Many councils have adopted the BESS tool and the STORM tool to be used to assess ESD and WSUD in most planning permit applications. BESS and STORM are sustainable design assessment tools with agreed targets developed in conjunction with the Municipal Association of Victoria and Melbourne Water, to ensure new developments meet improved sustainability and Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD) benchmarks compared with what has been common with conventional development over the last few decades.

EcoResults uses these tools, and other tools where relevant, to assess just how sustainable a new design will be, and to quickly see what can feasibly be done to improve the energy efficiency, water efficiency, waste efficiency, livability and running costs of the proposed development. We do this in conjuction with your architect, engineers, landscape architect, and other consultants, to advise on what will be required to meet the council's requirements.

A STORM or MUSIC rating can be used to demonstrate that the proposed development will comply with the Council's WSUD and/or ESD policies, and is incorporated into one of our ESD reports. The STORM tool has some inherent limitations that mean that it isn't always able to provide accurate or practical results. For example it has a limited range of WSUD treatment options, it isn't able to model WSUD treatment trains and if rainwater tanks are used it always assumes these are plumbed to toilets, which may not be practical or possible in reality. As a result, MUSIC modelling is sometimes required, especially for complex sites or developments with a high proportion of hardstand such as large townhouse estates and industrial developments.

For most developments a report stating how the development complies is also be required. For more information on these reports see WSUD Reports, Sustainable Design Assessments (small and medium developments) and Sustainability Management Plans (large developments). Let us do the hard work for you.