Do sustainability rating tools deliver the best outcomes in master planned urban infill projects? City to the Lake experience

ABSTRACT This paper examines the implementation of sustainability into urban communities that includes the use of sustainability assessment tools such as Green Star Communities (Green-Star). The literature is reviewed regarding the role that these types of tools play, including their challenges, implementation issues and suitability that may support the need for possible alternative processes. An analysis of the Green-Star rating tool was undertaken on the master-planned $8 billion City to the Lake (C2L) urban infill project in Canberra, Australia. Data was collected through a semi-structured interview process to gain an ‘insiders’ view of Green-Star. The analysis helped shed light on the performance of Green-Star on the C2L project and suggested that there is a need for an alternative process. The C2L analysis showed that whilst Green-Star had benefits, there were some perceived weaknesses that included a scoring system that may not reflect real project outcomes, point chasing mentality of designing to a list, implementation issues due to complexity and size of the project, localisation issues, difficulty in innovating and cost implications.