Property Council of Australia (WA Division) April lunch focused on delivering green outcomes through retrofitting existing buildings.
Glenn Scott, Principal at Blight Vollier Nield spoke about the design of the Beijing Tennis Centre and how basic design principles are applied to Western Australia commercial office. Glenn stated the following reasons as:
increasing energy costs and declining resources
dryer climates, less water and increasing water costs
self sufficiency – ability to offer “stand alone security”
The need for an incentives scheme was reinforced by Monique Alfiris of Lincolne Scott outlined three reasons why there has been a slow uptake of retrofitting:
“Split Incentives” – incentives for retrofitting are divided between owners and tenants.
Comparatively Low Rewards – electricity will be approximately 5% of budget outgoings.
Distributed And Diverse Nature – tuning up a building is complicated and not for the faint hearted.
“Tuning up the eco-efficiency of Perth’s 1.7 million m2 of commercial office space is no small task,” said Mr. Lenzo, “and we will need green leadership from all levels of Government to speed up the uptake of the most effective form of slashing our greenhouse gas emissions.”
