inner melbourne action plan - imapimap.vic.gov.au/uploads/meeting agendas/2015 february/att 8...

13 February 2015 Attachment 8

Report prepared by: Julie Francis CoM

Inner Melbourne Action Plan

Action 9.4 Green Demonstration Projects – Growing Green Guide _________________________________________________________________________

Purpose

1. To update the Committee on the progress of green roof, wall and facade activities, following the completion of the Growing Green Guide for Melbourne project in early 2014.

2. To seek the Committee’s support to broaden the scope and membership of the green roof, walls and facades policy group to explore policy options and report back to the Committee with new project proposals.

3. To seek the Committee’s input on the type of baseline data that should be collected for future evaluation of changes in green roofs.

4. To outline follow-up project opportunities for the IMAP Review, to build on the legacy of the Growing Green Guide for Melbourne project.

Background

5. The ‘Growing Green Guide for Melbourne: A how-to guide for green roofs, walls and facades’ project was a partnership between the IMAP councils, The University of Melbourne and the state government. It received $130,000 funding from IMAP and $250,000 from the Victorian Adaptation and Sustainability Partnership program. The project was aligned with IMAP Action 9.4: Green Demonstration Projects and was completed in April 2014.

6. A summary of the project and its impact is available in Attachment 1.

7. The IMAP Implementation Committee agreed at their February 2014 meeting that the Policy Reference Group continue after the project end date, and develop some of the identified policy options for encouraging the uptake of green roofs, walls and facades.

Progress Update

8. A green roof, wall and facade environmental sustainable design (ESD) factsheet has been developed and will be released shortly as part of the ESD factsheets project (IMAP Action 9.2).

9. The City of Melbourne has begun a Rooftop Opportunities Study, modelling green roof potential across the municipality. A number of IMAP council officers were invited to a forum about this work as there is the potential to expand the model across the IMAP region (representatives from Yarra and Stonnington, along with the IMAP Executive Officer, participated). Attachment 2 shows an example output from the pilot stage of the work.

10. The City of Melbourne is developing a tool to identify potential sites for green walls and facades in laneways, this tool could be shared across neighbouring municipalities.

11. The University of Melbourne’s engineering department have completed initial research on load bearing capacity of existing buildings, to create a database that will help people to determine the likelihood of their building having appropriate load bearing capacity for green roof retrofits. This was identified as an information gap during the Growing Green Guide project. The City of Melbourne will consider opportunities to partner with the research team in 2015 to further this work.

12. The City of Port Phillip and the City of Melbourne worked with RMIT in the second semester of 2014 and several student teams developed green roof policy suggestions for the City of Port Phillip. This has raised the profile of green roofs, the Growing Green Guide, and IMAP, as well as providing councils with new ideas.



13. The University of Melbourne has created a new course, a Specialist Certificate in green roofs, walls and facades, which in part has leveraged off the Growing Green Guide for Melbourne project. This is increasing the number of skilled professionals in the industry.

14. The City of Melbourne and The University of Melbourne collaborated with Nursery and Garden Industry of Victoria to create a showpiece portable building with green roofs and walls for the Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show in March 2014. This allowed several hundred people to learn more about green roofs, walls and facades and leaves the university with a resource that they can use at future events.

Policy Reference Group

15. The Policy Reference Group continued to meet during 2014. The group focussed on developing wording that could be included in Municipal Strategic Statements and Local Planning Policies to encourage development of green roofs, walls and facades. The policy wording and intent that was agreed upon by officers in December 2014 can be seen in Attachment 3. Small variations are expected in wording as it is implemented, but intent will remain similar across the councils.

16. It is worth noting that wording around encouraging green roofs is already included in the Water Sensitive Urban Design local planning policy for the cities of Port Phillip, Yarra and Stonnington, and also in the Stonnington Council Plan.

17. The group also agreed to pursue including the Growing Green Guide as a reference document in the planning schemes.

18. The planning officers who make up the Policy Reference Group do not believe that investigation of some of the other planning options identified during the Growing Green Guide project are a priority at this stage, and only intend to reconvene as a group if this situation changes.



