Environmentally sustainable design categories

When submitting ESD information, we ask you to address these core ESD categories. Policy objectives, City Development Services expectations and resources are below to guide you.

ESD categories

Overview

Clause 15.01-2L-02 Objective

To achieve best practice in environmentally sustainable development from the design stage through to construction and operation.

Expectation

  • Building orientation and design are to optimise passive design
  • Provide a Builder’s Users Guide for complex or multi-tenanted buildings.

Other Guidance

Indoor Environment Quality

Clause 15.01-2L-02 Strategies

  • Achieve a healthy indoor environment quality, including thermal comfort and access to fresh air and daylight, by prioritising passive design over mechanical heating, ventilation, cooling and lighting. 
  • Reduce indoor air pollutants by encouraging use of low-toxicity materials. 
  • Minimise noise levels and noise transfer within and between buildings and associated external areas. 

Clause 15.01-2S Strategies

  • Improve the energy performance of buildings through siting and design measures that encourage:
    • passive design responses that minimise the need for heating, cooling and lighting.

Expectation

  • Adequate daylight to all habitable rooms including commercial spaces
  • Effective natural ventilation including openable windows in all habitable rooms
  • Residential: Windows are able to be locked open and have provision for insect screens, to encourage use
  • Residential: Northern glazing to allow winter, warming sun in living areas.

Other Guidance

Operational Energy

Clause 15.01-2L-02 Strategies

Reduce both energy use and energy peak demand through design measures such as:

  • building orientation
  • shading to glazed surfaces
  • optimising glazing to exposed surfaces
  • inclusion of or space allocation for renewable technologies.

Clause 15.01-2S Strategies

  • Ensure a comprehensive site analysis forms the starting point of the design process and provides the basis for the consideration of height, scale, massing and energy performance of new development
  • Improve the energy performance of buildings through siting and design measures that encourage:
    • passive design responses that minimise the need for heating, cooling and lighting
    • on-site renewable energy generation and storage technology
    • use of low embodied energy materials.

Expectations

  • Thermal performance of buildings to have a minimum 10% improvement on the NCC requirement
  • Residential: provide preliminary NatHERS ratings indicating a 7 star minimum rating
  • Effective external shading to glazed doors and windows in habitable rooms
  • Residential: glazing facing north and west, and over 2m2 cumulative glazing in living spaces facing east
  • Energy efficient hot water, heating and cooling systems within one energy star rating of the best available (including pools and spa heating)
  • An external clotheslines per dwelling appropriate to hang bed linen
  • Limit operation of equipment to save energy where appropriate (e.g. sensors to common and external lighting, HVAC CO2 monitoring, etc.)
  • Design roof orientation and size to accommodate solar panels.

Guidance

Other Guidance

Integrated Water Management

Clause 15.01-2L-02 Strategies

  • Reduce total operating potable water use through appropriate design measures such as water efficient fixtures, appliances, equipment, irrigation and landscaping. 
  • Encourage the appropriate use of alternative water sources (including greywater, rainwater and stormwater). 
  • Incorporate best practice water sensitive urban design to improve the quality of stormwater runoff and reduce impacts on water systems and water bodies.

Clause 15.01-2S Strategies

  • Encourage water efficiency and the use of rainwater, stormwater and recycled water.

Expectations

  • Best practice water efficiency water for fixtures, appliances and irrigation
  • Optimised rainwater capture for onsite use (e.g. toilet flushing, laundry and irrigation)
  • Minimise water use in testing fire safety systems (e.g. through capture for on-site reuse).

Guidance

Other Guidance

Embodied Carbon

Clause 15.01-2L-02 Strategies

The ESD Policy doesn’t have a heading for Materials, though see objectives for Waste and Resource Recovery:

  • Promote waste avoidance, reuse and recycling during the design, construction and operation stages of development
  • Encourage use of durable and reuseable building materials.

Clause 15.01-2S Strategies

  • Encourage use of recycled and reusable materials in building construction and undertake adaptive reuse of buildings, where practical
  • Improve the energy performance of buildings through siting and design measures that encourage:
    • use of low embodied energy materials.

Expectations

  • Retain as much of the existing structure as possible.
  • Material choices with reduced environmental impact (e.g. reused, recycled content, low embodied energy, timber from sustainable certified plantations, concrete with cement substitution and/or recycled aggregate).

Other Guidance

Transport

Clause 15.01-2L-02 Strategies

  • Design development to promote the use of walking, cycling and public transport, in that order; and minimise car dependency
  • Promote the use of low emissions vehicle technologies and supporting infrastructure.

