A specially developed Green Star rating tool is enabling Melbourne’s Metropolitan Fire and Emergency Services Board (MFB) to gain Green Star certifications for new fire station developments.
Melbourne’s Metropolitan Fire and Emergency Services Board (MFB) has worked closely with the Green Building Council of Australia (GBCA) to develop the first custom-built Green Star rating tool for fire stations in Australia.
The new Green Star – Custom rating tool will help the MFB to design and deliver fire stations that are energy and water efficient, minimise greenhouse gas emissions and resource consumption, feature environmentally sustainable materials and provide healthy and productive spaces with good indoor environment quality.
The tool will not only green new fire stations, it will also identify standard ecological sustainable design (ESD) initiatives that can be embedded in major renovations, according to Caroline van Oosterom, MFB’s environmental leadership coordinator. The MFB has exclusive use of its Green Star – Custom rating tool and will be registering a new fire station project to achieve a Green Star rating.
MFB collaborated with architecture firm, Spowers and engineering firm, Murchie Consulting on the rating tool. Ros Magee, Spowers’ managing director, notes: “Given the unique operational requirements of the MFB, the new customised rating tool needed to allow for evaluation of sustainability measures relevant to the MFB and its stakeholders. The new rating tool will support the MFB in its continuing leadership in environmentally sustainable development.”
“This new tool goes to the heart of what we are seeking to achieve in our corporate policies, that is, to make our fire stations more productive, and more environmentally and financially sustainable in the long term. We look forward to sharing the benefits of the tool with our Victorian and Australian emergency services partner organisations,” Nick Easy, the MFB’s chief executive officer, imparts.
“The Metropolitan Fire Brigade is setting new benchmarks for sustainability in the emergency services sector, and we applaud its green leadership,” Romilly Madew, GBCA chief executive, concludes.
