Melbourne Convention Centre Sets a New Global Standard for Sustainability

In the highly competitive Business Events market, hundreds of cities around the world are vying to attract global attention and a larger slice of the meetings market. Melbourne, one of the World's Most Livable Cities -- according to The Economist -- has found a way to not only be noticed, but to set a global benchmark. Responding to the international call for sustainability, the Australian city has opened the 'greenest' convention center in the world, described in superlatives everywhere for its architectural design, cutting-edge technologies and comprehensive 'Earth-friendly' services.

Opened in June 2009 and integrated with the Melbourne Exhibition Centre, the Melbourne Convention Centre (MCC) is the first convention center to earn a '6-Star, Green-Star' environmental rating from the Green Building Council of Australia. To put that rating in perspective, it's higher even than the Platinum LEED certification, the highest level recognized by the U.S. Green Building Council.

"The Victorian government set out to raise the bar another notch, to build a center that defied all earlier definitions of green," says Leigh Harry, the chief executive of the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre (MCEC), of which the convention center is now a part. "We're confident we have achieved that goal."

NH Architecture and Woods Bagot designed the MCC to surpass existing centers when it came to environmental sustainability and innovation. The wood veneer paneling used throughout the facility comes from sustainable timber. The building's mechanics are no less cutting-edge, the result of years of planning, research and, in some cases, pure invention.

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Source: MarketWatch, 2009-09-02, Link