Marcel Russ
Managing Director, Lucindale Holdings
EarthCheck Design certified buildings leave a legacy of sustainability, health and community in the places they’re built.
EarthCheck’s award-winning Building Planning and Design Standard (BPDS) provides guidelines, tools and indicators to assist designers, architects and developers in the planning and design phase of buildings.
Our science-based approach helps you benchmark and certify projects including tourism, commercial, retail, residential, and small mixed-use developments.
Early assessment helps minimise sustainability risks and ensures sustainable outcomes, while still achieving project objectives.
EarthCheck BPDS ensures projects that achieve certification are designed to meet or exceed best practice performance benchmarks for the building type and location.
EarthCheck Design certified projects follow five phases:
To award certification, EarthCheck requires projects to meet all of the mandatory criteria, and a minimum of 170 credits in the Key Performance Areas.
Three certification levels are available:
The EarthCheck BPDS allows you to predict the potential impacts of the project and to identify opportunities for improved sustainability performance and design. The BPDS enables projects to protect as well as enhance natural and heritage assets, as well as ensure no onset of biodiversity and environmental harm.
The BPDS framework with all its benefits takes a proactive and innovative approach to tackling climate change and improvements across the triple bottom line.
Marcel Russ
Managing Director, Lucindale Holdings
There are more than 476 million Indigenous Peoples, found in all regions of the world, from the Arctic to the tropical forests. They make up more than 6 per cent of our global population.
In the spirit of reconciliation, EarthCheck acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout the world and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Indigenous Peoples today.
EarthCheck acknowledges that Indigenous Peoples are guardians of the forests and biodiversity hotspots we all depend on. Research shows that lands managed by Indigenous Peoples, with secure rights, experience lower deforestation rates, store more carbon, hold more biodiversity, and benefit more people than other lands — including protected areas.
We recognise and support the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), the most comprehensive international instrument on the rights of Indigenous Peoples. The Declaration is a positive document that maps out a path for Indigenous Peoples to be free from discrimination and secure in their identities and life choices.
EarthCheck science and products were developed by the Australian Government Sustainable Tourism Co-operative Research Centre (STCRC) over ten years. Our science is reviewed annually to ensure that it meets international standards relative to greenhouse gas protocols, responsible tourism, and certification.
EarthCheck products and services are built on the Agenda 21 principles for Sustainable Development endorsed by 182 Heads of State at the United Nations Rio De Janeiro Earth Summit in 1992 and aligned to the SDGs.
EarthCheck Certified provides a framework for organisations to achieve the desired outcomes for sustainable development as set out in the final report of the World Summit for Sustainable Development held in Johannesburg in 2002.
EarthCheck Certified complies with the Mohonk Agreement (2000), which outlines the guidelines and principles for an international sustainable tourism certification program. It is also a Recognised program of the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC).
EarthCheck Certified is a verification standard accepted by CDP. It is also an approved program of the Certification and Accreditation Administration of the People’s Republic of China (CNCA), London & Partners, the Mexican Secretary of Tourism (SECTUR) and the City of Sydney.
EarthCheck Certified is an approved program for meeting the EU Energy Directive for the Federal Office for Economic Affairs and Export Control (Bundesamt für Wirtschaft und Ausfuhrkontrolle – BAFA) in Germany and the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy) in the Netherlands.
EarthCheck partners with international research organisations to maintain the currency of EarthCheck science and our benchmarking systems.
The EarthCheck brand signifies scientific excellence, better environmental, economic, and social performance, improved community interactions, and savings through more efficient use of resources. It provides recognition and promotional support to a global consumer market.
