Thursday, January 13

First thing this morning we met with Steven Nichols, Development Manager for Grocon, to discuss the 161 Castlereigh project. This project is to be a 50 story office building with retail on the bottom floor. They trying to make this project the most green building in the world. They have a trigen system that will power the building, with the excess power going towards heating the water for the building. The entire building is to be fit out with LED lighting, which will drastically cut down on the energy consumption. They are still looking at using wind turbines on the roof for power generation. The way that the roof is shaped and oriented, it creates a perfect tunnel to harvest the wind. This decision still hasn’t been finalized. They had looked at incorporating a blackwater system in the building but have had bad experiences with them in their other properties, so they decided not to include one. The building is currently borderline between 5- and 6-Star rated.

Our second meeting today was with Matt Williams with Bovus at their 30 Bond office. This building was pretty cool. It incorporated a sheer sandstone wall that had been cut out by prisoners a long time ago. This wall provides temperature stability in the atrium area. The way that the building is situated, the atrium is shaded from direct sunlight, except through a glass ceiling. The sandstone wall typically produces a cool draft coming down it, so what they did was install open ventilation at the base of the wall that allows this draft to go straight down to the basement and car port. The whole area maintains such a natural stable temperature that they have only used the floor heating system twice in the buildings history. Matt also talked specifically about the two interconnected stairwells that go from floor to floor. He said that because of the convenience of these, they use 75% less energy from their elevators. The building is cooled using a chilled beam system. Essentially the room is turned into a big convection oven. The beams in the ceiling are cooled using an integrated water cooling system, the cold are drops through perforated ceiling tiles, and pushed the hotter air back up to get cooled by the chilled beams. I've never heard of this type system being used in the states, but it sounds ingenious and should be used more regularly. 

The actual office spaces for the building are built very sustainably also. The floors are made of bamboo and the carpet is made of goat hair. The chilled beams produce about 90% of the air circulation for the space, with the remaining 10% coming from vents that pull outside air. With the major facade facing west, they installed louvers that are setup on  a timer to control the amount of sunlight that is allowed into the office. From 9-12 they are up and fully open, 12-3 down but open, and 3 on they are fully closed. The building also has a green roof that the employees can utilized as a community area. However, due to complaints from adjacent high-end apartment complexes they aren't allowed to be out there after 5 because of the noise. The thing that they did have problems with after construction, is the unexpected amount of sunlight that is let in through the roof on the top floor office space. To remedy this, they had to install additional shades and screens.

The one thing I would have like to see this building do, is to incorporate some form of energy production within the building/site. I understand that PV panels would be out of the question due to the green roof, but they cold have installed a tri-generation system that would have at least used less harmful ways of producing electricity than simply pulling straight off the city's power grid.

Seeing these two buildings today, reiterates the fact that sustainable development in commercial buildings is definitely doable and effective. All of the projects that I have worked on that have been LEED certified buildings were built that way because they were public facilities and it was required. I don't think that enough people realize the true benefit of sustainable development, and not just from the financial aspect. After walking through some of the buildings on this trip, the people within them seem to be more active and think that is due to the characteristics of the building (the vast amount of natural light, the numerous "community areas", etc). As I walked through them, I thought about my own office back in Dallas and how dark and stuffy it is. It affects your attitude throughout the day, it truly does. I know that sustainable development is key to the environmental issues that becoming more and more of a concern, but let us not forget about the personal, emotional, and mental benefits of it.

Wednesday, January 12

This morning we met with Matthew Hyder with Legacy Property (a native Texan of all things). He and his former boss formed Legacy about two years ago and primarily focus on consulting work at this time. The majority of their developments are residential communities, ranging in size from 70 lots to 1,200 lots. He provided a brief overview of his company and their services, development in Australia versus in the states, and his involvement with sustainability. He touched on the Building Sustainability Index (BASIX), which is for residential development only. What is great about this system is that a builder is required to get his building certified per the requirements of this system before they will be able to pull the occupancy permits. This is a perfect example of how it can be good for government intervention in sustainability. Programs like this are, in my mind, the best way for government to get involved in sustainability. Having all of the sustainability programs being voluntary give the owner/builder too many excuses not to do it. When it comes down to it, the dollar and cents are the bottom line. Implementing a baseline that a builder must meet is a good start.

