Thursday - January 13th, 2011

We visited a new project being developed by Grocon and LaSalle Investment Management. It is an $800mm 50 story office project to replace four existing buildings between Castlereigh and Pitt Street. There is an additional “Heritage” building on the site that will be preserved and built around which has already earned a 5 star energy rating as a result of the retrofit. The new tower will be a 6 star design and eventual as built rated building and will incorporate 1,200 kw tri-generation which accomplish the generation of electricity by burning natural gas and then uses the heat generated from that to heat water and run the HVAC system. The developers original intent was to make the building the most sustainable in the world utilizing black water recovery and recycling and wind turbine power generation on the roof. These two particular elements have come into question, but the intent is still to complete a sustainable building in the 5 or 6 star rating range. Another interesting feature was that it was designed at the city's request to not cast any shadows on Hyde park (just below the tower).

We also visited 30 The Bond. This is an operational 5 star designed and as built rated building that was completed in 2007. During excavation a sandstone wall built by early prisoners in Australia was discovered and subsequently incorporated into both the design and sustainability of the building. The stone wall acts as enormous heat sink that helps to moderate the temperature of the first four floors. In addition to this “chilled beams” provide about 90% of the air cooling with the remaining 10% provided by dehumidified fresh air that is ducted into the building. The chilled beams are a relatively new concept that requires significantly less energy than conventional HVAC. It’s interesting to note that this building used a single chiller, whereas newer designs are actually incorporating multi stage chillers that can provide more efficiency. It was interesting being in the building because you would have never known that there was no traditional HVAC, it was very comfortable. There were many design features that I had never seen including:



• Raised floors so that cabling and air could be circulated underneath the occupants.

• Perforated ceiling covering. There are no drop ceilings as the air must be able to rise up to the chilled beams to be cooled. So as the air warms up it rises and is cooled back down again and as it cools it circulates back down to the raised floor, so it is naturally always circulating.

• Automated window louvers. These louvers change position through out the day to reflect sunlight away from the building and shade the interior against the radiant energy in order to keep the space cool in the summer time.

• Automated timed lighting. The lighting will shut-off each day at 6:00pm and anyone requiring light there after must manually turn it back on for their zone for 1 hour increments.

• Green roof, the majority of the roof is covered with native plants and what is not has been developed into a lounge to host corporate events and dinners.

• Open and prominent stairs to encourage travel between levels via stair vs. elevator. The building manager quoted that they use 75% less energy on their elevator service than the average 8 story building in Sydney.

Wednesday - January 12th, 2011

Today we met with Matthew Hyder of Legacy Properties. Matthew is from Texas and graduated from Princeton University. His family was in the real estate business in Texas and Matthew wanted to work in real estate when he graduated. However, he took a decidedly unconvential career path and after meeting and falling in love with an Australian girl, moved to Sydney to work for Macquarie bank in their real estate investment business. He spent several years with them making strategic business connections and learning the local market. Matthew is currently developing a 350 lot master planned housing subdivision North of Sydney. One of Michael Mobb’s projects he worked on as a consultant was working with developers to develop their own power and water infrastructure in new communities in order to achieve sustainable neighborhoods that are independent of coal fired electricity or traditional water treatment. During our conversation with Matthew we shared what Michael was doing and asked whether that would be part of his development. His response was “Who pays for it?” I think that pretty clearly indicates how much of a barrier cost still is. He made the point that if it costs an additional $10k per lot that it’s got to come from out of someone’s pocket. He also stated that the buyers of the lots and homes in this neighborhood will be very price sensitive, so he can’t expect to be able to just increase the sales price by $10k as the buyers are already limited on what they can afford and will simply not buy in his subdivision. It seems that a lot of this sustainability stuff works when “You can afford it” and when you can capture additional value in excess of the monetary value. For example, investors can justify a slight premium on a sustainable building because it can mitigate leasing risk given that having a sustainable building is a differentiator in the market and all things being equal, a sustainably building has that one additional feature. However, I think with individuals often times the analysis and decision making does not go beyond “How much is it going to cost me right now?” I think that’s where education and accurate rating/measurement of cost savings can help change that by giving consumers the ability to quantify savings are or even the fact that they are not paying a premium for a “Sustainable” solution.

