Government sustainability

Importance of indoor environment quality

ESD design guide - Video and transcript
Stephen Webb, Director, DesignInc Melbourne
Australian Government Department of the Environment and Heritage, June 2005

AVI video file

About the video file

This video should be viewed in the context of the ESD design guide for Australian Government buildings.

The ESD design guide gives a basic introduction to ecological sustainability issues and specifically how the built environment affects them. It begins by outlining the Australian position on Ecologically Sustainable Development (ESD) and some key policies relevant to buildings and ESD.

See also: more ESD design guide videos

Transcript

Indoor Environment Quality... in the past few years it has probably been the single biggest thing that has come up and has got these buildings over the line...

With the NABs, 60L, the Bonds and CH2s, all of a sudden people have some examples in Australia to look at.

I come back to Mick's second point, which is Indoor Environment Quality, healthy buildings, or the people focus.

In the past few years, that has been probably been the single biggest thing that's come up time after time, in terms of getting a lot of these buildings across the line.

A lot of things aren't obvious until the building has been built and the tenants realise what a good space they've got.

It also ties back into the issue of good or quality design not being just ESD based. Most of the comments on the NAB and the Bond is what a good space it is, not about how much energy saving it is.

In terms of getting that culture shift in organisations, I think that the healthy aspect is what is driving it.

In CH2, the idea of 100% fresh air, the access to landscape, has been far more upfront than the energy side of things.

[transcript ends]

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