Green Star certification is fast becoming a visible marker of sustainability in the education sector. Parents, school boards, and governments increasingly view a Green Star rating not just as a design achievement, but as a statement of accountability showing that schools are meeting measurable national standards for energy, carbon, and indoor environmental quality.
The ACT Education Directorate has taken this commitment seriously in its new developments. At Strathnairn School, the project team is targeting a 5 Star Green Star Design & As Built rating, making it one of Canberra’s most advanced education facilities. The certification pathway covers everything from upfront embodied carbon reductions to operational efficiency, indoor air quality, water use, and long-term resilience.
Behind the scenes, modern building systems are central to achieving those outcomes. IES Automation is delivering the Building Management and Control System (BMCS) that integrates energy metering, HVAC optimisation, and environmental monitoring into a single platform. This ensures the school can track its energy performance, verify Green Star credits, and provide ongoing data to support future NABERS benchmarking.
A key part of the strategy is the introduction of demand response control within the BMCS. This forward-looking feature enables the school to respond to grid pressures by adjusting demand in real time. While invisible to students and staff, it has significant long-term implications for energy efficiency and cost management — reducing peak load, cutting emissions, and aligning the campus with the ACT’s broader transition to a low-carbon grid. For Strathnairn, the result is more than a new campus. It is a facility designed to demonstrate sustainability in action — where every system, from energy metering to ventilation, contributes to a measurable national benchmark. For IES Automation, it is another example of how smart controls and monitoring are not only technical requirements, but enablers of the education sector’s low-carbon future.