Commercial property to receive sustainable upgrade in Victoria

Commercial property in Victoria is about have an opportunity to increase their sustainability, as ...

Commercial property in Victoria is about have an opportunity to increase their sustainability, as the government announced $3.59 million worth of funding to help increase commercial energy efficiency in the state.

Minister for Environment and Climate Change Ryan Smith said the Coalition government's 'Smarter Resources Smarter Businesses' program aims to increase business productivity and reduce the overall costs of commercial property investment.

"The commercial building sector is a significant consumer of energy and producer of greenhouse gas emissions, with older and less efficient office buildings estimated to emit the equivalent of more than 1.3 million tonnes of CO2 per year," said Mr Smith in an August 26 statement.

"The Smarter Resources Smarter Business – Energy Efficient Office Buildings program is expected to reduce CO2 emissions by more than 140,000 tonnes over 10 years."

The program offers three different aspects of help for business owners. First, it will give owners the opportunity to identify the current aspects of the building that could need changing or fine-tuning.

Aspects like lighting, heating and ventilation are all considered, evaluated, and given the opportunity for sustainable adaptation.

Once these factors have been identified, the program offers a simple, cost-effective way to upgrade through the tuning of building operations and services. This includes ensuring everything is running at the optimal efficiency to help save both money and energy.

The final aspect is the monitoring of the building and the upgrades for a 12 month period following the upgrade. This is in order to monitor the overall changes to the business, and help to measure the effectiveness and costs saved for the property.

"Buildings involved in the program will be eligible for energy audits and monitoring to identify opportunities to improve efficiency through low-cost operational and maintenance improvements," said Mr Smith.

"The program will improve business competitiveness by allowing building owners to take steps to improve efficiency, reduce energy costs, increase tenant appeal and asset value.

"Many of these measures have a payback period of less than three years and the total program is expected to save Victorian businesses around $9 million. We also expect the program to create jobs and seed the market for further upgrade."

This could be fantastic news for anyone who owns commercial property in Victoria, or anyone planning on purchasing a business in the state.

Cutting costs and increasing sustainability are becoming increasingly important for successful business operation today, so this initiative is great news for anyone involved.