19. The continuation of the Policy Reference Group was intended to further the options for progressing joint policies and reporting back to the IMAP Implementation Committee with proposals for future work. To date the focus has been on exploring planning policy options. To ensure a wider discussion of policy options and project ideas, it would be appropriate to broaden the membership base to include sustainability officers, landscape architects, urban designers, statutory planners and other interested officers. A proposal for an expanded Green Roofs, Walls and Facades policy group with a broader brief than just planning is provided in Attachment 4. Support from the IMAP Implementation Committee to expand the group will help to ensure that officers invited to attend will understand that there is a clear purpose for the group and an expectation from their organisation that they should participate in order to contribute to IMAP.

Evaluation measures

20. IMAP councils do not have a formal measure in place to determine the medium and longer term impacts of the Growing Green Guide for Melbourne project or other related programs.

21. A measure of the success of the project in the medium term is whether more green roofs, walls and facades are being considered as part of building developments. The Green Roofs, Walls and Facades Policy Group could further explore the best way to implement evaluation measures. This could include:

a. Monitoring within planning teams in IMAP councils, to identify any change in community interest through counting the number of planning proposals including green roofs, walls and facades.

b. A measure should also be implemented to track the extent to which planners are informing customers about the Growing Green Guide.

22. A long term indicator of the success of green roof, wall and facade programs will be the number of new roofs, walls and facades built in the inner Melbourne area. During completion of the Growing Green Guide project the team developed a good idea of the number of green roofs currently in the region, via discussion with industry. However a replicable method for counting would provide a more accurate long term measure.

23. The City of Melbourne has investigated options to establish baseline data for green roofs via analysis of aerial images. Such a study could include analysis of other roof uses, such as solar panels, cool roofs, roof gardens/roof bars.

a. One option is crowd sourcing the information, which is relatively cheap and has potential to build public interest in green roofs and promote the City’s support for them. Individuals could analyse aerial images on behalf of the city. However the reliability of the data may be low and the success of establishing a comprehensive count is not assured (e.g. if we cannot garner enough public interest for participation).

b. Another option is to pay someone to collect the data. GHD, the firm engaged in the current City of Melbourne Rooftop Opportunities Study, has proposed creating a method to determine the number of green roofs based on computer analysis of aerial photography images, followed by detailed human review of the data. GHD have provided a quote to undertake this for the IMAP region (Attachment 5). There is about $15,000 in set up costs that could be shared across councils, and analysis has been estimated to cost $550-$1,050 per 1000 buildings analysed. The variation in cost depends on whether 3D modelling of the municipality exists or not. Note the City of Melbourne is estimated by GHD to have 15,000 buildings in total. Councils could choose to only have certain parts of their municipality analysed (e.g. ignoring areas with mainly sloping tiled residential roofs where green roofs are less likely). In future years only the analysis cost would be incurred, as the set up of a method would no longer be required.



Further opportunities

24. There are several opportunities for the IMAP council partners to build upon the legacy of the Growing Green Guide project and these opportunities could be built into future IMAP funding plans. They include:

Employment of an education and policy officer to support policy development across councils, to facilitate the proposed Green Roof, Wall and Facade Policy Group meetings, to:

a. maintain the project website,

b. instigate longer term monitoring and evaluation measures, and

c. develop training materials from the Growing Green Guide project for professional development.

Design and construction of one or more demonstration sites identified in the Growing Green Guide feasibility study. The four designs developed during the project have not been progressed as yet. However, the City of Stonnington is exploring options for greening above an underground car park.

Further development of the prototype green roofs app, partially developed as a student project during the Growing Green Guide for Melbourne project. The next step is to test the prototype with industry partners to improve the accuracy of the data that informs the app. Infographics will also need to be developed for the app.

Recommendations

25. That the IMAP Implementation Committee:

a. notes the progress of the Growing Green Guide for Melbourne project following its official completion in 2014.

b. supports a broader scope and membership of the green roof, walls and facades policy group, made up of a range of council officers, to progress policy options and identify new projects and funding opportunities to bring to the Committee for consideration

c. notes their support for the City of Melbourne’s green roof baseline measurement approach; and requests advice from the policy group on options for IMAP Council’s participation, in order to provide public information and initiate long term evaluation of the numbers of green roof developments across inner Melbourne.

d. notes the opportunities for follow-up IMAP projects, for consideration during the IMAP Review.



Attachment 1

Impact of the Growing Green Guide for Melbourne project Project Summary The Growing Green Guide for Melbourne Project developed Australia’s first best practice guidelines (the Growing Green Guide) to increase knowledge about and reduce the technical barriers to the design, maintenance and construction of green roofs, walls and facades. The Growing Green Guide is freely accessible and published under a Creative Commons Licence to allow others to use and update the content. The Growing Green Guide is Australia’s first set of guidelines for green roofs, walls and facades. Although guides exist in other parts of the world, the Growing Green Guide provides technical information that is relevant to the Victorian climate, and to local regulations. The Project also developed a policy options paper for use by councils, building developers and planners across Victoria, and it identified demonstration sites and developed concept designs for green roofs, walls or facades within the four partner council municipalities.

The project was a collaboration between state and local government, landscape architects, industry professionals, and The University of Melbourne. The project brought together a wide range of expertise, knowledge and experience to cooperatively develop best practice approaches to implementing green roofs, walls and facades in Victoria. The Growing Green Guide and other project outputs can be accessed at www.growinggreenguide.org Project Impact Awards:

Victorian Branch of the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects – winner of the Research and Communication category (2014)

Finalist: Victorian Adaptation and Sustainability Partnership Port Phillip Region (2014)

The project was included as one component of the City of Melbourne’s package of climate adaptation works that has been the recipient of two major awards: The inaugural national Banksia Foundation Award for Climate Change Adaptation (2013) and the international C40 & Siemens City Climate Leadership Awards – climate adaptation and resilience category (2014)

Downloads and website hits:

Over 10,000 downloads of the pdf document

1000-3000 unique visitors to the website per month, February 2014– January 2015 Media coverage:

32 online articles and references (e-newsletters, websites and social media)

2 radio programs

5 newspaper articles

1 magazine article International inquiries

China - re translating part of the guide

Argentina - re translating all of the guide

C40 climate network – webinar held in early 2014 about policy options

http://www.growinggreenguide.org/



Some of the Project Evaluation Results:

The Growing Green Guide for Melbourne project was widely seen to have led to new or improved relationships between councils, government agencies, universities and industry. The evaluation survey showed that the Project Control Group members felt engaged as collaborators in the process. All project partners felt a sense of ownership of the project, and reported that they had learned more about the topic area because of their involvement. The high level of engagement was considered a result of both the work of the project officer and the use of tools and processes such as the file sharing program Basecamp and the ability for Project Control Group members to participate in reference group meetings for deeper involvement in particular parts of the project.

Comments from Project Control Group members included:

“The results are beyond my initial expectations and show what can be achieved when a group of people with similar goals together with financial support and encouragement can achieve.” “This is perhaps the best example I have personally experienced of an IMAP or Victorian Adaptation and Sustainability Partnership project where stakeholders were actively engaged in a timely and effective way throughout the project.” “The sense of ownership has been amazing. I originally anticipated that there would be a sense of ownership in the PCG [Project Control Group] and hopefully a little beyond. What was more surprising for me was the significant uptake and promotion from all of the staff and industry experts in the reference groups. An unplanned result was with the contractors who were engaged to undertake pieces of work for the guide. From the design company, peer reviewers and architects, each have been promoting the guidelines on their websites, in conversations and wherever possible.”

The project was successfully delivered and the financial support from the VAS Partnership

was paramount for this to happen. It was widely acknowledged by Project Control Group members that employment of a project officer was crucial to the success of the project – VAS Partnership funding enabled this to happen.

The project contributed to building capacity and awareness within Council in relation to green roofs, walls and facades. Before and after surveys of Council staff in 2012 and 2014 showed that at completion of the project a lower proportion of people ranked themselves as having little knowledge about green roofs, walls and facades, - more people rated themselves as having a medium level of knowledge. There were also more people reporting that they were ‘extremely confident’ and fewer saying ‘not confident’ in response to the question about their confidence in providing information on green roofs, walls and facades to people outside of council.



