For the purposes of this consultation, the City of Melbourne defines Zero Carbon Buildings as: “no additional carbon emitted into the environment through the construction, operations and whole-of-life of the building.”

Each building will have its own way in reaching zero carbon. For commercial buildings we have a goal of being zero carbon ready by 2040.

In the Emissions Reduction Plan endorsed by Future Melbourne Committee 19 October 2021, aligns with its climate and biodiversity emergency declaration and sets out crucial actions to reduce the emissions from our activities and operations. The plan commits the City of Melbourne to 76 actions across eight priority areas which keep it on course for net zero emissions by 2040.

We have a specific survey for residents. We want to hear from you about your priorities, and initiatives that would be useful.

Yes, thank you for showing an interest in this topic. We’d be happy to hear your ideas and what’s important to you.

A zero-carbon ready building meets the following requirements:

• 5-star NABERS or higher energy rated,
• 100 per cent electric-run
• has a zero-carbon action plan
• has regular reporting on energy use

Then by 2040 the building is ready to use all renewable electricity (if they haven’t already) and need to start reporting on and offsetting embodied energy.

The five-to-six-star NABERS rating for energy aligns with current industry’s best practice and targets of energy usage in other first world countries’ building upgrade programs.

A zero-carbon ready building is what we’re trying to achieve. We want to understand your priorities and address any issues first.

We are proposing by 2040 all commercial buildings within the City of Melbourne to include embodied carbon in their building management, and to have switched to 100 per cent renewable energy.

Embodied carbon is the carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions associated with materials and construction processes throughout the whole lifecycle of a building. For existing buildings, it will be the carbon associated with fit out, refurbishment, and operations. It is the carbon associated with the stuff in a building.

Slattery have done a review of embodied carbon policy initiatives around the world, it is summarised in this carbon trend report.

The Power Melbourne project will install a network of neighbourhood batteries around the city, linked to a retail electricity plan to help renters, people living in apartments, and those running small businesses access more affordable renewable electricity. Like Zero Carbon Building plan, Power Melbourne is one more way the City of Melbourne is seeking to achieve our ambitious target of being a Zero Carbon city by 2040.

Take part in the Power Melbourne consultation.

The NABERS rating is for the whole building. It is critical that the base building – lifts, core, etc. – and the tenancies, computers, lighting, etc. are both zero carbon.

Part of the next stage of the consultation is to work with industry, government and other stakeholders to develop the process to do this practically.

NABERS (which stands for the National Australian Built Environment Rating System) provides simple, reliable, and comparable sustainability measurement you can trust across building sectors like hotels, shopping centres, apartments, offices, data centres, and more.

In relation to Zero Carbon, it provides a method to report on the energy use of a building per square meter. In future it will also provide a way to report of Embodied Carbon.

Amendment C376 is an amendment proposed to the planning scheme to increase the requirements for new buildings or buildings undertaking significant retrofits requiring a planning permit.

Sustainable Building Design Amendment C376 and aims to introduce new best-practice ESD Standards into the planning scheme to ensure that new buildings in the municipality respond to climate change.

Find out more about Amendment C376.

It stands for Environment Social Governance, it means the activities an organisation does that impact these three areas. It is usually reported on annually at a board and investor level.