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A credible net-zero energy plan starts with a whole-system emissions budget, not a shopping list of technologies. The Australian Academy of Science’s framework combines engineering with economics, social science and humanities, then tests each action against affordability, reliability, sustainability, heritage and technical readiness. For buildings, its direction is clear—use less energy, electrify suitable loads and cut associated emissions—but it does not prescribe one universal technology package. The Academy’s Shine Dome project shows how those principles can be applied when a building’s national heritage significance is a binding design constraint.
What the Academy means by a net-zero plan
In its 18 October 2021 statement, Climate change and Australian science, the Australian Academy of Science argues that net zero requires an integrated plan across the economy and society. The plan must be evidence-based and explicit about constraints and trade-offs. That wording matters: a technically possible measure is not automatically affordable, reliable, socially acceptable or ready to deploy.
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The Academy calls for natural sciences, economics, social science and the humanities to work together. Natural science can establish emissions pathways and physical limits; engineering can test performance; economics can examine cost and investment; social research can reveal how people use energy and who bears the effects; and the humanities can help decision makers handle values, culture and place. A plan that omits one of these perspectives can shift emissions or costs rather than eliminate them.
Professor John Shine, then President of the Academy, captured the institution’s position in the announcement of its 2021 report: “A new report makes clear that while the planet is well on the path to harmful climate change, as with COVID-19, science has solutions.” The statement is an argument for applying solutions through a disciplined plan, not a claim that every solution is ready for every site.
The national actions your plan must account for
The Academy’s March 2021 executive summary, The risks to Australia of a 3°C warmer world, groups the transition into connected workstreams. A building plan should sit inside this wider map so that an apparent improvement on one ledger does not create a problem on another.
| Workstream | Direction identified by the Academy | Question for a plan |
|---|---|---|
| Electricity | Decarbonise electricity generation and supply. | What emissions factor and reliability assumptions will your building or portfolio use as the grid changes? |
| Transport | Electrify transport where practical. | Will charging demand, fleet operations or site access alter the building’s load profile? |
| Buildings and industry | Improve energy efficiency and reduce emissions; the announcement also identifies electrification. | Which loads can be reduced, controlled or moved from direct fossil-fuel use to electricity without compromising function? |
| Non-energy emissions | Address emissions that do not come from energy use. | Are refrigerants, industrial processes, waste, materials or other sources inside your boundary? |
| Negative emissions | Use negative-emissions options where appropriate. | What residual emissions remain after reduction, and what evidence supports any removal claim? |
| Land | Protect and restore land. | Could land-use decisions, vegetation or supply chains affect the plan’s net result? |
| Exports | Manage the transition of Australia’s energy exports. | Do procurement and investment choices account for system-wide transition risks? |
These are direction-setting categories, not a building specification. The report does not select a heat-pump model, solar array size, battery chemistry or control system for a particular Australian building.
A step-by-step method for designing the plan
1. Define the outcome and accounting boundary
Write down what “net zero” covers before choosing measures. A single building may include operational energy, refrigerant leakage, on-site fuels, purchased electricity and exported energy. A campus, landlord or government agency may also need embodied emissions, tenant activity, commuting, waste and procurement. State the geographic boundary, the baseline year, the reporting period and how renewable electricity and removals will be treated. If a source is outside the boundary, record it rather than silently ignoring it.
Set a hierarchy: first reduce demand and direct emissions, then address remaining emissions with measures that can be verified. This keeps an accounting claim from masking avoidable energy use.
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2. Establish a measured baseline
Collect utility bills, interval electricity data where available, fuel consumption, operating hours, occupancy, equipment inventories and maintenance records. Separate weather-driven demand from process or user-driven demand. Record missing data and uncertainty. A baseline should show energy by end use—heating, cooling, hot water, lighting, plug loads, lifts, kitchens and specialist equipment—rather than only an annual total.
For a portfolio, normalize the data so that a large, intermittently used facility is not judged by the same intensity metric as a small office. The Academy’s framework calls for evidence; a modeled estimate should be labelled as a model and checked against actual bills.