NABERS (National Australian Building Energy Rating System) - Toward the end of our meeting Matthew shared with us the Building Energy Efficiency Disclosure Act 2010, a law that became affective November 1, 2010 requiring all buildings in excess of 21,527 sf (2,000 square meters) to be rated and report on a scale of 1 – 6 how efficient they are as it relates to Water and Electricity. It must be reported along with ANY advertising for space to lease or for sale. If you fail to comply it is an immediate $110,000 fine plus $11,000 /day for each day of non-compliance. I generally like this concept of regulation; simply forces the sharing of the information and lets the free market sort out the rest. I would be much more resistant to a government enforced minimum standard.

BASIX (Building Sustainability Index) – New South Whales has implemented a mandatory and minimum standards for energy and water efficiency for all new construction and will not final certificates if the BASIX commitments made at the initial permit application for new construction are not proven done at the end of the construction. Some examples of features include:



• Rainwater tanks plumbed to toilet, garden and /or laundry

• Efficient shower heads

• Indigenous garden species

• Grey water system

• Solar, heat pump or high efficiency gas hot water system.

• Efficient pool heating and pumps

• Good solar orientation

• Cross ventilation

• Insulation

• External shading

• Performance glazing for large glazed areas and/or poorly oriented ares

• Ceiling fans, evap coolers or high efficiency air conditioning

• Energy efficient lighting

• Alternative enegery such as solar panels..



Green Building Council Australia. – Well today I saw my first indoor worm farm, and smelled my first indoor gray water tank. Definitely wasn’t expecting either of this on the 15th floor of an office tower. However, the GBCA definitely practices what it preaches. They took a relatively old and inefficient building and fitted out their space to be the most energy efficient space in the building. On average they say their utilities are 25% of what the other floors are consuming. They exchange the air on their floor with filtered outside 50 – 60 times a day. They had automatic sun tracking shades to prevent the sun from warming their space during hours of direct sunlight. Here we were introduced to Tri-generation as our guide explained that the building across the street generated its own power and the power for four other buildings using a tri-generation system that produced electricity, heated air and heated water. Interestingly enough, their space did not have hot water because they felt there was not an energy efficient way to provide it as they were in an old building with an inefficient boiler. The council views itself as having 3 main goals, 1) rate, 2) educate and 3) advocate.

Tuesday, January 11th, 2011

Tuesday – Sydney


Today we visted Michael Mobb’s house. In 1996 he retrofitted his house to ensure that he provided and processed all water on site and minimized his electricity usage. Michael was an interesting individual; he was VERY passionate about sustainability and I think represented the "Do the right thing" motivated individual. One of the things we've discussed amongst ourselves on this trip is that there seem to be three real motivators driving sustainable inititives. The first being "What's in it for me?" or the money motivator. The second being "I do it because I have to." or the government regulation motivator. The third motivator seems to be "I do it because it's the right thing." or altruistic motivator. It seems that those who are moving toward sustainability our of a sense of responsibility often demonstrate the highest level of sustainability.

The great thing about the way Michael did his house is that it is really “Idiot Proof” he didn’t over complicate things or try to achieve unreasonable goals. He collects rain water in a tank, he then re-collects all the water that runs down the drains in a different tank, filters and treats it, then re-uses it again to wash clothes and dishes with. No water has left his site in 14 years. In addition, when he did his solar panel system he made the decision stay tied into the grid for ease of use, so he generates about 65% of his energy usage during the day and at night pulls power from the main grid. There are no batteries to replace or complicated inverters, no special sun tracking mechanism, etc… It’s just simple. He said his utility bills for the year are about $300 and the system cost him $48,000 in 1996, but that he could do it all over again, and better, today for about $15,000 - $20,000. I think it’s quite a testimony to simplicity, ease of use, and durability of Michael’s system that it has stayed in continuous service for 14 years now. Oddly enough he says that it took him 4 years of planning, 1 whole year just to get permits from the City and only 3 months to construct. He found that one of the most difficult parts was educating the city and utility companies as to what he was doing and how. Here is some of the guidance he gave:


• Set very specific and measurable goals before you start.

• Don’t ever go to a city office or utility and “ask for permission” instead go and present it as “I’m going to do this, this is how I’m going to do this, are there any permits required?”

• Never talk to just one of your contractors, always get them all in the same room so that everyone is on the same page.

• Tie all progress payments to the measureable goals you set in the beginning.



