Welcome to the
NABERS Annual Report 2020/21

Last financial year was off to one of the hardest starts possible: a global pandemic and Australia’s first recession in three decades. And despite the uncertainty created by historically-adverse circumstances, sustainability defied all odds to reach new highs in importance in Australian buildings last year. In fact, the number of NABERS ratings not only didn’t decline, but it grew by 11% in FY20-21. At NABERS, we are incredibly proud of all of you in the broader NABERS community for walking the walk for the planet no matter what the circumstances. We are also thankful to the Commonwealth Government, for providing financial support to many organisations in the NABERS community so they could continue their great work during this difficult year.

A salient trend this year was the huge number of organisations who are expanding their work in sustainability beyond just energy efficiency and carbon. Organisations conducting a NABERS Water rating grew by 17% this year, the fastest jump in interest in water efficiency we have seen in a decade. We also saw a whopping 41% increase in buildings conducting a NABERS Indoor Environment rating. With 4.4 million m2 of office space measuring and setting targets for health and comfort with NABERS IE annually, Australian offices are leading the charge towards healthier buildings globally.

To cap it all off, buildings with NABERS Waste ratings grew by an incredible 79.2%, becoming the fastest-growing NABERS tool to date. I see this as a reflection of the incredible momentum there is behind the circular economy movement, and a step towards buildings becoming a powerful force for change in this space. This year has shown that sustainability has become a resilient, deep movement, which fills me with optimism for we will achieve as we leave the worst impacts of the pandemic behind.

Last but not least, last year we were also fortunate to work with leaders in residential aged care and retirement living, to expand NABERS to those two sectors. Caring for our senior members of society is among the most noble of causes, and we are incredibly excited to assist these values-based organisations in their sustainability journey. From us all, welcome to the NABERS community.

Accelerating the pace of sustainable change is more important now than ever before. The window to transform into a sustainable world is narrow, and the pace of change needed requires government and industry to work closely together. We look forward to continuing to work with you to help Australian buildings set the pace towards the sustainable future we all need.

The 2021 financial year saw all of us continue to adapt and rise to the new challenges of operating in the COVID-19 environment. This did not deter NABERS from progressively working toward achieving the outcomes set in the strategic plan. The goals were ambitious, but with the support of the Commonwealth government and State governments the NABERS team were able to embark on a program to transform different sectors of the built environment.

NABERS continued to support both customers and assessors in response to the varying and challenging operating environments across Australia. The launch of NABERS ratings for Aged Care and Retirement Living sectors brings NABERS closer to its goal of rating every building - a significant achievement for the built environment sector. Expansion into new sectors continues to be a focus of NABERS and the great progress made has been a highlight of the past year.

Notwithstanding all the work in new areas, NABERS continues to see growth in take up across existing areas including waste, water and indoor environment. This is a real testament to the broad support of NABERS and its role in supporting the built environment to move to a position that is more sustainable.

Another noteworthy achievement in the past year is the use of NABERS in New Zealand and the United Kingdom. This international recognition of NABERS as an important tool to assist in driving change in the built environment is very pleasing to see.

As the recently appointed Acting Stakeholder Chair and a long-term advocate of the work NABERS undertakes, it is a privilege and pleasure to welcome you to the NABERS annual report on behalf of all stakeholder members.

As you know, investing in energy efficiency leads to a variety of benefits including increasing jobs, lowering energy costs and reducing emissions. NABERS has been highly effective in driving efficiency improvements in individual buildings which is why the Commonwealth Government has committed funding the expansion of NABERS into new sectors through the Climate Solutions Package.

At the start of the year some building owners were considering not re-rating due to the COVID-19 slowdown. The Commonwealth Government has continued the success of the ‘fee waiver’ from the beginning of the pandemic supporting existing NABERS users and attracting new participants. The number of ratings this year shows this has kept involvement with NABERS strong.

I look forward to working with the members of the National Steering Committee and the wider NABERS community to continue improving the measurement and management of building performance.