Melbourne City Council – 1200 Building Program
Melbourne City council released the long awaited details for the funding of retrofits for premises involved in the 1200 buildings program. The program aims to retrofit 1200 buildings in the city of Melbourne by 2020 to reduce energy consumption and improve the buildings NABERS rating.
In an unprecedented move Victoria passed legislation, which shall enable the municipality to recover funds allocated towards retrofit through rates collection. The City of Melbourne developed relationships with banks to encourage energy efficient retrofits and overcome difficulties in capital requirements to implement retrofit options.
The program is touted by Lord Mayor Robert Doyle as a huge boost to the city and states economy. Stating “We estimate that the 1200 Building Program will generate $2 billion in new investment and around 8000 extra green jobs over the life of the program”.
The program is loosely based on a US scheme known as the PACE model, which operates within the residential property market, and is believed to be unique around the world within the commercial sector.
By providing the legislative amendment to the City of Melbourne Act to bring this financial mechanism to life, the Victorian Government is working with the City of Melbourne to ease the financial burden of retrofits to improve the quality of commercial buildings within Melbourne.
The 1200 buildings program aims to retrofit two thirds of the city’s existing buildings to meet ambitious efficiency and NABERS targets whilst significantly reduce Victoria’s carbon footprint and generating large scale investment and jobs in the city.
“Cities generate more than 70% of the world’s carbon emissions. Retrofitting buildings is widely recognised as one of the most effective ways of cutting greenhouse emission,” Justin Madden, Victorian Planning Minister.
The success of this program could provide the City of Melbourne with a reduction in energy and costs of around one quarter of current levels. This reduced energy expenditure would enable funds to be used in more productive activities elsewhere in the economy.
