Sustainable Built Environments provides a range of services tailored to specific project requirements. We can undertake rating and ESD assessment for both commercial and residential developments, or provide a graduated level of assistance to help project teams achieve desired ratings. SBE's role is to help you find the most responsive and cost effective design options to meet energy and ESD performance requirements. We respect and complement the design integrity of the proposal.

Sustainable Built Environments has developed a rating tools wheel to aid understanding of the range of tools available to analyse ESD performance.

Click on the links below to go straight to each section:

commercial | residential | education | tourism and hotels
government | sport and leisure | other

COMMERCIAL

SBE staff are trained and accredited to provide the following ratings/assessments.

• National Australian Building Environment Rating Scheme (NABERS). www.nabers.com.au .
• Australian Building Greenhouse Rating (ABGR) www.abgr.com.au .
• Green Star Office. www.gbcaus.org/greenstar
• Local Government Commercial ESD rating tools - SBE has experience in commercial projects around the country and can help you identify the appropriate ESD rating tool for your project.
• Building Code of Australia (BCA) - Section www.abcb.gov.au
• International ESD rating tools – Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), , Building Research Establishment’s Environmental Assessment Method (BRE-EAM) and Hong Kong Building Environmental Assessment Method (HK-BEAM), amongst other tools.

RESIDENTIAL

• Energy Rating - FirstRate or AccuRate. www.nathers.gov.au
• Autonomous House Studies - SBE will build upon the star rating assessment and provide advice on the selection of appliances and renewable energy sources that will ensure the building has low energy use during operation. SBE will also advise on the best strategy for reducing potable water use, including rainwater, grey water and black water systems.
• BASIX - www.basix.gov.au
• Local Government Residential ESD rating tools - A number of local governments outside of NSW are using their own ESD rating tools, including the online tools of STEPS, the Armadale Redevelopment Authority (WA) Scorecard and Docklands ESD guide. SBE can help you identify the appropriate ESD rating tool for your project.

EDUCATION

SBE is an inaugural member of the Green Building Council of Australia and was a part of the Technical Working Committee that developed the Pilot Green Star assessment tool for educational facilities. In addition SBE also have working knowledge of the UK BREAAM and USA LEED environmental design tools for educational facilities, and these have proved very useful references for benchmarking local projects internationally.

Indoor Environment Quality (IEQ) initiatives, such as access to fresh air, thermal comfort, daylighting, views and acoustics are heavily favoured within the Green Star tool and these are the initiatives that can be linked to improved learning outcomes.

SBE will use the Green Star Education tool as a frame of reference for their ESD advice on how to improve the environmental performance of the school and to align the design with Australian and International best practice.

SBE was commissioned by the Victorian Department of Education and Training to draft new ESD guidelines for school design (currently draft form) in conjunction with RMIT Centre for Design, CETEC (IAQ specialists) and Wilde and Woolard (Quantity Surveyors). The development of these guidelines allowed SBE to compile a large database of information related to ESD in educational facilities and to identify links between healthy indoor environments and improved teaching and learning outcomes.

Building Code of Australia (BCA) ‘Energy Efficiency Measures for Class 5-9 Buildings’ were introduced in May 2006. Among other requirements, the BCA sets maximum permissible energy allowances for the operation of schools and educational facilities. SBE is experienced in verifying educational facility compliance with the BCA deemed to satisfy provisions, and the alternative modelling of facility environmental performance to verify BCA compliance.

TOURISM AND HOTELS

Green Globe is an international benchmarking, certification and improvement system developed to identify sustainable travel and tourism. It is based on the principles of Sustainable Development endorsed at the UN Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit in 1992.

SBE has utilised both the Green Globe International Ecotourism Standard and the Precinct Planning and Design Standard to provide a framework for ESD advice for our tourism projects in Australia and Internationally. One of our projects in Bali has achieved Benchmark status and is currently undergoing certification.

The Section J requirements of the BCA set out maximum permissible energy allowances for tourist facilities and infrastructure. SBE is experienced in providing both deemed-to-satisfy and alternative solutions for Building Permit Certification. We recommend that a preliminary assessment be undertaken in the early stages of design so that later compliance is assured without surprises.

GOVERNMENT

SBE has an impressive track record of working with Government clients to improve ESD outcomes. With projects meeting the guidelines of the following building types:

• Commercial Tenancy
• Defence Buildings
• Fire
• Police
• Hospitals
• Prisons
• Local Government

SPORT AND LEISURE

As part of our service, SBE is able to identify grants and funding opportunities that are and assist the project team to develop suitable strategies that will be eligible. SBE can assist with funding applications. We have successfully applied for the Community Water Grant, Smart Water Fund and Victorian Solar Innovation Initiative for a number of our Sports and Leisure project.

The energy efficiency provisions are contained in Section J of the BCA and when applied to large sports and recreation centre, usually, require the use of energy modelling to determine compliance.

OTHER

For all other building types SBE will be able to determine an appropriate assessment tool and or methodology based on our extensive experience.