Commercial buildings are responsible for around 10% of Australia's carbon dioxide emissions each year. With business-as-usual projections, these emissions are predicted to almost double (from 1990 levels) by 2010. To address this issue key property industry organisations, such as the Property Council of Australia and the Master Builders Association, have joined forces with SEDA to develop the Australian Building Greenhouse Rating (ABGR). ABGR is a national voluntary market-based mechanism for achieving emission reductions in the commercial property industry by providing a simple means for benchmarking performance. If you're a building owner, manager or tenant, you can use ABGR to determine the environmental impact of your building or tenancy. You can also demonstrate your organisation's superior greenhouse performance to its employees, clients and business partners as well as creating a competitive advantage for your organisation. The rating is based on the greenhouse gas emissions generated by the energy you use in your office building or tenancy. Performance is translated into a number of stars. The more stars, the better the performance. Current best practice means that a 3-star rating is a very good result. Base building (central services), a tenancy, or a whole building can be rated.

Market your company’s competitive advantage by benchmarking your office space or building’s greenhouse performance.

How Well do you Rate?

Self Rating...

As a building owner, manager or tenant, you can self-rate your base building or tenancy with no strings attached.

1. To get a copy of the rating calculator
   • Go to www.abgr.com.au and use the calculator online.
   • Download the calculator from www.abgr.com.au so you can calculate the rating, print the results and save details of your self-assessment.
2. Once you have the calculator, all you need is four simple pieces of information
   • your last 12 months' energy bills (electricity, gas and other energy supplies);
   • the hours of operation;
   • the number of people and computers in your office (for tenancy and whole building ratings only);
   • the floor area of your building or office; (see the Data Collection Guidelines document on www.abgr.com.au for further details).
3. Enter this information into the rating calculator to estimate your star rating.

Accredited Rating...

If you want to promote the star rating of your building or tenancy you must obtain an accredited rating. To do so, contact an Accredited Assessor who can arrange for an accredited rating to be completed. The website provides contact details for all Accredited Assessors. After signing a rating agreement and paying a fee, an assessor will visit your building to check your data in order to confirm your accredited rating.

Once your building has been rated, you will receive:

• a framed certificate indicating your ABGR star rating;
• the right to use the Australian Building Greenhouse Rating logo for promotional purposes.

Insert ABGR ‘What do the Stars mean’ graphic

Visit www.abgr.com.au to find out how you can improve your star rating