A suite of Sustainable Design Fact Sheets have been launched by the four inner city councils that form the Inner Melbourne Action Plan.
The fact sheets, created by the cities of Stonnington, Port Phillip, Yarra and Melbourne, will provide residents, designers and builders with better sustainable design advice at the planning permit application stage.
In easy-to-understand language, they address the 10 key sustainable building categories including indoor environment quality, energy efficiency, water efficiency, stormwater management, building materials, urban ecology, transport, waste management, innovation and ongoing building and site management.
Under indoor environment quality builders, designers and residents are encouraged to think about ventilation, thermal comfort, product choice, external views, daylight and internal noise levels.
Both mandatory requirements and council’s best practice standards are provided along with a list of other organisations, and their websites, able to provide more information.
Stonnington Mayor, and architect, John Chandler said buildings produced 20 per cent of Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions through the use of energy during their operation.
“What’s more, the construction of buildings, including demolition waste, contributes 40 per cent of all the materials sent to landfill,” he said.
“The Sustainable Design Fact Sheets were developed by each of the participating councils to support sustainable design principles as well as technical details and define the councils’ best practice standards.”
Mr Chandler said councils had established sustainable development requirements that needed to be addressed when lodging a planning permit application.
The availability of detailed fact sheets communicated clearly what sustainability initiatives could be implemented when renovating, extending or building.
“Already we know that sustainable buildings are becoming increasingly common for both residential and commercial sectors but it’s difficult to navigate the maze of information available to assist people”, Mr Chandler said.
