40 Albert Road, South Melbourne, VIC

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Summary

40 Albert Road in South Melbourne is Australia's first green building refurbishment project to achieve a 6 Star Green Star rating. This multiple award-winning retrofit project demonstrates recycled a 20 year old building to show that even a dark, underperforming office block can be transformed into a cutting-edge green building. 40 Albert Road is still Australia's highest rated green building.
Owner: Peter Szental
Developer: Peter Szental
Investor: Peter Szental
Project manager: Paul Rooney
Architects: SJB
Interior Designer/architect: SJB
Engineers: Connell Wagner
ESD consultant: Connell Wagner
Cost consultant: Rider Hunt
Builder: Construction Engineering
Tenants: Szencorp, ECS, Carbon Partners
Facility manager: Tony Dorotic

Checklist of sustainable features

Energy

• Ceramic Fuel cell producing 1kW of electricity and 1kW of domestic hot water (meets 90% of the building's hot water needs)
• Polycrystalline (4.8kW, 4.6 MWh pa) and amorphous (1.1kW, 1.47 MWh pa) solar panels generate 6.1 MWh pa of electricity.
• Lighting systems - high efficiency lamps and ballast used with integrated occupancy sensor/control system
• High efficiency office equipment: water boiling units, chillers, printers, PCs
• Integrated occupancy sensing: In addition to controlling lighting occupancy sensors also used to reduce air-conditioning load to an area when unoccupied and used for out-of -hours security monitoring
• Gas engine air-conditioning: This unit incorporates a small natural gas fuelled reciprocating gas engine which is directly coupled to a conventional refrigeration compressor. This unit provides a cost effective means for providing building heating/cooling, reducing summer peak electrical loads and greenhouse gas emissions.
• Windows: increased window area and skylights allow greater daylight penetration (resulting in reduced artificial lighting), all windows double-glazed
• All electricity supplied from the grid is 100% green power.
• 5 star ABGR rating

Indoor Environmental Quality

• Use of low VOC carpets, paints
• E-zero carcass construction used low emission particle board
• E-zero joinery and wall panelling – all face joinery and wall panelling use E-zero (low emission) MDF (medium density fibre board)
• Carbon monoxide sensors in carparks
• Natural ventilation system - operable windows at the ends of each floor allow fresh air to enter each office floor, displacing warmer/stale air via the centrally located stairwell/thermal chimney - this is automatically controlled by the building management system
• Indoor air quality tests (based on the ASHRAE standard) showed no detectable formaldehydes and VOC levels so low they were equivalent to a rural setting.

Productivity

• staff have reported a 13% increase in productivity

Water

• Water efficient AAA tapware (6L/min), showerheads (9L/min); AAAA toilets (3L/4.5L flush)
• Waterless urinals
• Greywater recycling: grey water collected from hand basins and showers is filtered, disinfected and stored together with stormwater from the building rooftop. This recovered water is used for toilet flushing saving an estimated 12,000 L pa.
• Rainwater collection (2 x 2,200L tanks)
• Cooling tower water consumption eliminated

Waste

• centrally located segregated waste bins on each floor: recyclables, organics, general waste
• paper recycling bins only at each desk
• Waste generation is 94kg/for each staff member which is 54% lower than the 173kg average waste generated by office workers per annum
• 81% of waste collected is recycled, organic waste is composted
• Waste to landfill has consequently been reduced by 81%
• Discharge to sewer reduced by over 70%

Materials

• Reuse of the Structure – 96% of the existing structure re-used
• Re-use of the Façade – 88% of existing façade re-used
• Recycled material from the existing site made up 98% of the construction materials for the new building
• Recyclable carpets
• Reconstituted timber veneers were specified as finishes for all doors and cupboards forming entries to the service/amenities and in the reception area
• Wood pulp panels – pressed wood pulp panels have been utilised as feature walling the the office and receptions areas
• Recycled aluminium ceiling tiles (>90% post-industrial recycled aluminium)
• Phenolic resin desktops
• Minimum use of joinery pull hardware: The use of specific hardware has been minimised by designing the pull in tot eh joinery unit.
• Leather upholstery is non-chromium treated
• Meeting room tables are made from recycled stringybark timber
• Synthetic rubber flooring for the kitchen areas
• Polyester (not vinyl) privacy and graphics film was used to provide a degree of screening on glass panels in areas of the fitout

Transport

• bike racks for employees and visitors, showers and lockers
• located very close to trams (domain interchange)

Building Rating: Six Star Green Star – Office Design V1

• 6 star Green Star: 83 points

Other - NABERS Office water - 5 Star

• 5 Star NABERS water
  
  

Motivations and lessons

The owner's view - an interview with Rina Madden (Group Manager, Sustainable Buildings, Szencorp)

October, 2007

What are the main reasons why your company chose to own a sustainable building?

Showing commercial viability: Szencorp's business philosophy is that sustainability can be commercially viable, and 40Albert rd is a project that set out to demonstrate this. Szencorp's business has centered around providing building strategies and solutions for creating an environmentally sustainable future. 40 Albert Rd combined Szencorp's expanding expertise and leadership in property, energy and water efficiency.

Retrofitting an existing building: A central part of the project was the challenge of refurbishing an existing building rather than the easier task of creating a new green building with the advantage of being able to start from scratch. Szencorp believes expertise in retrofitting existing buildings is vital because the vast majority of building stock is existing buildings.

What are the best things that have come out of doing a sustainable building?

• The project has proven that sustainable buildings are a good business model – retrofitting reduces day-to-day running costs and increases a building's value
• The benefit of experience in delivering a six-star rated sustainable building, and gaining a deeper understanding of the complexities of delivering sustainable buildings.
• A design is only as good as it's actual outcomes – monitoring a building's results ensures a building is delivering

What are the things that you did that made the project work well?

• Capped the cost of the project. 40Albert Rd, was designed and constructed in 2005, before today's much greater awareness and experience around sustainable buildings. As it was an early-adopter project, most vendors were nervous and charged premium rates. By working closely with the suppliers and capping the prices, we were able to minimise the premiums paid and ensure the commercial viability of the project.
• Clear project brief and integrated design team. We worked hard to ensure effective communication within and between teams to optimise key deliverables of the project.
• Monitoring building performance. Knowing exactly how the building was operating (energy, water and so on) was essential for understanding when we had achieved goals and to help us make any improvements.

What were the things that didn't work quite so well and how were they managed?

• Building Management System (BMS): Expertise in building management systems (BMS) seems to be limited, and 40 Albert Rd experienced several problems with the operation of the system. By addressing each of the issues as they arose, the BMS operation was improved and fine tuned, and is still continually being improved.
• HVAC: The HVAC system was chosen due to its ability to reduce peak demand on the grid. However, due to the building being under-occupied initially, the HVAC unit was not operating at full load which meant that it's efficiency was very low.
• Photovoltaic cells (PV): The Crystalline Photovoltaic cells shade eachother in summer. Even though the rated performance of the panels is met, 40Albert Rd believes that the units will outperform the rated values when the panels are realigned.
• Indoor Environment Quality (IEQ): 40 Albert Rd invested extensively in low-emission and low-VOC (volatile organic compounds) materials (such as paints and sealants) which ensure low pollutants and therefore a fresher healthier environment for its occupants. 40 Albert Rd created a design that enabled windows to be opened for natural ventilation which tenants felt was to be a positive feature of office space. However, it was found that incoming 'fresh' air from the high-traffic city area was a source of dust and pollutants. Thus 40 Albert Rd, was able to use monitoring data to balance perceived benefits with actual results to ensure a healthy pollutant free building.
  
  

Other information and resources on 40 Albert Road

Detailed reports and ongoing information

http://www.ourgreenoffice.com/index.html

Images

Other case studies or fact sheets

The Green Building Council of Australia study

Sustainability Victoria (formerly SEAV) study

Going Solar - The Szencorp Building Solar Pergola Study