Environmentally sustainable design (ESD) categories

When submitting ESD information: Please address these core ESD categories. Policy objectives, Council's 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: 22 October 2024 - 10:17am