WT Sustainability’s (WTS) Sydney office has achieved a NABERS office tenancy rating of 6 Stars before the purchase of GreenPower.
A 6-Star rating is viewed as an aspirational target within the construction and property sectors, as very few developments actually achieve the rating. Only 22 other organisations nationwide have achieved a 6-Star rating for their office tenancies and of those only 3, including WTS, maintain their rating without GreenPower. Read more
NABERS has just announced the release of the new ‘NABERS Energy for Data Centres’ rating tools.
The three new tools include IT Equipment, Infrastructure and Whole Facility:
Download the NABERS Data Centre Rating Tool Factsheet or visit www.NABERS.gov.au to find out more.
Engineers love fads – and the latest is cogeneration/trigeneration. Whilst there is no doubt that a well thought through system can deliver significant financial and environmental benefits, the situation is not as rosy as some engineers might have us believe.
When confronted with a cogeneration/trigeneration proposal, life cycle costing analysis should always be undertaken. This however is not a simple exercise, and having just completed such an analysis on a high profile project in Canberra, we thought it prudent to highlight a couple of traps.
Our latest member of the WTS team, Pratik Shah, moved from his native India to Australia in early 2006 to study Sustainable Design. He is a qualified architect who has chosen to focus on Sustainability. With a Masters of Design Science from the University of Sydney, Pratik has worked on a number of sustainability projects ranging from a detached dwelling to a large correctional center and everything in between. If that’s not enough he is also a GreenStar Accredited Professional, is presently working towards LEED Accredited Professional Certification, was on the Green Building Council technical working committee on the development of the GreenStar ‘Communities’ rating tool and he continues to inspire upcoming professionals through his lecture and tutorials at the University of New South Wales.
In a previous post we introduced LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) – a suite of voluntary environmental rating tools for buildings and neighbourhoods (communities or precincts) from the USGBC (United States Green Building Council). It should not be confused with GreenStar, which is a suite of voluntary environmental rating tools for buildings and communities developed by the GBCA (Green Building Council of Australia).
Whilst elsewhere on our site we explore the differences between LEED and GreenStar, there is one subtle difference that can have a big impact – commissioning
Independent Commissioning Agents (ICA) are associated with GreenStar projects, whilst a Commissioning Authority (CxA) is associated with LEED projects. Both roles are setup to verify that the project’s energy related systems are installed, calibrated and perform according to the owner’s project requirements, basis of design and construction documents, but the roles do differ, and this has time and cost implications.
If a client asks you to quantify their carbon emissions, where do you start?
The recent introduction of a carbon ‘price’ takes us one step closer to full carbon accounting, and quantity surveyors may well find themselves in the firing line.
Carbon footprinting is still in its infancy and the rules around what should and should not be included are still being developed. A good starting point is the Publicly Available Specification or PAS 2050:2011.
The media has widely reported on the impact of the 1 July introduction of the carbon price mechanism on construction costs. One issue that hasn’t received the same level of publicity is the cost implications of the mechanism for synthetic greenhouse gases, which are used extensively in engineering services.
Our September 2011 report, Carbon in Construction, touched on the issue but a carbon charge based on an ‘equivalent carbon price’ will apply to all products containing these gases.
The Green Building Council of Australia (GBCA) released an update to their Multi Unit Residential V1 rating tool on the 22nd of June 2012. GreenStar has advised that projects are permitted to use the release which was current at the date of their registrations, or later.
The tool is aimed at residential high rise development, as they typically use thirty percent more power than an average detached house. The tool includes the following categories:
Many of you might have heard the term LEED being used on some of your projects. But what does that mean?
Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) is a third-party certification program and an internationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction and operation of high performance green buildings. It provides building designers, contractors and operators the tools needed to measure the sustainable impact their designs, construction work and operations have.