On 19th June 2019 the Design for Performance initiative held an event to hear from leading Australian experts how NABERS has achieved market transformation in the energy efficiency of the Australian commercial office market and hear how the Better Buildings Partnership plans to bring a 'design-for-performance' approach to the UK. 

A major limitation of the UK’s current regulatory framework and voluntary standards that aim to improve the energy efficiency of commercial buildings is that they fail to measure, rate and disclose operational performance – the amount of energy a building actually uses. This has resulted in a ‘design-for-compliance’ culture and a ‘Performance Gap’ whereby a building’s measured energy consumption is considerably higher than the original design intent.

The Design for Performance (DfP) initiative was established in 2015 as an industry backed programme to learn from Australia’s success driven by the NABERS rating scheme and the commitment of developers to set targets for new buildings and verify their energy performance in use. The feasibility study and live-testing of DfP principles on multiple office developments demonstrated that there is an urgent need to bring a 'design-for-performance' approach to the UK.

The presentation from the event can be found below.