Office Towers Go Green
Thursday, 13 December 2007 19:17
“We welcome the leadership that commercial property is taking in the fight against global warming – it’s a landmark for the property sector and Australia’s battle against climate change,” said Jeff Angel, Executive Director of the Centre.
The collaboration (Existing Buildings Project: Commercial Property and Climate Change) involves the Australian Prime Property Fund (Lend Lease), Becton Property Group, The GPT Group, Local Government Superannuation Scheme, and Macquarie Office Trust, who have committed to upgrade the greenhouse gas emission performance of their existing office buildings to challenging levels of performance.
“This scheme involves 68 office buildings throughout Australia’s capital cities that collectively account for over one eighth of Australia’s entire investment grade office floor space. Estimated initial savings from base buildings alone are over 50,000 tonnes of CO2 equivalent per year”.
“Recently, the trend has been to erect new ‘green buildings’, and while this is encouraging, up to 98% of existing floor space is accounted for by inefficient property stock. The most climate friendly buildings are existing buildings that have been retrofitted and upgraded to achieve significant greenhouse emission abatement, because new buildings require new materials and construction which accounts for a lot of greenhouse gas emissions”.
“In the past few years we have witnessed the rise of both public and private sector concern about the greenhouse performance of office buildings. Emissions from the non-residential building sector, of which office buildings are the largest contributor, are predicted to double from 1990 levels by 2010. Action is urgent,” Mr Angel said.
“If all Australian office buildings were upgraded to achieve an ABGR of 4.5, Australia could achieve emissions reductions commensurate with taking almost its entire heavy trucking fleet off its roads.”
Michael Richardson, APPF Commercial Portfolio Manager: "Becoming a formal participant allows us to engage with the investment community, via an independent framework, on methods to optimise both environmental and economic outcomes for the benefit of all stakeholders.”
Brian Harris, Chair of the Local Government Superannuation Scheme: “Sustainable investing is a key concern for our members and one of our prime objectives, as such the Local Government Superannuation Scheme is delighted to participate in this initiative.”
Adrian Taylor, CEO of Macquarie Office Trust: "Macquarie Office Trust welcomes the opportunity to publicly commit to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions, and I commend the leadership demonstrated by the participants of the TEC's - Existing Buildings Project.”
Tony Cope, GPT Group’s Head of Office: "The greatest challenge facing the property industry today is to make a quantum step in greening existing buildings to ensure they are sustainable in the future, this program is providing that framework.”
Hamish Macdonald, CEO of Becton Property Group: "Becton is exploring and introducing exciting environmentally focused initiatives across all parts of our business. While these activities are a solid start to achieving true environmental sustainability, the important journey we have committed to is just beginning.”
Other property groups have signed up to participate in a workshop series to be held throughout 2008 to learn about the driving factors behind the upgrading of existing buildings and how they can take the practical steps to improve the emissions profile of their assets.
The project is being funded by a NSW Government Climate Action Grant.
For a full list of buildings click here [PDF 18.2Kb].
For a list of Frequently Asked Questions click here [PDF 34.2Kb].
