Energy efficiency in commercial buildings has been around for a long time now. Why? Because it makes good business sense to reduce your operational costs no matter how you look at it. Not only that, it’s a win for the landlord, property manager and tenant. Any landlord not looking into ensuring their building is as efficient as it could be, runs the risk of being stuck with a stranded asset.
The Landlord, the Property Agent and the Tenant
From a Landlord perspective, an efficient building means a higher NABERS rating, which means more capital growth and higher asset value, higher rental yield and lower vacancy rates. Does it really? Yes. Studies in Australia and around the world have consistently demonstrated that efficient ‘green’ buildings provide significant benefits, including those noted here. Some examples include the World Green Building Council’s ‘The Case for Green Buildings’ and the Australian Property Institutes study ‘Building Better Returns’.
For Property Managers and Agents there is the opportunity to obtain better market values and commissions.
For Tenants it means lower energy bills, reduces the exposure to energy price fluctuations and helps to meet the businesses environmental responsibility goals.
Programs (and funding) available to improve your business and building.
So what’s available to help get a building or business up to a good environmental standard? Plenty…
If you’re a tenant in a commercial building you can sign up the National CitySwitch Program for no cost and gain access to a wealth of information and support to help your business to be more efficient and sustainable. See the CitySwitch website for contacts in your area.
In Victoria:
Sustainability Victoria have several funding programs available at the moment, including the Better Commercial Building Program (funding up to $30k to improve a building), and a variety of grants for improving gas efficiency, energy efficiency and materials efficiency.
There is also access to a finance option, Environmental Upgrade Agreements, to help fund capital expenditure. Finally, the State Governments Victorian Energy Upgrades scheme also provides rebates for products such as commercial lighting.
In New South Wales:
The Office of Environment & Heritage provides a range of programs to educate and improve business energy efficiency. Their Energy Saver Program is well underway assisting businesses to complete energy audits and implement upgrades.
In South Australia:
The State Government’s Energy Productivity Program has supported large businesses using more than 160MWh of electricity per year to become more energy efficient by providing funding for energy audits and implementation of audit recommendations.
There is also…
- Building Upgrade Finance Program – upgrade finance to improve efficiency of buidlings
- Sustainable City Incentives Scheme – reimbursements for the installation of water and energy devices for properties within our Council boundaries.
- Carbon Neutral Adelaide – businesses can join the Carbon Neutral Adelaide program and work with the City of Adelaide to become carbon neutral.
- Retailer Energy Efficiency Scheme (REES) – a program through energy retailers to assist businesses (and house holders) to reduce energy costs.
There are a few other programs in other States, contact your local State government to find what is available in your area.
In summary
Ene
rgy efficiency matters as it can improve the value of an asset and benefit everyone involved. There are also funding plenty of funding programs available to help you improve your business or building so get onto them while they are available.
If you would like some assistance with energy efficiency in your business, or would like to take advantage of some of the funding available in Victoria…
Contact us to find out more
