FactSheet: Apartment Living Sustainability

• Help create a new national sustainability rating for apartment buildings Mar 2017 - You’re invited to participate in a Data Collection Survey to facilitate the creation of a new national sustainability rating for
• Carpark Ventilation Jun 2016 - This article about carpark ventilation has been supplied by Christine Byrne, Green Strata. Carparks that are not adequately naturally ventilated

Improving Water Efficiency in Your Building

Catherine Lezer

Jan 2016: Common water bills are one of the biggest expenses in annual figures. So it makes sense to look at ways improving water efficiency in your building.

Common area lighting – Repair, Replace or Upgrade?

Common area lighting – Repair, Replace or Upgrade?

Nov 2015: An analysis of the pros & cons of common area lighting for Strata Managers, Building Managers & Executive Committees of strata title and community schemes.

Energy Efficiency and Strata: The Hidden Costs of ‘Upgrading’ Lighting Systems

Christopher Benson, Kerin Benson Lawyers

Nov 2015: Owners corporations need to exercise caution when deciding whether to install energy-saving strata lighting systems as they may contain various hidden costs.

Tips to help reduce the power consumption of your lift

James Demetrios, Urban Vertical

Oct 2014: Fantastic innovations maybe restricted to new installations or major modernisations, however minor upgrades can help reduce power consumption and provide savings on electricity bills.

Your Energy Savings

Australian Government: Dept of Industry

Your Energy Savings provides information about saving energy, saving money and available government assistance, including:
Rebates – Governments across Australia offering a range of rebates and assistance.

Smart Blocks

A national program helping apartment owners and their managers save money by improving the energy efficiency of common property.

Green Strata

A non-profit incorporated association (Green Strata Inc) based in Sydney. They are governed and managed by owners and residents in strata-titled properties and they focus solely on helping owners and occupiers of residential multi-unit properties improve the sustainability of their common property and their community of residents

What does a “Green” building look like?

“There are two ‘standards’ for building new sustainable apartment buildings and complexes – one voluntary, one mandatory. While some of the options are not possible to retrofit to existing buildings, they do give us insight into what is possible.”

Living Wall and Green Roof: Plants for Australia

Melinda Perkins and Daryl Joyce, Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation

This project has overviewed green roofs and living walls literature, developed a ‘plant selection matrix’ tool, identified plant species suitable for extensive green roofs and exterior living walls in subtropical Australia, and reported on a workshop aimed at conveying findings to industry and identifying consensus priorities for future work.

Mixed Media about apartment living sustainability

Britta Riley: A garden in my apartment

TEDTalk

Britta Riley wanted to grow her own food (in her tiny apartment). So she and her friends developed a system for growing plants in discarded plastic bottles — researching, testing and tweaking the system using social media, trying many variations at once and quickly arriving at the optimal system. Call it distributed DIY. And the results? Delicious. (Filmed at TEDxManhattan.)

This comment from Allison Benson, Kerin Benson Lawyers. PLEASE NOTE: A great idea. I have previously had a balcony garden & small scale gardening can work. In strata communities lot owners just need to be aware of noise (model by-law 1), affixing items to common property (get consent see model by-law 5(1)) and to ensure if visible it is in keeping with the rest of the building (model by-law 17(1)). (This comment is referring to NSW legislation. For more information please contact Allison Benson.)

For information concerning other states around Australia, please feel free to contact a strata lawyer in your state or drop us an email at administration@lookupstrata.com.au.

How To Make Positive Change Around Your Apartment Building – Apartment Living Sustainability

Hi-RES project, Victoria

This series of infographs illustrates how you, as an individual owner of a strata title unit or your owners corporation as a whole, can make a difference to the sustainability of your apartment block.

Bergen Project – The Design and Construction of the World’s First 14-Story Wood Building

reThinkWood

“Treet” is a 14‐story wood apartment building in Bergen, Norway which is scheduled to be built during 2014-2015. The building will be one of the tallest wood buildings in the world.

This video will review the building system which consists of pre-fabricated building modules. Glulam is the main load bearing system and carries all the vertical loads in this building. Cross-laminated timber (CLT) is used in the elevator shaft, internal walls and balconies but is not a part of the main load bearing system. The owner for Treet recommended using wood in the building as wood is a sustainable construction material.

SOCs and Blocks Program, City of Port Phillip, Victoria

SOCs & Blocks (short for Sustainable Owners Corporations and Apartment Blocks)

A program to encourage the uptake of sustainable technology and practices in the operation of apartment buildings in the City of Port Phillip. This program is FREE to join and the sustainability assessment of your block is also FREE.

Even if your strata scheme is not in the Port Phillip area, this is an excellent video with lots of ideas about how to start on your road to sustainability.
If you are in the Port Phillip area, find out more about how you can get involved in the SOCs & Blocks program.

Energy Efficiency

Curtis Ravenel (Bloomberg LP)

Improve your operating performance both financially & economically by becoming more energy efficient in your strata scheme. Apartment living sustainability – it’s just good business!

Go Green in Your Apartment Month-by-Month (Infographic)

Apartment Guide

“Making the switch can seem intimidating — until you realize there’s nothing wrong with taking it one step at a time. When it comes to adopting an eco-friendly lifestyle, every little bit helps. We’ve got ideas for just one project per month that you can take on in your apartment that’ll help you live greener (and maybe even save a little money as well.)”

City of Sydney

Sustainable apartments

To help owners and residents reduce their water and energy use, and minimise waste, the City has developed the residential apartment sustainability plan

Green Roofs and Walls Implementation Plan

In 2014 Council adopted the Green Roofs and Walls Policy, with the aim of the policy being to increase the number of high quality green roofs and walls in the City of Sydney.

Q&A: Strata Living Victoria

LookUpStrata, Sonya Williams from enLighten Australia and Daniel Hunt from Ace Body Corporate Management

Feb 2016: Over the past week or so we have received a few questions from lot owners asking about different aspects concerning strata Living in Victoria.

City of Melbourne

Sustainable apartments: apartment living sustainability

Living in or owning an apartment can create challenges in making your building more sustainable. The City of Melbourne can help apartment owners, residents and building managers reduce water and energy usage and better manage waste and recycling.

Solar Case Study: Lifestyle Working

Lifestyle Working’s innovative strata-titled solar lots in Melbourne’s Docklands are giving business a new way to invest in solar.

High-rise apartment recycling

If you live in a high-rise apartment you can help reduce waste, greenhouse gas emissions and water consumption simply by reducing how much you throw away and by making sure that you recycle everything you can.

Growing Green Guide

State of Victoria: Department of Environment and Primary Industries
Apartment Living Sustainability: A guide to green roofs, walls and facades in Melbourne and Victoria, Australia.

Fact Sheet: Sustainability and utility infrastructure

Department of Justice & Community Safety, ACT Government

Section 23 has been included into the Unit Titles (Management) Act 2011 in order to create “a streamlined procedure for the installation of sustainability or utility infrastructure on common property. Previously, an owners corporation would have to pass a number of resolutions (financing, siting, easements etc) to install sustainability or utility infrastructure on common property, such as solar panels, a communal clothes line, cabling etc. The new rules applied from 30 March 2012.

Projects: Increasing the uptake of solar photovoltaics in strata residential developments

Australian Renewable Energy Agency

This project will develop governance models to allow shared solar photovoltaics (PV), battery and monitoring systems to be used in medium density apartments. The governance models will be tested at 50 units of the White Gum Valley development in Perth.