CommBank’s cutting-edge tool for building sustainability upgrades

afr.com:

With commercial buildings accounting for around 24 per cent of Australia’s national electricity consumption and 10 per cent of national greenhouse gas emissions, for businesses, reducing their carbon footprint is vitally important as the nation continues its decarbonisation journey and comes with potential cost savings.

Commercial buildings account for 24 per cent of national electricity consumption and 10 per cent of greenhouse gas production. iStock

With this in mind, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CommBank) and Netherlands-based company CFP Green Buildings have worked together to help commercial property customers identify and implement meaningful, strategic actions to improve the environmental outcomes of their building operations through CommBank’s Green Buildings Tool (GBT), which is an Australian first.

Already operating highly successfully in Europe where over 1.5 million buildings are currently analysed each year, the GBT allows commercial property owners to create multi-year plans for improving emissions and generates options for potential energy cost savings and building improvements.

CommBank’s general manager of property and construction finance, Michael Bennett describes the tool as a “digital energy consultant” that provides building owners with insights into their building’s emissions and energy consumption.

Bennett says the tool itself covers 12 asset types and has over 300 building personas, making it suitable for a wide range of commercial properties and it has already been adopted by 360 CommBank clients covering over 800 buildings in just a few weeks.

“For mid-market property owners, it’s a valuable tool as they may not have the resources to engage an energy consultant,” Bennett says.

Michael