One step closer towards zero environmental impact for the Aged Care and Retirement Living Sectors
HFM is excited to be a part of the NABERS Accelerate program, developing the rating tool for residential aged care & retirement living. NABERS Accelerate has been designed to speed up the development and adoption of a tool to provide NABERS ratings in new sectors such as residential aged care and retirement living. Key activities in the program for the tool include data collection for benchmarking, industry and stakeholder collaboration, tool development and testing. A new tool for this sector is planned to be released by July 2021.
We have seen an increasing focus on sustainability and environmental management within the retirement living and aged care sectors over the last few years. However, despite owners and operators increasing their awareness and making significant progress in improving sustainability, there has not been a widely accepted tool available to measure and demonstrate performance on a national level.
HFM has a long history working with Aged Care providers to assist improving the performance of their buildings. While our clients focus on their residents and clients, we focus on the health of their buildings. We often note a link between the condition of building services, preventative maintenance practices and utility consumption. There are often proactive steps available to achieve not only reduced energy use and better environmental performance, but also a building that is more reliable and efficient to operate.
NABERS is a simple, reliable, sustainability rating for the built environment. Its success in other sectors (such as the office market) is underpinned by cores principles such as being based on actual historical performance, developed in collaboration with industry, uses meaningful inputs, and uses an easily understood star rating system.
Key Benefits
- Comparison: Providers and residents will be able to get a fair comparison of the sustainability of their portfolio across different climate zones, built forms and occupancy profiles.
- Validate & communicate – this is an independent, low cost, trusted way to validate and summarise sustainability data. This provides confidence in communication and reporting.
- Track & improve – The NABERS star rating provides a key metric for annual reporting and sustainability strategies. By conducting ratings annually, improvements in performance and energy and emissions reductions can be delivered over time.
- Stand above the crowd – a high NABERS rating can demonstrate strong management, a focus on the environment and indicate lower running costs. Being able to communicate this with confidence gives owners and managers the competitive advantage with prospective buyers and residents.
HFM view the development of a NABERS tool as a significant development for the aged care & retirement living sector in Australia.
Being able to measure, benchmark and compare energy and water consumption of a residential aged care or a retirement living precinct allows owners, operators, and residents to chart a path towards buildings with zero environmental impact.