3. Map dependencies across the system
List interactions with electricity supply, transport, water, waste, land and industrial or tenant processes. Electrifying heating can reduce on-site fuel emissions while increasing peak electrical demand. A vehicle-charging program can change transformer requirements. A control upgrade can reduce consumption but create comfort or access issues if poorly commissioned. Document these links before ranking projects.
4. Reduce demand and improve efficiency
Prioritize actions that deliver the same service with less energy: repair the envelope where appropriate, improve controls and scheduling, commission mechanical systems, remove simultaneous heating and cooling, optimize lighting and maintain equipment. The exact intervention depends on construction, climate, occupancy and heritage significance. Efficiency is not merely a carbon measure; it can lower peak demand and make later electrification easier.
5. Electrify suitable services and cut direct emissions
Review gas, oil and other fossil-fuel uses one by one. Electrification may be suitable for space conditioning, hot water, cooking, vehicles or industrial processes, but the decision must test capacity, safety, resilience, equipment compatibility and user needs. Keep a documented exception where a service cannot yet be electrified or where doing so would damage a significant fabric or compromise a critical function. The Academy’s building guidance supports electrification as a direction, not as an automatic order to replace every system immediately.
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Include refrigerants, process gases, waste and material-related emissions when they are relevant to the chosen boundary. After reduction and electrification, quantify residuals and explain any negative-emissions or offset approach separately. Do not describe a purchase of renewable electricity or a removal claim as equivalent to eliminating on-site demand; each has a different evidence basis.
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7. Test trade-offs and readiness
Use a decision record for every proposed action. The Academy specifically highlights affordability, reliability, sustainability and social understanding, alongside the distinction between measures ready for deployment and those that still require development or research. A practical review should ask:
- What emissions reduction is expected, and how was it calculated?
- What capital, operating, maintenance and replacement costs are foreseeable?
- What happens during outages, extreme weather or equipment failure?
- Who experiences disruption, higher bills or reduced comfort?
- Is the technology commercially and technically ready for this duty cycle?
- What approvals, safety rules, planning controls or heritage consents apply?
8. Sequence, govern and revisit the plan
Publish a staged roadmap with an owner, budget range, dependencies, approval gate and measurement method for each action. Start with low-regret data, maintenance and controls work; schedule disruptive capital projects around major refurbishments; and reserve a review point for technologies whose performance or cost is still changing. Report actual energy and emissions against the baseline, explain deviations and revise assumptions rather than quietly changing the target.
What net zero means for a building
For a building, the Academy’s direction can be translated into three linked questions: how much energy can the building avoid, which remaining services can be electrified, and which emissions still need a credible treatment? The answer differs by climate, envelope, occupancy, equipment, grid conditions and use. A hospital, museum, laboratory and dwelling have different reliability and indoor-environment requirements.
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| Decision axis | Evidence to collect | Reason it changes the choice |
|---|---|---|
| Emissions | End-use energy, fuels, refrigerants and the applicable electricity factor. | Shows whether a measure cuts total emissions or only moves them between sources. |
| Efficiency | Equipment performance, controls, envelope condition and operating schedules. | Establishes the least-energy way to provide the required service. |
| Electrification | Available capacity, peak load, plant space, hot-water and process-temperature needs. | Determines which fossil-fuel services can change safely and economically. |
| Affordability | Capital, operating, maintenance and renewal costs, with uncertainty ranges. | Prevents a technically attractive project from becoming financially unworkable. |
| Reliability | Outage tolerance, backup requirements, critical loads and staff capability. | Protects essential operations while systems are changed. |
| Heritage and social value | Significance statements, fabric condition, user needs and consultation. | Defines what can be altered and whose interests must be protected. |
| Readiness | Evidence from comparable duties, warranties, skills and supply chains. | Separates deployable actions from options needing further development. |
What the Shine Dome case demonstrates
The Academy’s 15 November 2020 account, Towards net-zero emissions at Australia’s home of science, describes planning for the Shine Dome in Canberra, a National Heritage Listed landmark. The Academy committed to reducing its climate impact while working toward a net-zero future. The University of Canberra partnered with the Academy to develop a sustainability plan, and GHD and GML Heritage were named as project partners to assess the building and explore possible modifications.