Matt also discussed the National Australian Building Energy Rating System (NABERS). This system is for commercial developments and is based on performance only. You are required to get you building certified if you plan to lease a 2,000 sqm space or larger for more than a year.

When asked if he plans to incorporate sustainable practices in his residential neighborhoods, Matt said that it’s very hard to unless you privatize the entire neighborhood (streets, utilities and all). The thought behind this is to have smaller infrastructure systems installed because the residential lots will have less demand because they are being building with sustainable systems such as Michael Mobbs’ house. Matt said that he honestly never thought of it that way, but that the idea sounds logical. I my opinion, unless it is built into the neighborhood’s development plan that each house is built in such a fashion that it will only draw X amount of utilities per year, then the City will not allow their system to be intentionally undersized. Yes, houses are built with more and more water and energy efficient components and these sustainable systems are becoming more prevalent, but there is always that concern that you get a block of houses that decides not to do any of those things. If that happens and the City has an undersized infrastructure system, then they open themselves to issues that they would never want.

Again, I think it come back to education. Builders and consumers need more education as to the overall benefits of sustainability and I really think it needs to be focused on the cost savings more than anything. Nothing is more enticing than money. Also, a lot of people these days have the mentality that the current environmental issues are not their concern because they’ll be long and dead before they become truly harmful to themselves.

Later this afternoon, we met with Robin Mellon, the Executive Director of the Green Building Council of Australia (GBCA). The GBCA has created the Green Star rating system, which is comparable to the LEED rating system created by the US Green Building Council. The GBCA’s primary focuses are to “Rate, Educate and Advocate” sustainability. They are a not-for-profit organization that was created in 2002 and now has over 900 member organizations. They are big proponents of government advocation of sustainability. Going back to what I’ve said in previous days blogs, most people think only in dollars and cents when it comes to commercial development. Having local, state and federal government mandate certain requirements is a way of forcing sustainability into commercial development. Overtime, it will begin to become industry standard to put in these measures.

Towards the end of his presentation, he discussed what they’ve seen as the cost implications of implementing sustainable systems into their designs. To get a project a 4-Star rating, construction cost is about 2% higher, a 5-Star rating is about 5% higher, and the sky’s the limit on a 6-Star rating. They found it hard to pinpoint a cost for 6-Star rated projects because they tend to be very over designed, and therefore have an inflated cost. He made it a point to tell us this, because he feels that there is still a stigma that sustainable development is upwards of 15-20% higher than standard construction. A few years back, yes, this was definitely the case. Now, the products and systems that are being specified for sustainable systems are more readily available, therefore have a lower cost.

The very end of his presentation consisted of going through each of the Green Star credit categories and discussing a project that has stood out for what they did in that regard. He discussed a project that had a tri-generation energy system that not only powered its building fully, but supplied power to adjacent buildings as well.

Tuesday, January 11

This morning we had another discussion about the Sustainable House book and afterwards we headed over to Michael Mobbs’ house for our tour. Being able to see firsthand what I was reading about helped put everything into perspective. He emphasized in his book that, even with all the improvements that he did to his house, he didn’t want to have to change his lifestyle dramatically in order to live there. He said many times that, one day, he wants to be able to sell this house and he knows that if you have to include an instruction manual to live there, then it won’t ever sell. From the minute I stepped into his house, it looked like an ordinary house. The kitchen had a lot of natural sunlight through the windows, the living room had a TV, and it didn’t stink. I paid particular attention to the smell when I walked in because there are a lot of horror stories about buildings that use wastewater re-use systems and they stink, real bad. For the readers out there that are unfamiliar with this project, here are a few key details:

·     The potable water comes entirely from rainwater captured from the roof. There have only been three times in the past 14 years that he has had to use his neighbors hose to top off his rainwater harvesting tank. This water is general tap water and is suitable to drink. There are a series of filters and UV lights to ensure the water quality.

·     The wastewater is captured and re-used in a “closed system”. This means that the water coming from the showers, sinks, clothes and dish washers, and toilets are captured, filtered and treated to a level sufficient to safely use for flushing toilets, watering the garden and washing clothes.

·     The house was retrofitted with PV panels on the roof and that produced more than enough power to feed the house during the day. Whatever surplus electricity was left over after the household consumption was feed back in to the City power grid, which they were credited for. Since PV panels were the only means of producing energy, they obviously couldn’t use them at night. So they were forced to stay connected to the City grid in order to power the house at night. 

