Accessibility | Skip to primary navigation | Skip to main content | Skip to footer |
What's on City of Melbourne

Developing sustainable solutions for apartments

Did you know?

More than 70 per cent of residents in our municipality live in high-rise apartments. The residential sector in the City of Melbourne accounts for:

  • 22 per cent of the city’s water consumption
  • nine percent of greenhouse gas emissions (just over half a million tonnes of CO2 equivalent)
  • more than 14,000 tonnes of waste sent to landfill each year

We’re committed to helping our community become more sustainable. Retrofitting these apartment buildings to become more sustainable is critical to helping us achieve our Eco-City goals.

In 2008, the City of Melbourne ran a pilot project aimed at learning how to make our apartments more sustainable. The project, called SLiC (Sustainable Living in the City), developed valuable case studies documenting opportunities for low-cost retrofits in apartment buildings and provided valuable insights into the unique complexities of apartment living (see fact sheets below).

We realised apartment buildings face unique barriers in achieving sustainability upgrades, which until now has prevented reftrofits from taking place.

Facing the challenge

The City of Melbourne has responded to the challenge with Hi-RES (Higher-density Residential Efficiency Solutions). Through this program we aim to build on our previous learnings to develop and test scalable solutions to transform our city’s apartment buildings to be more sustainable.

In May 2011 a workshop was held with approximately 60 diverse stakeholders.  Attendees mapped and dissected the various barriers to implementing sustainability upgrades in apartment buildings and brainstormed a number of potential solutions.  Outcomes from this workshop can be found in the report listed below.

We want to continue to work with interested stakeholders within government, the community and private sector to help co-create solutions that deliver sustainable change to this sector.

Hi-RES

The Hi-RES project is an initiative of the City of Melbourne, City of Yarra, City of Port Phillip, Moreland Energy Foundation, Owners Corporations Victoria and Yarra Energy Foundation and is supported by the Victorian Government Sustainability Fund, managed by Sustainability Victoria.

Workshop outcomes report – 18 May 2011 (PDF, 279kb) This link opens in a new browser window 
Workshop outcomes report – 18 May 2011 (text only, 137kb) This link opens in a new browser window

Hi-RES expressions of interest 

The expression of interest period is now closed.

Proposals received through the Hi-RES EOI process and are currently in development include:

  • financial solutions for whole-of-building retrofit projects in apartment buildings
  • online owners corporation sustainability tool kit
  • a good practice guide for facilities management in multi-unit residential blocks 
  • engagement tools for energy services companies specifically tailored for owners corporations.

The City of Melbourne extends its thanks to all organisations who expressed interest in taking part in the Hi-RES project.

SLiC fact sheets

Things you can do to be more sustainable (PDF, 109kb)
Things you can do to be more sustainable (text only, 11kb)

Improving the efficiency of centralised hot water systems:
Ring mains balancing (PDF, 127kb)

Improving the efficiency of lighting in hallways and foyers:
Common area lighting (PDF, 164kb)

Car park lighting:
Car park lighting fact sheet (PDF, 249kb)

Case study: Spring St Towers

How Spring St Towers acheived some great savings through the SLIC program:
Spring St Towers case study (PDF, 200kb)