There’s been a spate of green building events lately…. Following the Green Cities ‘07 Australasian Conference and Expo in Sydney, 11-14 Feburary, Melbourne has hosted a Green Building Forum at Dockside and the launch of the Smart Energy Zones project by Sustainability Victoria.

The Green Building Forum at Docklands was held  on the 27 February to showcase the Port 1010 building, an example of Australian excellence receiving a 5 Green Star Award, setting a benchmark for future ecological and environmental building design. 
Speakers included
 Russell Nisbet, Digital Harbour, Tony Arnel, Building Commission and Plumbing Industry Commissioner,
 David Craven, Green Building Council of Victoria, Jesse Judd, Ashton Raggatt McDougall and Alan Edler, Norman Disney & Young. Port 1010 has also already achieved an Award of Merit under the Docklands ESD Scheme and is one of the most environmentally friendly buildings within the Docklands precinct.

Sustainability Victoria also recently launched their Smart Energy Zones project which help illustrate how greenhouse emissions can be cut by using a combination of energy solutions. Smart Energy Zones will integrate multiple technologies in one location for greater energy efficiency and security. Suggested features include local energy generation, micro-grids, smart meters and even Innovative electricity tariffs. Distributed energy generation is one suggested technique which allows for energy to be collected from a multitude of sources which can then be fed back into the overall electricity grid. For more information, check out the Sustainabilty Victoria website.

Are you currently implementing environmentally-friendly design principles in your own home? Are you retrofitting environmental design or starting from scratch and perhaps incorporating government rebates within your construction? Do you know of another green building event that is upcoming in Melbourne? Comments are welcome.