New energy efficiency programme for Melbourne and Sydney

An innovative new national programme called Smart Blocks, designed to improve energy efficiency in apartment buildings, has been launched in the Australian cities of Melbourne and Sydney.

The opportunity for savings is significant, with energy audits showing that on average owner corporations that collectively manage the common property of a residential, commercial, retail, industrial or mixed-use property development can reduce their power bills by up to 30 percent.

“Our population is growing quickly and by 2031, we expect an additional 42,000 homes will be built in the City of Melbourne, accommodating 80,000 people,” said Arron Wood, City of Melbourne Environment Portfolio Chair Councillor. “We need to be smart about the way we develop in the future but we also need to make our existing buildings more efficient. This is a critical step to reaching our ultimate goal of becoming a carbon neutral city.”

Approximately 40 percent of all new housing in Australia is in medium to high-density developments. Over 70 percent of residents in both Melbourne and Sydney live in apartments, and these figures are set to grow. Until now, however, this sector of the built environment has lacked tailored, independent information and support to help overcome the complexities of identifying and implementing projects in a strata-titled property, a form of ownership devised for multi-level apartment blocks and horizontal subdivisions with shared areas.

Developed in partnership with Strata Community Australia, City of Sydney, City of Melbourne, Owners Corporation Network of Australia, and Green Strata, the Smart Blocks programme includes an interactive online toolkit that helps people identify the efficiency improvements that can be made to common property in their building and walks them through the steps to get those improvements approved by the owners corporations.

“With more and more residents living in apartments, we need to explain how using energy more efficiently can make it easier on their wallets and on the environment,” said Clover Moore, Lord Mayor of Sydney. “Smart Blocks does just that, explaining the large savings that can be made from replacing old assets with more efficient products and how equipment can be used in different ways to slash energy consumption levels.”

Since the programme’s launch, the Smart Blocks team has been working collaboratively with nearly 20 community partners across Australia, including 15 cities and towns across five states, to deliver free workshops to apartment owners and their managers.