Green Building Council announce royalty free Green Star

The World Green Building Council have recently rebuilt their website and now they announce that the Green Building Council of Australia will release a royalty-free licence of its environmental rating tool - Green Star- to all World Green Building Council members. Built on the British BREEAM (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method) and the American LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) systems, Green Star establishes a common language for the measurement for green buildings, through integrated, whole-building design. Now worldwide members of the WGBC (see below) can have access to the intellectual property in this program to assist endeavours in their own countries.

To date Green Star assessment tools have been developed for Office Design, Office As Built, Office Interiors and Office Asset. Coming in March 2005 is Convention and Exhibition Centres followed by Retail Shopping Centres, Residential, Education and Health buildings over the next couple of years. The World GBC is "a federation "union" of national Green Building Councils. whose common goal is the sustainable transformation of the global property industry." ::World Green Building Council [by WM]

U.S. Green Building Council

Green Building Council of Australia

Canadian Green Building Council

Japan Green Building Council

Mexico Green Building Council

Currently there is also a Indian Green Building Council and
Spain Green Building Council, but they don’t appear to have a web presence.