FED: Climate dept headquarters needs green upgrade

AAP General News (Australia)
04-07-2008
FED: Climate dept headquarters needs green upgrade

CANBERRA, April 7 AAP - Climate Change Minister Penny Wong says her department's Canberra
headquarters will be made greener to meet federal government standards.

The Australian Greens say the building falls short of the Australian Building Greenhouse
Rating 4.5-star minimum requirement, set by the Howard government.

The Climate Change Department, along with Customs and the Attorney-General's Department,
will be housed at a building with a 3.5-star rating.

According to the Greens, the government is leasing another building for the Workplace
Authority and is considering four others which all fail to meet the required rating.

"Senator Wong's post-embarrassment commitment to retro-fit the office ... is welcome
and backs up my decision to release this information," Greens climate change spokeswoman
Christine Milne said.

"I will now be checking on all the new leases the new government has signed across
the country since taking office to ensure that similar action is taken in each."

A spokeswoman for Senator Wong said the decision to retro-fit the building had been
taken long before the Greens made the energy rating public.

"The new premises of the Department of Climate Change will be a case study for how
tenants and building owners can work together to retro-fit older buildings to make them
energy efficient," the spokeswoman said.

The department had taken over a lease held by the Department of Environment, Water,
Heritage and the Arts and signed before the federal election.

Breaking the lease would have incurred "significant" financial penalties, the spokeswoman said.

The department is working with the building owner, in consultation with an architect
and an environmental consultant, to lift the rating to 4.5 and develop a plan to eventually
increase it to five.

The owner of another building the government is considering leasing says its rating
will be raised to 4.5 by August.

Hamib Pty Ltd managing director Tony Hedley told ABC Radio it would cost about $100,000
to upgrade Computer Associates House.

AAP pw/rl/ht/cdh

KEYWORD: CLIMATE LEASES DAYLEAD

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