When submitting ESD information: Please address these core ESD categories. Policy objectives, Council's expectations and resources are below to guide you.
ESD categories
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
- Sustainable Design Assessment in the Planning Process (SDAPP) Framework
- Your home technical manual
- The peak brick industry body offers guidance on improved thermal design for dwellings.
- The peak timber industry body offers guidance on improved thermal design for dwellings.
- National Residential Efficiency Scorecard.
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
- Sustainable Design Fact Sheet - Indoor Environment Quality
- Your home technical manual – Passive design
- Your home technical manual – Energy
- Your home technical manual – Live and adapt.
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
- Brimbank ESD Guidance: Effective External Shading (PDF 868 KB)
Other Guidance
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
- Sustainable Design Fact Sheet - Integrated Water Management
- EPA guidance - Rainwater use in and around the home
- EPA guidance - Alternative water sources and their use
- Your home technical manual - Water
- Your home technical manual - Stormwater
- Melbourne Water & EPA guidance: Keeping our stormwater clean: A Builders guide
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
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
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
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
Expectations
- Innovative solutions for complex and/or larger scale development.
Other Guidance
More information
Websites
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
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.