One Central Park – One our way back from Michael’s house we stopped in at a new sustainable hi rise “for sale” apartment building that was being built. This is going to be a 6 star rated green building and will incorporate many of the features Michael Mobb used in his house (although they are in no way related). I like the concept of using this on multifamily because I feel like there are some economies of scale that are more sustainable if you are sharing the resources among many people (i.e. you don’t have to have a rainwater tank for every family, say 100 families share 1 tank). At a high level here are some of the sustainable aspects of the One Central Park:



• Rainwater collection

• Gray Water recycling

• Black water irrigation

• Green Balconies (management controls plant selection)

• Energy efficient appliances

• Solar Electricity

• Solar pool heating use reflection of solar panels and then overhead mirrors to direct sunlight to pool area.

• Full outside wall sliding doors for ventilation

Thursday, Friday and Saturday January 6, 7 and 8th, 2011

Thursday Night / Friday Night – Thursday and Friday night were left up to us students to plan. My goal was meet locals and see how sustainability is viewed outside of the city. To do that I looked to Couchsurfing.org to meet someone willing to host me. I was fortunate to meet Ben Hubrand. Ben lives in a roughly 192 sf cabin in the rural town of Maungatoroto about an hour and forty minutes north of Auckland. Some of the sustainable features Ben incorporated into his house were.


Rainwater collection for showering, drinking and toilet.

Instant-on LP gas hot water heater (with no standing pilot)

Flow through ventilation provides cooling in the summer time and due to the high ceiling and relatively small foot print works surprisingly well.



While in town Ben lamented about the amount of fuel his van used and his father offered up a wrecked scooter that had been given to him (his Dad’s is ever the ‘recycler’ constantly picking up things that he feels still has value left). Ben and I were able to repair the scooter over the course of the first evening and morning I was there. He now plans to use it for transportation when he’s not having to commute to Auckland for work.



Ben was gracious enough to get up at 1:00am to drive me to the airport for my 5:50am flight after I missed my bus back to Auckland on Saturday afternoon.

Monday, January 10th, 2011

Monday – Sydney


Today we visited the Power House Museum. This museum was an adaptive re-use of an early power plant. The open floor plan and extreme size of the buildings’ envelope lend themselves well to a gallery or museum environment. One of the exhibits currently on display at the museum was a display demonstrating sustainable products and behaviors. I think it would be a great exhibit to do at the Science Place down in Fair Park.

Thursday - January 6th, 2011

Thursday – Hamilton/Britomart – In Hamilton we visited the Hamilton Gardens which had a great exhibit on sustainable home farming. The primary attributes advocated were:


Rainwater Collection

Worm Farming / Composting

The use of mulch to minimize water consumption

Back in Auckland we had the opportunity to tour the Britomart project being developed by Cooper properties. This is a 460,000 sf office building that is 100% leased to Westpac Bank, Ernst & Young and Southcross, a Medical company. This project will incorporate Hanging Gardens and direct access to mass / rail transit. The tenant improvements were coordinated with the master architect to ensure that the Green Stars anticipated in the design were carried through into the final construction. The stairs pictured below were not a part of the initial design as the top floor of the building was designed to be residential, but were added later and will reduce the energy consumption to operate the elevators by encourgin tenants to travel between floors on foot. Also an enclosed crosswalk was installed between Westpac's old building and their new space which will reduce energy loss in the building from tenants traveling between the two buildings as well.

Wednesday - January 5th 2011

Wednesday - Rotorua – Today we toured Rotorua Aquatic center and learned of their sustainability initiatives. Center built in 2005 and not operated initially as a sustainable operation. However, in 2007 a new director was brought in the encouraged the staff to create sustainable initiatives. Geothermal, automated humidity control, recycling, garden, tracking of all resource usage per customer. Here this was a grass roots initiative. There was no government agency mandating compliance with standards or any penalties. It was simply one guy who was in charge that wanted to run things in a way that was responsible. Each year they voluntarily publish a report on their water usage, electricity usage and waste generation and break it down to a per customer amount in order to track year over year whether becoming more efficient or less and can take meaningful steps towards better efficiency. One of the interesting things that really bore out of this tour was that sustainability is not a formula, some things work some places, but not others; so you have to be willing to take stock of your resources and think creatively. Rotorua is located near a volcano, so they have the unique feature of naturally heated earth beneath their surface. The Acquatic center took advantage of this feature by running a geothermal loop into the ground where they pump their pool water through to heat it. So, they have heated pools in the winter time at no additional electricity or gas cost and no waste or pollution is being generated to provide the heat.
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