The New South Wales Government in Australia has today endorsed the need for the International Property Measurement Standard (IPMS) to drive the global roll-out of the National Australian Built Environment Rating System (NABERS) energy efficiency rating system.

NABERS is an initiative by the government of Australia to measure and compare the environmental performance of Australian buildings and tenancies.

In a keynote address at a breakfast launching a post-COP21 environmentally sustainable real estate investment framework, the Hon Shayne Mallard MLC, representing the Minister for the Environment, endorsed the need for the IPMS.

The Hon. Shayne Mallard MLC said:

“The International Property Measurement Standard will ensure that property assets are measured in a consistent way, creating a more transparent marketplace, greater public trust, stronger investor confidence, and increased market stability.

“It will also address a major barrier to creating an international benchmark for building sustainability performance.”

Mr Mallard went further, saying that the New South Wales Government had a “strong interest in making sure that NABERS keeps expanding globally, and that’s why we’re actively exploring the IPMS standard, and will be working with our partners in NABERS to consider it”.

The New South Wales Government’s endorsement comes on the back of a report by the Australian Sustainable Built Environment Council (ASBEC), which showed that the work of NABERS and similar rating schemes had reduced emissions from Australia’s built environment by 180 megatonnes, or more than 19 times the annual emissions of Australia’s largest coal fired power station.