Building Owners

Melbourne, Australia’s ambitious retrofit program earns climate leadership award

Editor's note: This is a sponsored article. All text and images were provided by the sponsor company. The 1200 Buildings program in Melbourne, Australia was designed to encourage the retrofitting of 1,200 commercial buildings, or about 70% of the city’s commercial buildings stock. After two years, the program has spurred 10% of the building sector to retrofit, and helped to earn the city a City Climate Leadership Award.
Sept. 10, 2013
66fb166c816f261948c3a0b3 Melbourne

Editor's note: This is a sponsored article. All text and images were provided by the sponsor company.

 

The 1200 Buildings program in Melbourne, Australia was designed to encourage the retrofitting of 1,200 commercial buildings, or about 70% of the city’s commercial buildings stock. After two years, the program has spurred 10% of the building sector to retrofit, and helped to earn the city a City Climate Leadership Award.

City Switch, a program to help office tenants increase energy efficiency, also contributed to the award. The establishment of Environmental Upgrade Agreements (EUAs), a finance mechanism developed to remove barriers preventing buildings owners from accessing financing to retrofit buildings for energy and water efficiency has boosted retrofit activity. To date, four buildings have used EUAs to make $5.6 million of investment, leading to an expected reduction of 5660 tons of carbon emissions and $491,000 in energy costs per year.

(http://cityclimateleadershipawards.com/melbourne-sustainable-buildings-program/)

About the Author

Drew Ballensky

Drew Ballensky is general manager of Duro-Last Roofing, Inc.’s central U.S. facility in Iowa and company spokesman for Duro-Last’s cool roofing, sustainability and architectural education programs. He is past-president of the Chemical Fabrics and Film Association and chairman of CFFA’s Vinyl Roofing Division. Drew earned his bachelor’s degree in industrial technology from the University of Northern Iowa and master’s degree in business administration from Florida State University. Drew has over 29 years experience in business and industry in various engineering and managerial capacities. He has worked in the U.S. and Canadian operations for a major international manufacturer of pre-engineered steel buildings, was a financial analyst with a major athletic apparel manufacturer and was an owner of a general contracting company.
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