Melbourne's+Environmental+Sustainability

**Melbourne's Environmental Sustainability** Changing Melbourne Home    | Immigration into Melbourne | The Yarra River // The Green Building Council of Australia encourages cities to keep becoming more ‘green’, by giving out ‘green star ratings’ to buildings that rise above the standard and are especially environmentally friendly. // // You cannot stop the usage of energy. However, y ou can slow it down significantly. Environmentally sustainable buildings try and do this as much as they can. The Council House 2 and 500 Collins Street demonstrate how you can slow down the usage of energy. **Council House 2**, one of Melbourne’s environmentally friendly buildings, opened in 2006 and is located on 200 Little Collins Street. It is designed to not only conserve energy and water, but to improve the health of the workers in the building as well. Its total building cost went over 50 million dollars which includes the cost of sustainability features (such as light harvesting devices, solar hot water collectors, shading screens and many more). All of its materials are recycled and/or non-toxic to help the improvement of the health of staff. It only uses about 15% of the energy used by non-environmental sustainable buildings and uses 30% of water. It is Australia’s first project to receive a 6-star rating by the Australian Green Building Council which indicates World Leadership rating. According to the owner of this building, the absence of workers reduced (due to the improved health of the workers) and according to CSIRO report, the productivity of the worker has improved by 10.9 % (because of the decrease in the amount of stress). It has also reduced the cost of long-term running costs. Rob Adams wished that his idea would inspire other buildings to become environmentally friendly, too. // // There used to be a tour available for the insides of this building, but this is no longer possible, but instead, for those interested, a virtual tour is accessible on the internet. // //Council House 2 Roof images and exterior image:// 
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 *  //**Did you know? The indoor plants of the Council House 2 last significantly longer than the indoor plants of regular office buildings.**//   ||

//500 Collins Street uses an air-monitoring system called ‘chilled beam technology’. This system is where air passes down through beams, or rectangular tubes. //
 * //500 Collins Street //**// is a building standing at 106 metres and having 29 floors. It is a refurbished office building and contains many energy-saving elements, ‘green’ air conditioning features, and architectural alterations that contribute to the well-being of the people inside the building and of the environmental quality. It has been awarded a five green star rating by the Australian Green Building Council. //

// As we use up more and more unrenewable energy and drainage supplies, our city becomes more polluted and our water supplies become low. If people still want to keep the city running without depleting natural energy reserves at the rate they are, Melbourne is obligated to set up more environmentally friendly places for people to live, visit, work, and entertain themselves. Melbourne’s future depends on the health of the people in the city and the health of the environment. // // Many members of the Council and public are trying hard to reduce energy usage problems. Some of this is done by renovating standing buildings into environmentally sustainable buildings and also making more environmental sustainable buildings. The two buildings listed here are only examples; there are more to find in the city. Other buildings in the city that are environmentally sustainable are; // // -Melbourne City Baths -  NAB headquarters (800 Bourke Street, Docklands) -550 Bourke Street -  // //150 Lonsdale Street//
 * ** // Did you know? An environmentally friendly shopping centre is currently being built in Docklands // **   ||

//Our opinion: // //(Ellie)// //‘Environmental sustainability’ is a new idea, but it’s developing fairly fast. Especially in Victoria, where the drought is forcing Melbourne to invest in ‘green’ options and to conserve, increasing the amount of big businesses that will go environmentally friendly is part of the key to getting a bigger population to follow in their footsteps. I think that some people think the becoming ‘green’ is all about having new modern, buildings wrought with glass and sleek cement, but that’s usually not the case. The drought and climate change are very big problems that need to be countered. I think that Melbourne needs to start taking their concerns over global climate change even more seriously and realise how much it is affecting Australia and Melbourne. //