The CBD roadmap sets out the Australian Government’s vision for the future of the CBD program. The roadmap is part of the Built Environment Sector Plan under the Net Zero Plan. Developed in response to stakeholder feedback, the roadmap provides a staged approach for expanding the program to include a broader range of commercial building types.
The roadmap outlines:
- Key policy principles to guide future development.
- A staged approach to expansion that provides early signals to industry.
- Opportunities to reduce energy consumption and emissions in the commercial building sector.
- The legislative and regulatory steps required to support change.
The CBD roadmap reflects Australia’s broader climate commitments—supporting the transition to net zero by improving energy performance and transparency in the built environment. It will also inform future regulatory impact analysis, and ongoing engagement with stakeholders across multiple sectors.
- Commercial Building Disclosure Program Policy Roadmap to expand mandatory disclosure of commercial building energy performance rating [PDF]
- Commercial Building Disclosure Program Policy Roadmap to expand mandatory disclosure of commercial building energy performance rating [Word]
Frequently asked questions
The Australian Government has set out in the Net Zero Plan how we will achieve a fair, orderly and efficient transition to net zero that builds on Australia’s strengths and ensures all Australians benefit. All segments of the economy will need to reduce their emissions to meet this goal.
In Australia, non-residential buildings contribute around 10% of total emissions in the economy, most of this outside the office sub-sector, representing significant opportunities to decarbonise.
Mandatory disclosure of NABERS energy ratings through the program has correlated with significant improvements in energy efficiency and emissions reductions.
Disclosing energy efficiency ratings provides everyone with access to easy to understand, benchmarked and meaningful information about a building’s performance. Disclosed information could be useful to a variety of interested cohorts to reduce energy bills, reduce emissions and inform investment decisions. This includes:
- Tenants: prospective tenants can use disclosed information to choose energy efficient buildings. Current tenants can use their benchmarked tenant energy use to reduce energy bills and pursue their own net zero goals.
- Owners of building assets: disclosure may prompt action from owners themselves, to target action within their own asset portfolio and prioritise building energy performance.
- Banks and investors: are increasingly interested in publicly available and credible information to inform their sustainable investments.
There are no immediate changes to the CBD program. The government will continue to engage with stakeholders to inform ongoing policy development required to expand the CBD program.
Future expansion to other building types and ownership groups will require amendment to the Building Energy Efficiency Act 2010 and Building Energy Efficiency Regulations 2010 and may also require the making of new determinations under the Act.
From 14 June to 13 September 2024, the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water carried out public consultation to gather views on whether the CBD program should be expanded, and how that expansion could be achieved. The CBD roadmap also draws on previous independent reviews. For more information about the consultation, visit the review page.
The government will consider the case for including all major building types in the CBD Program and implement changes where the inclusion is found to be beneficial.
Detailed costing analysis will be conducted as part of the regulatory impact analysis required to implement changes to the program.
For more information about the current program visit the About the Program page.
Public consultation on the proposed expansion was conducted in 2024, with feedback provided during the consultation directly informing the development of the roadmap.
For more information about the 2024 consultation visit the CBD review page.
As the roadmap for expanding the CBD program sets the overall policy direction of the CBD program for the next 10 years and guides its future expansion, your feedback will be useful in progressing its implementation.
We encourage you to provide any further feedback about CBD expansion or the roadmap to the CBD team: commercial.buildings.team@dcceew.gov.au.