Government should lead the way on building energy efficiency
Blog Post | Blog of Christine Milne
Friday 13th August 2010, 8:20pm
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by ChristineMilne in Energy Efficiency
Following my comments about reform of the national electricity market, we’ve been asked to similarly outline our thoughts on the Government’s policies to improve the energy efficiency of the buildings they occupy.
According to the Energy Efficiency Council, governments in Australia occupy 32 per cent of the commercial office market, and as highly sought-after tenants they have an even greater impact on the property market than their size alone would suggest. The ability of governments to make bulk purchases also means that they can bring down the cost of energy efficiency products for both agencies and the wider community, transforming the market for energy efficiency services and products.
To be fair there is already recognition of this – the Commonwealth government has had building procurement policies relating to energy efficiency since at least 1997, with the most recent being the 2006 Energy Efficiency in Government Operations (EEGO) policy. However, the targets tend to be weak and frequently go un-enforced.
We calculate that the current energy intensity portfolio targets, which are required to be met by June 2011 (7,500 MJ/person/annum for office tenant light & power and 400 MJ/m2/annum for office central services) translates to a NABERS (National Australian Built Environment Rating System) rating of roughly 3 stars. This is woeful.
Weak as they are, we doubt they are being enforced. A 2009 Australian National Audit Office report (Green Office Procurement and Sustainable Office Management) showed that in 2006/7 about half of all government departments were failing to meet targets set for the year 2003, and that the additional cost incurred by agencies not yet meeting their energy efficiency targets was $17 million per annum. I would be very surprised if the government were now on track to achieving the 2011 targets.
While one of the Greens’ Safe Climate Bills aims to introduce an Efficient Building Scheme – an energy efficiency cap and trade scheme for commercial buildings generally (see www.safeclimatebill.org.au) there is nonetheless an urgent need for government to show much stronger leadership.
For example, with respect to buildings that the Commonwealth actually owns, the government should, at the very least, adopt the Victorian model of requiring agencies to upgrade their property’s energy efficiency, covering properties using 30 per cent of agency energy use by 2012 and 90 per cent by 2018. An upgraded building is one where energy efficiency opportunities with an internal rate of return of around 12 per cent have been exploited.
Dealing with rented accommodation is more complex – although there has been progress with promoting Green Leases, which create an obligation on both the tenant and building owner to work towards achieving energy efficiency targets. While the Greens have reservations about the methodology behind NABERS, in the absence of a better alternative we believe that that agencies should be required to be achieve 5 star NABERS rating within a few years.
Agencies may of course require some short-term financial assistance to fund these upgrades and Treasury should be prepared to provide that – after all, improving energy efficiency is an excellent cost-saving investment. We would support the Energy Efficiency Council’s proposal that the government provide access to capital equivalent to 25 per cent of their annual gas and electricity bill each year over 5 years.
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