About STEPS

STEPS is an interactive, user-friendly, web-based residential building sustainability rating tool developed as part of the Moreland Sustainable Tools for Environmental Performance Strategy (STEPS) project.

The web-based tool provides a comprehensive assessment of the environmental performance of a given planning application, and generates a report, which offers relevant information for increasing the sustainability performance of the proposed dwelling. The tool has a vital role to play in simplifying the approval authority process and streamlining applications.

STEPS awards scores for the five most critical elements in constructing environmentally sustainable dwellings. These include greenhouse emissions from operating energy, peak energy use, mains (drinking) water use, stormwater quality impacts, and building materials impacts. The program also calculates the number of bicycle places required and the area need to provide for waste recycling services.

STEPS is a Moreland City Council initiative. Ark Resources, Integrated Urban Management (IUM), Centre for Design RMIT and GHD Pty Ltd have provided expert advice and technical information to enable the development of the tool.

STEPS Towards Simple Planning…

In response to mounting global environmental pressure Moreland City Council and the City of Port Phillip have recognised the benefits in combining their resources, knowledge, and skills-base to work together to achieve a common goal of encouraging and attaining positive sustainable built environment outcomes through the planning process. This collaboration has resulted in a consistent and integrated approach to assessing the sustainability of development applications in our municipalities through the use of STEPS for residential and the Sustainable Design Scorecard (SDS) for non-residential developments.

Both Councils formally adopted STEPS and the SDS as the preferred method of sustainability assessment in November 2005 and have endorsed a recommendation to support and engage other local governments and industry in the use of the tools.

As well as the STEPS and SDS assessment tools, Moreland City Council has also prepared a draft Planning Scheme Local Policy that will require new planning applications to achieve a specified level of sustainability performance. In addition to this, supporting documentation explaining the use and application of the STEPS and SDS has also been prepared.