Corporates, building managers, owners, and tenants are increasing their focus on Green Star rating certifications to achieve better recognition for the spaces they occupy.
Meeting these national ratings will minimise your environmental footprint, increase workplace best-practice designs and create a space that promotes staff focus and wellness.
How do Green Star Ratings work?
Today's most awarded office spaces are recognised by their ability to achieve Green Star Ratings, issued by the Green Building Council of Australia (GBCA). Green Star Ratings are based on 4 Certification Tools:
Building Design
Construction and operation of a space
Interior fit-out
Communities for precinct- scale development
What do the Green Star Ratings mean?
A Green Star rated space is recognised by the following:
4 Stars is Best Practice
5 Stars is Australian Excellence
6 Stars is World Leadership
The ratings are based on design, efficiency, lighting, space planning and inclusion of live plants.
Image Credit: Green Building Council Australia
What makes a Green Star building different?
Image credit: Green Building Council Australia
How will Living Walls improve your Green Star Ratings?
Adding indoor plants to a space can boost your Green Star rating by up to 2 points.
Live Plant Walls will reduce indoor pollution, and create a cleaner, 'greener' workplace for staff (boosting your business productivity as a result).
1 point is awarded where indoor plants are incorporated into tenancy fit-out; and
Live Plants are selected based on their suitability for indoor environments
A 'Horticultural Maintenance Agreement' is put in place for (minimum of 2 years) to ensure that the health of plants is maintained
Minimum of 1 Large plant or 2 small plants per two work settings, distributed over the tenancy
2 points are awarded where the above criteria is met, but plant density is increased to a minimum of 1 Large plant or 2 plants per work setting.
The easiest way to achieve a Green Star rated design is to include a Living Wall as part of the tenancy, which will provide:
1 point = two small plants per 30m2 NLA (Net Lettable area of tenancy)
2 points = two small plants per 15m2 NLA
On-going Hortiticultural Maintenance Agreement
To Calculate Total Plants needed for your Floorspace: Total Floorspace / 15m2 = Total plants needed for 2 point certification
Article Sources:
https://www.gbca.org.au/green-star/green-star-overview/the-green-star-rating-scale/
http://www.betterbuildingspartnership.com.au/information/green-star-ratings/
https://new.gbca.org.au/green-star/