Green Capital

Lessons and tools from existing office building leaders (2011)

The Total Environment Centre is currently undertaking a project funded by the Office of the Environment and Heritage (Environmental Trust). Aimed at engaging with the lower performance office sector this project will profile leaders, in Sydney, that have successfully upgraded or are in the process of upgrading their lower performance property to achieve a NABERS rating of 4 stars.

The outcome the project is the development of an education package for C & D Grade office owners and managers, designed to increase informed decision making and stimulate improvements in the environmental performance of their existing buildings.

To date this project has received considerable interest and has now secured partnerships with the City of Sydney Council, Parramatta City Council, as well as the Warren Centre who was responsible for the Low Energy High Rise (LEHR)study. We have also welcomed the strong interest and involvement offered by Colonial Mutual First State, AMP, and Jones Knight Frank, Lang LaSalle, Colliers International & Savills property groups.

This is an important building sector to motivate. The Low Energy High Rise (LEHR)study found that C&D Grade buildings represents over 50% of building stock by number, with many buildings being at the end at end of a 20-25 year life cycle and due for refurbishment.

The TEC recognises that the environmental benefit of upgrading suitable low performance buildings far outweighs the option of demolishing and building a new high performance 'green' building. Craig Roussac of Investa has quantified that a new high performance 'green' building will take in the order of 100+ years to recoup its embodied energy debt, before its high efficiency is finally realised.

This project will take case studies of buildings that have upgraded with environmental concerns in mind, looking at what was done, what were the motivations to consider environmental concerns, and what were the outcomes (with measured data, cost savings where possible). Information on drivers and of barriers, as well as current State and Commonwealth financial incentives will also presented in the education package.

The building case studies and information from industry experts will be used at educational forums for owners of C&D grade buildings in early 2012. There will also be downloadable files available on the TEC's Green Capital website.

We hope that this project will in some part make the path of existing office building leaders able to be followed by others.

For more information please contact the Project Manager: Matt Fisher – This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Lessons from Leaders Report 2010

To download the full report click here

The Total Environment Centre (TEC) has utilised its award winning Existing Buildings Project (EBP), to garner the lessons from leading property fund managers to share learnings on how they retrofitted existing buildings for sustainability. The result is this report and four detailed case studies, which describe the journeys of four commercial properties in the Sydney CBD:

With commercial buildings accounting for around 10% of Australia’s total GHG emissions, improving energy efficiency in this sector will make an important contribution to meeting Australia’s overall emissions reductions objectives (DCCEE 2011). According to the PCA (2001), commercial buildings in Australia generate more than 35 million tonnes of CO2 a year, and GHG emissions are expected to continue to increase. Commercial ‘office type’ buildings are a significant contributor, responsible for around 27% of the total sectors emissions in 1990 (AGO 1999). Additionally the financial underpinnings of office buildings will improve with energy efficiency.

The findings and key learnings from our project are intended to contribute to the store of knowledge to help building owners, in particular those of older commercial building stock, on a path to reduce the environmental footprint of their existing buildings and to future proof the building sector for a low carbon economy.  To date there has been little attention paid to older and lower grade commercial buildings. For example, C and D Grade buildings were under represented in the Low Energy High Rise project (LEHR) survey with only 5% of C and 0% of D Grade buildings represented (compared to some 36% and 15% respectively in the total sector population). However, C and D buildings account for about 20% of Australia’s total commercial net lettable area (NLA) and anecdotal evidence indicates that they may have a greater energy saving potential per m2 than the higher grade buildings (LEHR Study Report, 2009).

The Lessons from Leaders project asked ‘how can we capture and use the experiences of frontrunners in the sustainability existing building industry to inspire and educate others?’

Three case study buildings were selected, from portfolios that signed up to TEC’s Existing Buildings Project and one commercial office building owned by the City of Sydney. A series of interviews were carried out with building managers, portfolio managers and other relevant stakeholders, including each building’s tenants.

The project consisted of five phases: