A Green Tick In Antarctica

Any building with a tick of approval on the sustainability chart is great in our book. So when it comes to a building in Antarctica, we are impressed beyond belief.
Scott Base is New Zealand’s own slice of the great ice capital. A field research facility located on Pram Point near Mount Erebus that looks into the importance of earth sciences, climate change and environmental difference.

The base (which was founded in 1957) is in need of a ‘paint’ job, and the colour…green. Government initiatives, Antarctica New Zealand and New Zealand Green Building Council have been developing a brand new Custom Star tool to measure the sustainability of the new base. so what is a Custom Star tool? It’s the tick of approval that buildings get when they meet a code of healthily sustaining materials from the environment.

Of course this will come with its challenges, though. Antarctica is the coolest, windiest and driest place on earth. So that’s why it’s of great importance that a wide range of resources are used to create the new base.

“The new Green Star custom tool encourages the use of more sustainable materials, reduced waste, and more efficient systems,” says New Zealand Green Building Council Chief Executive Andrew Eagles, “designed to lower energy use. It promotes practices that would lower the new base’s contribution to climate change and enhances the health and wellbeing of the people living and working at Scott Base, some for up to 13 months before returning to New Zealand.”

The team at Antarctica New Zealand will present the custom tool at the Council of Managers of National Antarctic Programs (COMNAP) Virtual Conference this week during the ‘Antarctic Station Modernization Symposium’.