The stated aim was progressive reductions in energy use and emissions while protecting and sustainably managing the Dome’s national heritage values. That pairing is the important lesson: heritage is not an after-the-fact approval hurdle but a design requirement that sits beside carbon and energy objectives.
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“A sustainability plan responsive to changing technologies ensures the Shine Dome continues to represent the scientific energy and experimentation of the Academy of Science.”
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The account records assessment and intentions to explore modifications. It does not report a final retrofit design, completed works, a measured baseline, verified energy savings or a completed net-zero outcome. Those results should not be inferred from the project description.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How to plan a net-zero pathway for a heritage building
The Shine Dome is a useful model for the questions to ask, not a template of technologies to copy. A heritage-sensitive process can be organized as follows.
- Understand significance. Obtain the statutory heritage listing, conservation documents and a significance assessment. Identify elements, views, materials and spaces where change would cause unacceptable loss.
- Document condition and performance. Survey the envelope and services, install non-destructive monitoring where appropriate, and establish how occupants use the building. Separate original fabric from later additions.
- Set performance targets. Define energy, emissions, comfort, moisture, lighting and operational requirements. State which targets are mandatory and which are aspirational.
- Generate reversible options first. Examine controls, scheduling, maintenance, shading, discreet services upgrades and operational changes before interventions that remove historic fabric. Reversibility is a risk-management principle, not a guarantee that every change will be approved.
- Model packages, not gadgets. Compare interactions among efficiency, electrification, on-site generation, storage and backup. Include peak demand, lifecycle replacement and embodied impacts where material.
- Review with heritage and building authorities. Test sightlines, penetrations, plant locations, fire safety, accessibility and code compliance. Record why a rejected option failed.
- Stage and monitor. Implement approved work in manageable phases, commission it, and compare measured performance with the baseline. Keep the conservation record and operating procedures current.
For a heritage property, the best package may deliver slower or different carbon reductions than a new building. That is a reason to make the trade-off visible and seek compensating reductions elsewhere in the portfolio—not a reason to claim that an untested intervention has succeeded.
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Common planning failures and how to correct them
Technology-first design
Failure: selecting a familiar technology before measuring demand or constraints. Correction: define the service, baseline the load and compare complete packages against emissions, cost, reliability and readiness criteria.
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Counting only electricity
Failure: declaring success after buying renewable electricity while ignoring fuels, refrigerants, process emissions or a boundary change. Correction: publish the accounting boundary and report each material source separately.
Ignoring heritage until approval
Failure: designing plant, penetrations or external equipment first and asking later whether the building can accept them. Correction: involve heritage specialists at the assessment stage and treat significance as a performance constraint alongside carbon.
Confusing ambition with evidence
Failure: presenting an intention to explore modifications as proof of savings. Correction: distinguish proposed, approved, installed and measured stages, and publish the measurement method for each claimed result.
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Failure: optimizing modeled energy use while reducing comfort, access or operational resilience. Correction: involve occupants and facilities staff, test outage scenarios and monitor indoor conditions after commissioning.
A concise decision checklist
- Is the net-zero boundary, baseline year and treatment of residual emissions written down?
- Does the plan cover electricity, building energy, relevant non-energy emissions and interactions with transport, land or industry?
- Have efficiency measures been tested before sizing new generation or storage?
- Are electrification opportunities assessed against capacity, reliability, safety and heritage constraints?
- Does every major action have an owner, sequence, approval path, cost range and measurement method?
- Does the plan identify which measures are ready now and which require further development or research?
- Are claims limited to installed and measured outcomes rather than intentions?
What to take from the Academy’s approach
The Australian Academy of Science supplies a policy-level framework and a carefully bounded project example. Its framework says net zero is an economy-wide transition requiring interdisciplinary evidence and explicit trade-offs. Its building direction is to improve efficiency, electrify appropriate services and reduce emissions without pretending that one design fits every site. The Shine Dome account adds a practical constraint: a heritage building must protect its significance while it changes.
Use those principles to build a transparent roadmap, then let measured performance, approvals and updated evidence determine the next step. That is more defensible than attaching a net-zero label to an untested technology list.
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