Climate change & energy
Energy efficiency in existing buildings
The energy used in our existing portfolio of buildings is a significant contributor to our carbon footprint. We are therefore committed to improving energy efficiency in these buildings, as well as our new developments.
Regulation, in the form of the Federal Government's Energy Efficiency Opportunities Act (EEO), has led to a review of energy efficiency opportunities being undertaken across our Commercial Property portfolio. The EEO program requires technical energy savings evaluations and the implementation of a continuous improvement process. Our office and retail assets participate in the program and assessments are undertaken on selected sites on a rolling annual basis.
Opportunities with paybacks of four years or less are investigated and considered for inclusion in operating and capital budgets. More information on energy efficiency regulation can be found on our regulation page.
Energy efficiency in existing buildings
Office
We use NABERS as a tool to benchmark building energy performance and to help us develop asset action plans. NABERS is a performance-based ratings system that measures existing buildings' environmental performance during operation. In FY08 we committed to achieving a NABERS Energy portfolio average rating of 3.5 Stars for the 2008 calendar year, and developed action plans for strategic assets with a NABERS rating of less than that target. The plans aim to improve their performance through capital investment in energy-saving technologies such as lighting controls or variable speed drives on electric motors.
Ultimately we achieved a NABERS Energy portfolio average rating of 3.4 Stars for 2008. In improving the average of our entire portfolio we have faced the challenge of progressively expanding the portfolio of buildings we include in our average rating. We originally set our 3.5 Star NABERS Energy portfolio average target for a smaller portfolio of buildings, which have since achieved a 3.6 Star NABERS Energy portfolio average.
We broadened our targets in last year's report to include all Stockland managed buildings, and this year in response to the National Greenhouse and Energy Rating System (NGERS) we are broadening targets to include all buildings for which we have 'operational control' under the NGERS legislation. Forty-nine per cent of this NGERS-defined portfolio is included in our NABERS Energy portfolio average, and we are working to improve this proportion over the next 12 months. We have set a medium-term target of a 5 Star NABERS Energy office portfolio average by FY14.
As NABERS results are calendar year based, we also set intensity targets based on financial year performance. In our FY08 report we committed to reducing the energy intensity of our office portfolio by 8 per cent in FY09. We achieved this target with a 10 per cent reduction in energy intensity for all assets within our NGERS boundary.
Green Building Fund
The Green Building Fund is a federal government program to help commercial office buildings reduce their energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. Grants from the Green Building Fund are used to refit commercial office buildings with more energy-efficient fittings to help reduce energy consumption. Applications for 452 Flinders Street, 175 Castlereagh Street and Garden Square in Sydney were successful. The works will be completed in FY10.
Retail
We measure the energy efficiency performance of our retail centres through monthly energy usage reports. We undertook energy audits of 19 retail centres in FY08, and as a result have implemented initiatives such as installing energy-efficient lighting in car parks and malls which will result in an approximate reduction of 8 per cent of our total base building energy use over the period FY07 to FY09.
Despite this improvement, we still have more work to do to meet our targets. Last year we made a commitment to reduce our energy consumption by 5 per cent, and whilst this was achieved for overall usage, we only achieved a 3 per cent reduction in electricity and greenhouse gas emissions intensity. The greater reduction in overall consumption is due to a reduction in the size of the portfolio over FY09.
Raising the environmental performance of our entire portfolio
We are committed to minimising the environmental impacts of our properties and projects and raising the environmental performance of our entire portfolio, rather than developing isolated green flagships. Our goal is to embed a consistent approach to environmental management across the organisation.
This means driving energy and water efficiency and reducing consumption across the lifecycle of our properties and projects including:
The case studies highlight some of the energy efficiency initiatives we have undertaken at the different stages of the lifecycle in the reporting period. As a developer of new and existing sites, we have a significant capacity to shape environmental outcomes. For sites we manage, our main contribution is in working with tenants to increase energy efficiency.
Energy efficiency in our UK portfolio
In the UK we have continued to collect data to monitor the carbon footprint for the 23 highest energy-consuming assets in our portfolio. We are now identifying ways to reduce this consumption and have engaged consultants to carry out independent sustainability audits across our assets. The recommendations from these audits form the basis for asset-specific Sustainability Plans which document the sustainability activities that will be undertaken in the coming year to reduce the energy, water and waste consumption of the asset. In the year to June 2009, 10 audits were conducted, with more scheduled for the coming year.
The sustainability audits were one of the suggestions from workshops held with our asset management and major projects teams in FY09. The workshops aimed to engage the teams in emerging and current environmental regulations, broader industry practices and how our UK business should respond. The outputs from the workshops are being used to shape our strategy.
CASE STUDY
Sites we redevelop -
Stockhome and Tri-generation
In December 2008, our Sydney office, Stockhome, achieved 6 Star Green Star Office Interiors v1.1 as awarded by the Green Building Council of Australia. This was the first office to achieve the 'World Leadership' ranking in this tool and the Minister for Environment, Heritage and Arts, Peter Garrett, came to our office to announce the certified rating.
A major innovation in the redevelopment was the installation of a tri-generation plant, which began operating in May 2009. Tri-generation is where a gas-fired generator produces electricity on-site, and the waste heat is used to provide heating and cooling. The tri-generation plant has the capacity to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions by 1,100 tonnes of CO2 per year. We will commence reporting annual performance data in our FY10 report.
Stockhome also achieved a 5 Star NABERS Energy rating as part of the City Switch program (using 17 per cent green power as the tri-generation plant was not operational in 2008). Analysis completed by the University of Technology in Sydney found that 92 per cent of employees rated the environmental features of Stockhome as important to them. Perceived productivity increased to 7.21 per cent from -2.38 per cent as a result of employees perceptions of their workspace.
The Melbourne office is currently finalising its Green Star Office Interiors assessment. As the Green Star Interiors tool rates the as-built design, and due to the complexity of fit-outs, we have discovered that these ratings are time consuming to complete.
CASE STUDY
Sites that we manage -
Forster Shopping Centre
Located on the mid-North coast of New South Wales, we purchased Forster in 2003, and began redevelopment in February 2006. The redevelopment provided an opportunity for us to optimise energy efficiency within the centre.
Through the implementation of simple measures, energy usage dramatically improved within a short time. The measures included:
- Designing a natural ventilation scheme. The development team designed the centre so that it would harness the prevailing breezes through high-level louvres to draw out hot air and cool the centre without the need for any additional mechanical cooling. As a result, energy usage is much lower than a conventional mechanically-ventilated centre of a similar size.
- Changing lighting circuits so that lights in the car park, signage and inside the centre were turned off after trading hours.
Energy figures were recorded from July to December 2007 to form a baseline set of data. The monthly figures averaged 55,507kWh. After optimising energy usage, further figures were calculated from January to June 2008 to give a monthly average usage of 41,336kWh, which is a reduction of 14,171kWh. This equates to a 25 per cent reduction and savings of approximately $9,910 over the six month period.