The Australian Sustainable Built Environment Council (ASBEC) is active in developing and pursuing practical responses to achieve sustainability across all elements of the built environment, informed by our strategic plan.
Co-designed with ASBEC members, employees, Board, and industry leaders, ASBEC’s 2026-2030 Strategic Plan simplifies our focus into three high-impact strategic priorities. Looking towards 2030, the built environment needs to be:
- Accelerating decarbonisation
- Enhancing resilience and adaptation to climate change risk
- Transitioning towards a circular economy
The 2026-2030 focus areas to help achieve our strategic priorities include:
- Skills and capability
- Technology and innovation
- Finance and investment
- Better regulation, codes and standards
- Leadership and influence
ASBEC collaborates for impact via our:
- Council meetings
- Online policy forum
- Market segment committees, such as Infrastructure Net Zero (INZ) and the Community Housing Climate Action Network (CHCAN)
- Project working groups, steering committees and workshops
- Advocacy reference group
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ASBEC has a proud legacy of leading industry policy development, research and submissions, including:
- Low Carbon, High Performance, outlining the potential for the built environment to reduce Australia’s emissions and a roadmap for net zero emissions buildings by 2050.
- Built to Perform: An Industry Led Pathway to a Zero Carbon Ready Building Code, quantifying the opportunities of establishing a clear, consistent and ambitious long-term plan for the energy requirements in the National Construction Code (NCC).
- Growing the market for sustainable homes, outlining a transition roadmap to build the market for sustainable homes.
- Bang for Buck, highlighting a suite of practical interventions to realise more value from our infrastructure investments.
- Reshaping Infrastructure, exploring what a net zero emissions future for infrastructure in Australia might involve, and A Solid Foundation, outlining a shared understanding of what net zero means, including the infrastructure sector’s role in managing and reducing carbon emissions.
- Ratings Snapshot, a summary document outlining built environment sustainability frameworks commonly used in Australia.
- Unlocking the Pathway, a collection of technical and economic analysis to identify that electrification is the lowest cost, fastest emissions reduction pathway for Australia’s built environment.
- Embodied carbon emissions in Australia’s built environment, an issues paper, and Our Upfront Opportunity, a comprehensive policy framework outlining actions to successfully tackle embodied carbon and to achieve Australia’s commitment to net zero carbon emissions by 2050.
- Delivering Net Zero Infrastructure, a skills and capability workforce report outlining recommendations to help upskill and grow Australia’s net zero infrastructure workforce.
Past activities from previous Strategic Plans have included research and policy development in the following areas:
- Sustainable, decarbonised communities
- Improving our existing building stock
- Effective regulation, codes and standards
- Realising the economic benefits of better building energy efficiency, by implementing a policy roadmap to significantly cut carbon emissions and improve energy productivity.
- Improving the long-term productivity, liveability and sustainability of cities, urban communities and their underpinning infrastructure.
- Driving demand for more sustainable, liveable and innovative residential development and housing.
- Supporting a transition towards net zero buildings.
- Growing the market for sustainable housing across all typologies and sectors.
- Improving and enforcing energy efficiency requirements in the Building Code.
- Integrated sustainable and climate resilient economic and social infrastructure.