21 September 2011 – The City of Sydney has launched a new program to help apartment dwellers green their buildings, said to consume twice the energy of single dwellings.
The program helps owners’ corporations by providing sustainability assessments for individual buildings to improve energy and water efficiency, provide recycling infrastructure within apartment buildings and help residents reduce household waste.
The pilot program is working with five apartment buildings, with plans to expand the program to up to 30 buildings. These case studies will then be shared with up to 700 apartment buildings across Sydney.
“Three quarters of the population in the inner city already live in apartments and within 20 years half the state’s population will too. So it makes sense that we work with them to help them reduce energy and water consumption,” Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore said.
“Statistics show a person living in an apartment on average accounts for twice the energy related emissions of someone living in a house. This is due to common area services and amenities such as hot water, heating and cooling systems, lighting, car parks, pools and gyms,” Ms Moore said.
“This program will help apartment owners save thousands of dollars in electricity and water bills, buffer them from rising energy and water prices and help us in reducing the city’s carbon footprint.”
Energy audits for the pilot program will be subsidised by the Office of Environment and Heritage’s energy saver program.