Major players in the institutional property sector recently participated in a UTS / RICS focus group aimed at identifying existing gaps in industry knowledge relating to the validation of development and investment decisions in energy efficient commercial buildings.

The focus group concluded that priority areas for course development were:

1. The valuation of Green Buildings
2. The business case for ‘Green’ retro-fitting of existing stock; and
3. Managing the energy efficient performance of a green building

A grant issued through the Department of Environment, Climate Change and Water (DECCW) in June in order to develop a series of short courses.

With the appropriate framework now identified, the work of developing the course content is now underway, with pilot delivery of the three courses scheduled for March 2011.

Attending the focus group were senior representatives from Macquarie Capital Funds, Mirvac, CBRE, Knight Frank, DTZ, Urbis, APM Capital, Brookfield Multiplex, GPT, Steensen Varming, JLL, Goodman, Stocklands, Colonial First State, Colliers International, Baker McKenzie and Ernst & Young.

Many thanks to Martina Reizner & Rachel Haley from DECCW, Nick Hudson & John Godard from RICS and Grace Ding, Paul van der Kallen & Perry Foresythe from UTS for their contributions to the study.