Architecture and design studio Woods Bagot has partnered with one of Australia’s largest property investment and management companies Dexus to unveil a first-of-its-kind certified sustainable workplace. 

The project completed at Bligh Street in Sydney has been independently assessed and certified under Green Star Fitouts, a new national rating tool launched by the Green Building Council of Australia (GBCA). 

GBCA’s tool has been designed to address the growing carbon and waste impacts of interiors, embed circularity as a core requirement for fitouts and set a new benchmark for how interior projects are designed, delivered and renewed.

The project, led by Dexus for the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC), demonstrates how interiors can be designed for reuse and reconfiguration rather than only demolition at lease-end using the Forever Fitout approach.

Developed by Dexus in collaboration with Woods Bagot, the Forever Fitout approach uses modular, durable components that can be reconfigured across multiple tenancies, reducing the need for repeated strip-outs, make-good works and construction downtime.

“Commercial fitouts have traditionally been one of the most carbon-intensive parts of office buildings,” Dexus executive general manager of Office Andy Collins says. 

“Green Star Fitouts provides an important, credible framework to measure and verify these outcomes, giving both tenants and investors confidence that circular design can deliver long-term environmental and commercial value.”

The Dexus and CEFC project has been independently certified under the Green Star Fitouts Early Access Program. 

GBCA Chief Executive Officer Davina Rooney says that the Early Access Program was deliberately designed to ensure the tool was grounded in real-world delivery.

“Early access partners like Dexus have helped us test Green Star Fitouts in live projects, not just on paper. These projects show that circularity is not theoretical. It is already being delivered in commercial buildings today,” Rooney says. 

Fitouts are emerging as a major carbon and waste hotspot in commercial buildings, accounting for around 32 percent of a building’s life cycle carbon emissions and can generate more than 360 tonnes of waste per office fitout.

Because interiors are typically replaced every five to seven years, the impacts repeat across a building’s lifespan. The GBCA says that traditional commercial fitouts can embed around 200 kilograms of carbon per square metre, largely due to demolition and replacement cycles – an impact that modular, reusable fitout systems are designed to reduce.

“Fitouts have long been treated as short-term, cosmetic decisions, yet they are responsible for a surprisingly large share of a building’s carbon and waste. When interiors are stripped out and rebuilt every few years, the carbon and waste impacts compound. Green Star Fitouts is designed to break that cycle by embedding circularity into how fitouts are planned from day one.”

GBCA says that its new Green Star Fitouts tool also aligns with emerging regulatory and market expectations, including mandatory climate-related financial disclosures, rising landfill levies and growing scrutiny of Scope 3 emissions and circular-economy performance.

“Circularity is quickly becoming a commercial and risk issue, not just a sustainability one,” Rooney says.

“As costs rise and disclosure expectations tighten, industry needs consistent, credible frameworks to understand impacts and make better long-term decisions. Green Star Fitouts is designed to provide that clarity.”

This article also appeared on ADR’s sister site FM Media.