Clause 15.01-2S Strategies

  • Ensure development considers and responds to transport movement networks and provides safe access and egress for pedestrians, cyclists and vehicles.

Expectations

  • Provide undercover, secure, parking for occupant bicycles with access to an electrical outlet:
    • Residential: bicycle per dwelling (no car movement or lifting)
    • Non-Res: exceed bicycle parking required by Clause 52.34 by 50% (min. of 1) with 1 locker per occupant bicycle and a shower for every 10 bicycles*
      *(less when remote from residential areas and public transport).
  • Provide infrastructure to support electric vehicles charging:
    • Houses: Level 1 (15 amp. min.)
    • Apartments: Level 2 (32 amp. min.)
    • Non-res: Level 2 (32 amp. min.) 5% occupant vehicle car parking bays, with a minimum of 1.

Other Guidance

Waste and Resource Recovery

Clause 15.01-2L-02 Strategies

  • Promote waste avoidance, reuse and recycling during the design, construction and operation stages of development
  • Encourage use of durable and reuseable building materials.
  • Ensure sufficient space is allocated for future change in waste management needs, including (where possible) composting and green waste facilities.

Clause 15.01-2S Strategies

  • Ensure the layout and design of development supports resource recovery, including separation, storage and collection of waste, mixed recycling, glass, organics and e-waste.

Expectations

  • Designate waste / recycling areas to allow for current and future expansion of waste streams. (See Cl. 15.01-2S of the Planning Scheme)
  • Provide a recycling target for demolition and construction waste to minimise landfill waste.

Other Guidance

Urban Ecology

Clause 15.01-2L-02 Strategies

  • Protect and enhance biodiversity by incorporating natural habitats and planting indigenous vegetation
  • Reduce urban heat island effects through building design, landscape design, water sensitive urban design and the retention and provision of canopy and significant trees
  • Encourage the provision of space for productive gardens, particularly in larger residential developments.

Clause 15.01-2S Strategies

  • Ensure development provides landscaping that responds to its site context, enhances built form, creates safe and attractive spaces and supports cooling and greening of urban areas.

Expectations

  • Residential:
    • provide a tap and drain on apartment balconies and taps to courtyards
    • enhanced foliage to increase urban cooling.
  • Provide tree canopy to shade large paved areas (e.g. one tree every 6 parking bays)
  • Roofs to be medium or lighter coloured where visible, and as light as possible where not visible. (e.g. Solar Absorbance ≤ 0.6 where visible).

Guidance

Other Guidance

Innovation

Expectations

  • Innovative solutions for complex and/or larger scale development.

Other Guidance

More information

Websites

There is a wide range of resources available online. You can find general ESD guidance at a national level at Your Home. Information for Victoria from Department of Transport and Planning's website.

Glossary of terms

  • BAU – Business-as-Usual refers to typical rather than ‘best practice’ building design and construction
  • BESS - The Built Environment Sustainability Scorecard is a green building rating tool
  • BUG – A Building User Guide is written to inform occupants of a building’s ESD features, and how these are best operated to improve environmental performance
  • ESD - Environmentally Sustainable Design (ESD) aims to improve the health and comfort of building occupants while reducing the negative environmental impacts of a development
  • GBCA - Green Building Council of Australia is the peak NGO focused on the sustainable transformation of the Australian built environment
  • LPD - Legal point of discharge is the Council designated stormwater drainage point for a particular site
  • MUSIC – Model for Urban Stormwater Improvement Conceptualisation is a stormwater modelling tool
  • NATHERS - The Nationwide House Energy Rating Scheme is a thermal performance rating tool for dwellings
  • NCC – The National Construction Code is the building code shared by all Australian states and territories.
  • OSD - On-Site Detention provides for the slow release of stormwater to avoid overloading the drainage system when it rains
  • SDA - Sustainable Design Assessment is an ESD report for smaller projects
  • SDAPP - Sustainable Design Assessment in the Planning Process is the framework for assessing the ESD credentials of proposed development.
  • SMP - Sustainable design management plan is an ESD report for larger projects
  • STORM - Stormwater Treatment Objective - Relative Measure is a stormwater modelling tool
  • WSUD - Water Sensitive Urban Design improves urban design to improve the impact of stormwater runoff from development.

Contact us

Email our ESD Officer if you would like assistance.

Last updated: 5 September 2024 - 9:45am
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