TABLE OF CONTENTS - The Professional Green Building Council

Theme C: Education and Market TransformationThis pressure has resulted in more attention being paid to the greenhouse emissionsof commercial buildings over recent years. This trend has been driven by bothregulatory/compliance requirements at both the local [3] and national level, alongwith demand side drivers within the commercial office leasing sector [4].Within Australia, the Australian Building Greenhouse Rating (ABGR) scheme hasbecome the recognised standard for assessing the performance of office buildingswith regards to greenhouse emissions. In general, the scheme has been driven bythe demand side of the office sector, from the stakeholders (both tenants andbuilding owners) who have the most interest in ongoing performance, rather thanthe design and construction community.Much activity surrounding the reduction of commercial building greenhouseemissions within Australia has been focussed upon improvements of design,implemented largely in new building projects, rather than addressing the existingbuilding stock. Australia has experienced a boom in office building constructionrates over recent years. However, in general this has been adding capacity to thesector, rather than replacing the stock of existing office space. The end effect is acomparatively low capital stock turnover rate for office buildings within theAustralian market.The large stock of existing buildings with comparatively poor greenhouseperformance provides a significant opportunity for the reduction of greenhouseemissions within the sector. This also results in significant improvements for theoperating bottom line of the organisations owning the buildings through theimplementation of energy efficiency retrofits.This paper presents the opportunities identified through detailed energy efficiencyaudits of base building energy consumption within a portfolio of existingAustralian commercial office buildings. All currency terms within this paper referto Australian dollars.587