Melbourne Retrofit Survey 2013 released

The ‘1200 Buildings, Melbourne Retrofit Survey 2013’, released by the City of Melbourne last night, explores how Melbourne’s older office buildings are upgrading to more sustainable systems and fit-outs.

The survey consisted of 589 phone interviews with building owners and their representatives and measured the number of retrofits, types of upgrades, attitudes to perceived barriers to retrofitting and awareness of the City of Melbourne’s 1200 Buildings program - a scheme which encourages building owners and managers to improve the energy/water efficiency and reduce waste to landfill of commercial buildings in Melbourne.

Environment Portfolio Chair Councillor Arron Wood said the results reveal that, since 2008, 25% of the buildings surveyed have either already undergone or are currently undergoing a retrofit. Cr Wood says this confirms “what we already suspected - that a lot more retrofitting is going on in our city than we knew about”.

The report further reveals that 16% of building owners and representatives surveyed plan to undertake a retrofit within the next five years. This is a jump of 6% from two years ago, when 10% said they were planning a retrofit. In total, between 2008 and 2018, 32% of buildings will be or have recently done work which improves environmental outcomes.

Key motivations for retrofitting included replacing broken assets, minimising energy consumption, attracting or retaining tenants and extending the life of assets. Cr Wood said that understanding these motivations “helps us adapt our own programs to better address their needs”.

The City of Melbourne aims to be carbon neutral by 2020 and has recently received several awards for its sustainability programs, including 1200 Buildings. Cr Wood said the City applauds those buildings who have participated and “we will continue to work with other building managers through programs like 1200 Buildings to encourage more of this activity”.

The survey can be downloaded here.