State governments support ‘Green star communities’

The proposed Green Star - Communities rating tool is set to become a voluntary national standard. Every state and territory Government Land Organisation (GLO) in Australia has agreed to a memorandum of understanding (MoU) which will support the development of the Green Building Council of Australia’s (GBCA’s) rating tool for sustainable communities.

According to the GBCA’s Chief Executive, Romilly Madew, this agreement confirms Green Star - Communities as a project of national significance.

“This joint sponsorship initiative is a strong sign of national leadership and commitment to a unified approach to the development of sustainable communities,” Madew says.

“Many of these GLOs have already spent considerable time and money developing tools to assess the sustainability of their own projects. These tools, research and practical experiences will be invaluable as we work together to develop a truly national set of best practice benchmarks for the planning, design and delivery of sustainable community projects across Australia.”

Madew says that the proposed rating tool has been scoped in close consultation with government and industry and its key characteristics have been documented in the Green Star - Communities draft tool scoping paper, which was released recently.

Every GLO in Australia has agreed to the MoU and will participate in the tool development. The GLOs are: Landcom (NSW); Landcorp (WA); VicUrban (Vic); Land Management Corporation (SA); Land Development Agency (ACT); Urban Land Development Authority (Qld); Hunter Development Corporation (NSW) and Land Development Corporation (NT).

Wayne Gibbings, Chief Executive of Land Management Corporation (SA), says: “The Green Star - Communities Tool will be a valuable resource to ensure future developments are better connected with walking and cycling routes to transport hubs, community facilities and services. At the same time, these better connections will reduce our use of energy and water and will cut greenhouse gas emissions.”

The Green Star - Communities National Framework can be downloaded from: www.gbca.org.au/green-star/green-star-communities/.