Attachment 2

Output from the pilot Rooftop Adaptation Study – currently being developed as a map for the entire area of City of Melbourne.

Bourke St

William St

Collins St

Queen St



Attachment 3 Policy Reference Group recommendations for local planning policy wording, December 2014

All councils should use the term ‘green roofs, walls and facades’ (as opposed to alternatives such as roof top gardens and vertical gardens) to keep consistency with the booklet Growing Green Guide: A guide to green roofs, walls and facades in Melbourne and Victoria, Australia. All councils should make Growing Green Guide: A guide to green roofs, walls and facades in Melbourne and Victoria, Australia a reference document in their planning scheme. The ESD factsheet (8.1) on green roofs, walls and facades will be released shortly and could also be made a reference document. Wording in the Municipal Strategic Statement could be included around the following themes:

Encourage the use of green roofs, walls and facades on buildings where practicable (to be

irrigated with rainwater/stormwater) to enhance the role of vegetation on buildings in

managing the quality and quantity of stormwater.

Encourage the use of green roofs, walls and facades on buildings where practicable to

mitigate urban heat island effect.

Encourage the use of green roofs, walls and facades to contribute to biodiversity and habitat

creation.

Encourage the use of green roofs, walls and facades on buildings to provide opportunities for

food production, recreation and relaxation.

Encourage the use of green roofs, walls and facades to contribute to cleaner air and fewer

pollutants.



Attachment 4

Proposal for an expanded green roofs, walls and facades policy group Proposal: Establish a group of local government officers with an interest or expertise in encouraging greater uptake of green roofs, walls and facades across their municipality. The group will explore and implement policy options identified in the Growing Green Guide for Melbourne project’s Policy Options report. The group will share information, work together on new initiatives and to seek funding opportunities for joint projects. Scope: The officers meet bi-monthly, to discuss opportunities, solve problems and share information. Initially the City of Melbourne convenes and chairs the meetings however over time this role could be shared amongst councils. Governance: Governance under the IMAP Implementation Committee is proposed, to ensure the group has a clear reporting mechanism and place to deliver recommendations to. It may be appropriate to invite some other councils to participate even though the emphasis will be on Inner Melbourne, as other councils have expressed an interest in green roof development and could contribute knowledge and ideas (e.g. Cities of Booroondara and Geelong). Rationale: Collaboration is imperative to progress works related to green roofs, walls and facades as they tend to be minor green infrastructure projects for Councils. Yet this smaller type of green infrastructure can contribute to a range of policy and strategy goals (e.g. flood mitigation, urban cooling, biodiversity, open space) and many councils have an interest in promoting this type of green infrastructure, even if they do not have the budget for large scale projects. Working across councils will reduce duplication of effort. More information is brought to the table to share, and the workload for any one council is reduced if each council is not independently carrying out the same activities. Examples that City of Melbourne could share include a project that models roofs in the municipality deemed suitable for greening, and an analysis of incentives and other mechanisms to increase the uptake of sustainability in the building sector. These are examples of projects both directly and indirectly related to green roofs, walls and facades. A formal group of people meeting about policy development could take lessons from existing projects such as these, and apply them in their own municipality or across a precinct to encourage green roofs, walls and facades. Importantly, establishment of such a network is likely to help projects that require external funding. Partnerships are often favourably received by funding bodies when looking for maximum impact of their investment. Ultimately the group would be developing recommendations of projects that could be developed and submitted for funding applications as future IMAP projects.


Policy options to be explored - see full report about options at http://www.growinggreenguide.org/policy-option/

Catalyse Is the package

enough to break a habit and kick start

change?

Enable

Ensure local laws are not a barrier

Ensure the building and occupancy permit application process is not a barrier

Provide information and support

Create space for experimentation

Exemplify

Lead by example (demonstrate on public buildings)

Consistency of Council strategy and policy

Consistency of strategy and policy across different levels of government

Encourage

Direct financial incentives

Rebates on local fees and taxes

Encourage or require using the planning scheme

Engage

Public promotion

Work with building industry groups


Attachment 5

Quote for establishing baseline data on number of green roofs

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