TOOL NAME: EnviroDevelopment
OWNED/DEVELOPED BY: Urban Development Institute of Australia (UDIA) – Qld. group. The tool is licensed to individual state chapters of UDIA – state chapters are separate entities. UDIA trains assessors and administers the tool.
- Form of the CAT – whether it is a rating tool, strategic framework, guidelines etc. – and capacity to link with other tools.
Tool is a branding and certification system – “used by industry as guidelines for leading-edge sustainability practice”. Other tools are encouraged to be used with EnviroDevelopment – including examples such as AccuRate, First Rate and BERS (energy) or NABERS. Also Green Star Ratings.
Fees are charged for application of the tool to a given project – on a sliding scale from $3,000 - $15,000 for initial assessment, then 20% of initial cost per update (annually) to retain certification.
- Governance/administration of the CAT – its purpose and the organization behind it, the jurisdiction or scale of influence/application.
UDIA is a membership-based organization for the development industry – it aims to “lead by example as opposed to simply complying with legislative requirements”.
Purpose of the tool is “build capacity to respond to climate change sustainability challenges; as an educational resource; to “create a strong community message” – esp. around energy and water use as quantified outcomes, so that community can identify what is different about those particular developments.
Tool also aims to challenge existing barriers to development “such as innovation causing DA lag-times” – due to inadequate capacity of local and state govt. to respond to innovation and proposed potential alternative funding incentives etc. – including wastewater treatment and re-use strategies which are different from the “norm”. A new feature of the tool offers DA pre-certification status (a provisional DA certification).
Scale of influence/application: Tool is voluntary. The tool was released in October 2006, and has certified 20 projects nationally as of April 2010.
Scale of influence/application of the tool is restricted by the organizational capacity of the UDIA to support both current and ongoing development.
- Sector or phase of development to which the CAT is applicable – e.g. planning, design, construction – residential, commercial, infrastructure etc. – including capacity to influence urban renewal and retrofitting outcomes.
Tool covers range of development types, from industrial to residential subdivision scale – up to 2,500 lots. Tool is implemented in planning and design phase, and ongoing certification is performance-based – however, tool is unsuitable for retrofitting as ongoing assessment and pre-design aspects are too closely linked.
- Ability to promote systems thinking – how well the CAT encompasses and integrates the component factors and measures of urban sustainability.
Tool assesses 6 separate categories or ‘elements’ of sustainable development (ecosystems, waste, energy, materials, water, community) – each with different criteria which must be met for certification. Projects can apply to be accredited for anything from a single element up to all six elements. This inherent structure precludes the capacity for promoting systems-thinking.
- Capacity to inform design decisions – how well the CAT is able to derive and test alternative design strategies to inform decision-making.
The tool sets relative performance targets for GHG outcomes – requiring 45% improvement over set state targets. Project certification is reviewed on ‘as needs’ basis or minimum every 12 months. Tool is “designed to target top 20% of developments” – preliminary project analysis with assessors examines alternative design strategies for achieving certification in separate elements, but the tool does not have the capacity to provide integrated analysis of effects of alternative design strategies against more than one element of sustainability at a time.
- Capacity to encourage collaboration – how effectively the CAT integrates input from multiple stakeholders in the context of its implementation and use.
Tool is owned and administered by a single membership-based organization – backed by voluntary state-based technical standards taskforces (currently 4 groups comprising 20 members), advising on standards for review. This enables a degree of quality-control, but inherently limits the ‘reach’ of application of the tool.
- Adaptability of the CAT to differing local environmental contexts
Currently the tool operates only within 4 States - Queensland, South Australia, Victoria and Western Australia. Adaptation of the tool to different contexts involves incorporating state-based guidelines and standards, and is a voluntary, membership-based process.
- Ability of the CAT to drive innovation in urban planning and development.
The tool has limited capacity to drive innovation, due to its voluntary nature and limited scale of reach.
- Flexibility of the CAT to adapt and evolve over time to changing understanding and measures of urban sustainability – including review processes and systems for ongoing monitoring, evaluation and reporting of outcomes.
Setting performance targets rather than defining prescriptive solutions encourages analysis of site constraints and opportunities – and this can influence understanding of the impacts of broader sustainability parameters over time. It is unclear whether the assessment of such broader parameters could be incorporated into review processes of currently certified projects in the future.
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