Program to ‘green’ existing commercial buildings in ACT

The program ‘Tune Up Canberra’, proposed by the Property Council of Australia, will provide incentives for commercial property owners to improve energy efficiency in existing buildings. The 2-year program will provide matching funds to retrofit commercial buildings to achieve a reduction in energy use and emissions.

Property Council ACT Executive Director Catherine Carter described the fund as the single most significant ACT government program to combat climate change to date: “In our proposal to the Territory government, we outlined the fact that in the ACT, energy use in buildings accounts for around 73% of greenhouse gas emissions. Better-designed buildings provide some of the most affordable forms of abatement in the economy.

“We don’t need to reinvent the wheel to deliver energy savings in existing building stock, and we have recommended to government that participants in this program use the publication ‘Existing Building Survival Strategies’ to identify strategies for improving their buildings.”

‘Tune Up Canberra’ will provide a number of tangible deliverables to the ACT government, the property sector and the community including a scheme that meets the government’s climate change strategy, a measurable decrease in the ACT’s greenhouse gas emissions and a targeted number of buildings upgraded under the program.