The Australian Sustainable Built Environment Council (ASBEC) is a collaborative national forum of peak bodies in the Australian built environment, focused on achieving sustainable, productive, and resilient buildings, communities, and cities. Our membership consists of industry associations, professional bodies, academia, non‐government organisations and government observers who are involved in the planning, design, delivery, and operation of our built environment.

ASBEC has a longstanding focus on buildings, cities, infrastructure, and urban‐scale policy to support a sustainable, liveable, and resilient built environment. We strongly believe that the built environment is key to ensuring communities are resilient to the health and wellbeing impacts of climate change. Our members have long championed a strategic and systems-level approach to solving the climate and housing crises faced by our communities and urban environments, informed by evidence, industry collaboration and research.

To safeguard the nation’s ongoing prosperity and social viability, we call on the next government to seize the unique opportunity the built environment offers to dramatically reduce carbon emissions in highly cost-effective ways that will also stimulate the economy.

We offer five ways the next Government can provide certainty to industry, create economic opportunities for Australian businesses and drive the transition to zero-carbon-ready communities:

1. Safe, future-ready homes and buildings for all Australians: Ensure Australia’s buildings are safe, resilient and ready for a zero-carbon future by continuing to fund the Australian Building Codes Board (ABCB) to deliver regular updates to the National Construction Code (NCC).
2. Transform the materials supply chain: Provide support and incentives for innovation in building materials and products to reduce carbon emissions, as well invest in circularity of materials to enable rapid change.
3. Invest in workforce skills and capacity Australia needs for today and tomorrow: Accelerate investing in skills and training for our existing and new workforce, as this is integral to our clean energy and net zero transformation.
4. Government leadership to accelerate change: Continue showing government leadership in procurement for net zero built environment solutions
5. Seize energy demand opportunities: Focus on the significant opportunity to integrate the energy demand and supply side to enable the energy performance revolution of our homes, workplaces and buildings.