions reduction opportunity
2. Ease of implementation: Lack of barriers or challenges for adoption
3. Cost effectiveness: Lowered cost of transition for industry.

The recommendations cover all building types and the full building lifecycle and are shaped around seven key proposals for the Federal Government to consider.

Find out more about this campaign and access the resources below.

Policy themes

We have completed a comprehensive review of global and local policies with a proven record of emissions reduction to inform recommendations with the best value for governments and industry.