AUSTRALIA’S GREENEST OFFICE BUILDING
04 Jun 2014
Barangaroo will be home to Australia's greenest office building, with one of it's towers awarded a 6 Star Green Star by GBCA.
Barangaroo South’s Tower 2 has been awarded a 6 Star Green Star – Office Design v3 rating by the Green Building Council of Australia (GBCA) for its world-class sustainability features.
The rating is the highest achievable under GBCA’s criteria system, and reserved for developments displaying world leadership in the field of sustainable design and construction.
South Tower 2 is a 42-storey commercial skyscraper which is currently being built at the harbour side site on the northwestern edge of the Sydney CBD. The tower serves as the centrepiece of the three buildings which jointly comprise International Towers Sydney (ITS), with its anchor tenants including Westpac and Gilbert + Tobin.
Sustainability features shared by all three of the ITS buildings include high-performance solar shading facades and energy-saving centralised cooling systems, which use water drawn from Sydney’s iconic harbour to operate.
According to Tarun Gupta, Lend Lease’s Chief Executive Officer, Property, Australia, ITS is part of a precinct-wide sustainability strategy which seeks to create Australia’s first carbon neutral community.
“Energy efficient design, on and offsite low carbon and renewable energy teamed with zero carbon waste treatment and commuter carbon emission offsets, will result in a net carbon neutral outcome for the precinct’s operational energy use,” said Gupta.
Sustainability initiatives designed to serve the whole precinct include an on-site backwater treatment plant which will recycle as much as one million litres of water a day for usage by the local community.
GBCA Chief Executive Romilly Madew said Tower 2 will be “one of the world’s most sustainable business addresses” once it opens for business, and that it serves to send “a clear signal that a green building can be good for both the environment and the tenants whose choose such offices.”
NSW Environment Minister Rob Stokes hailed the awarding of the top-flight rating as attesting to the state’s commitment to sustainable building.
“It is great to see sustainability made a priority in this project, reinforcing NSW as a leader in the area of environmental innovation,” said Stokes. “Measures such as those incorporated into this building will save businesses money, increase value and help the environment.”