Green Building Council Australia has awarded its first five-Star Green Star – Performance rating to the Wollongong Council Administration Building for its range of upgrades and management programs aimed to improve the building’s sustainability performance. The announcement follows the first Green Star – Performance rating, which was awarded to Melbourne’s 800 Bourke Street building in 2014.

The Administration Building in Wollongong has been occupied since 1987, but has been introducing a range of building and management upgrades for the past 10 years.

These upgrades have seen energy efficiency gains of 55 percent, as well as water efficiency gains of 85 percent, potentially saving the council hundreds of thousands in electricity costs.

This was achieved through a variety of measures including the replacement of hot water systems, installation of T5 lighting and heat reflective blinds, upgrades of the building’s management system and tinting of ground floor glazing. This has resulted in a decrease of energy consumption ranging between 40,000 to 50,000 kWh/per month.

Launched in 2003 by the Green Building Council of Australia, the relatively new rating system acknowledges the role the built environment has on the production of greenhouse gases and so offers a framework for organisations and architects to design buildings and processes aimed at decreasing overall energy consumption.

Green Star rating tools so far cover four areas:

• Design & As Built
• Interiors
• Communities
• Performance

Legacy rating tools also cover the full gamut of the building industry:

• Education
• Healthcare
• Industrial
• Multi-Unit Residential
• Office
• Office Interiors
• Retail Centre
• Public Building