Australian approach to sustainable design professional development education

Through a parallel process of regulatory change and growing consumer demand, the Australian building industry is rapidly accepting its responsibility to reduce its environmental impact. However, there is a large gap between excellence in sustainable design and the average industry participant's ability to implement it. In 2005, the Australian Government and the University of Technology Sydney partnered with the local building industry to create the Building Industry Training in Sustainability, a world-class professional development programme for builders, designers and architects on sustainable residential buildings. This paper identifies the policy drivers that lead to the creation of the training programme, the partnership approach between government, academia and industry, the intellectual basis underpinning the development of training courses, and the unique delivery arrangement that provides high quality training opportunities to practitioners to all regions of Australia. In particular, the paper explores the role of education design in shifting practice.