Australia to export green building expertise

A new report highlights some of the niche expertise that Australia’s building industry can offer the ASEAN region as it rapidly undergoes urbanisation.

Produced by Austrade and the Green Building Council of Australia (GBCA), the report titled ‘Australian Green Building: Developing a smart, sustainable ASEAN’ details how Australian firms can help the region’s cities transition to a low-carbon future.

Launching the report, the Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment, Steven Ciobo MP, said, “Australian companies offer results, ranging from niche products to complete, end-to-end solutions. They can deliver buildings with lower operating costs, higher values and improved environmental and productivity outcomes.”

Australia has one of the world’s most mature green building markets, with more than 40 million m² of green building space projects to be Green Star-certified by 2020, said GBCA Chief Executive Officer Romilly Madew.

“With the support of our 700-plus member companies, we have spent more than a decade driving sustainability throughout the property and construction supply chain. The results speak for themselves. GRESB, the global real estate sustainability benchmark, has ranked Australia’s market first in the world for the last seven years in a row,” Madew said.

The ASEAN region is already the fifth-largest global economy, and is expected to grow by at least 5.4% each year for at least the next decade.