The recently completed AUD$65 Million refurbishment of the InterContinental Melbourne “The Rialto” owned by Eureka Funds Management, has been awarded Green Globe Certified status. It is the first hotel refurbishment project to be awarded under a new environmental rating tool for the hospitality industry developed by EC3 Global using the research and science of the STCRC. The tool fills a significant gap in the market as many existing rating tools are not tailored specifically to meet the needs of the Hotel sector and do not provide a holistic pathway to operational benchmarking, measurement and reporting on CSR/TBL performance.

The project having satisfied the requirements of the standard has been certified as “Industry Best Practice” following an accredited Third-party Auditor review of its planning, design and construction management process, documentation and design outcomes.

The successful completion of the pilot project demonstrates that the Building Planning & Design Standard (BPDS) can be used as a specific tool for hotels seeking to meaningfully measure sustainable planning and design improvements during and following refurbishment.

BPDS provides guidelines, tools and indicators for assessment and certification to assist developers in the planning, design and construction phases of sustainable buildings. The standard was developed to encompass building projects which incorporate travel and tourism facilities. Sustainable planning and design is a prerequisite of long term sustainable operations. For those projects that have not yet been built (or are being rebuilt or refurbished) BPDS provides a sustainable approach from inception to completion. This approach ensures continuing world best practice once building operation commences and links with yearly operational Earthcheck^TM Benchmarking and Emissions reporting.