Throughout the tour, he discussed the challenges that he faced throughout the whole research, design and construction. Michael said that he spend four years on research, about 15 month for design/approval and three months for construction. While going through the whole approval process, he had a hard time with the council because this type of design and construction was so uncommon. He had to educate the public officials along the way and had to provide a lot of supporting data for the safety of the rainwater and waste systems. Even while we were sitting at lunch having discussions, he urged each of us to educate as many people as we could, so that this sort of living is not such a stigma. I mentioned to him the challenges that I’m facing on my project back in the states that is for a VA mental health facility and that the reviewers are very opposed to new methods and technologies because they don’t have a long enough track record of success. He urged me to discuss with them the benefits of gardening on the mental psyche of the people that will be occupying my project. I agree with him whole-heartedly, especially after hearing his story, but in my experience in working with the federal government, you will have an extremely hard time convincing them to use a radical design on a specific project, and considering the fact that most of the projects are on a set project schedule, there isn’t enough time to present your case effectively and to provide sufficient data to backup what you would like to do. 

Overall, I like the idea of what he’s doing and I think that certain aspects of his house should be used as much as possible (especially the PV panels). However, I think that getting this to get full traction in the state, there will need to be a HUGE push for education. So many people are ignorant to the ways in which these systems can benefit them financially, while at the same time benefiting their community and environment. 

On the way back from the Sustainable House, we stopped by a development called Central Park that we saw earlier that morning. Its slated to be a huge $2 billion village with 11 buildings with 1,600 apartments, shops, cafes restaurants and a 6,400 sqm park. It turned out that they are planning to incorporate a few sustainable elements into the project. The main building is going to consist of a green façade (something I’ve never seen before) and will use mirror to reflect the sunlight from the solar panels to a pool deck that would otherwise be shaded between two building. Quite ingenious. The woman we spoke with was more of a real estate agent and not too familiar with the in depth design aspects, so she couldn’t answer our questions about some of the sustainable features of the site (other than the obvious ones).

Monday, January 10

First thing in the morning, we meet in the lobby of our hotel and discuss the first six chapter of the Sustainable House book. The meeting that we had originally planned on having Monday morning with 30 Bond got pushed back at the last minute to Thursday. So, after our book discussion, we did a bit of sightseeing to the Darling Harbor Bridge and the Opera House. Unfortunately, the Opera House is closed for renovations, so we weren’t able to go inside and take a peek.

After lunch at a very interesting Chinese food restaurant in China Town, we headed to the Powerhouse Museum. The Museum has a new exhibit titled “Ecology: Creating a Sustainable Future”. The entire exhibit was there to stress awareness about the global warming issues facing Earth and also showed specific ways that we, as inhabitants, can adapt our way of living to minimize our negative impact. The exhibit showed items such as the Toyota Prius, stormwater harvesting tanks, energy efficient appliances, light control systems, solar hot water systems. Each of these items displayed had a plaque that showed how the energy/water efficient devise worked and what benefits it produces. There was also a very interesting display that showed how much tonnage of green house gasses our everyday activities emitted (eating meat every day=1 ton/year, buying a car=7 tons/year, etc.) and it posed the question of whether or not you can keep your annual greenhouse gas emission below 10 tons (while the average Australian produces 20 tons per year). 10 tons of greenhouse gas emissions is what experts believe to be the maximum amount that people can produce before resulting in a dangerous climate change.

Also on display was a model of Michael Mobbs’ Sustainable House. There was a model of his house that showed the major sustainable elements incorporated into his house (rainwater harvesting, waste treatment and energy production in the form of solar panels). The model had button activated narratives that discussed these major components and, as it was written in his book, in very lames terms.

What I saw that was pretty cool, was that while we were there, a bunch of junior high age kids were coming through the exhibit and it looked like they were on a scavenger hunt. From what I could tell, they had to find certain displays throughout the museum and write a few paragraphs about each item. While this whole exercise may not have been specifically about sustainability, they did have to come through this exhibit and in turn, forced them to at least get exposed to sustainability and what it is. I, honestly, didn’t know what sustainability (in terms of the way we live and in construction) until the first time I heard about LEED after graduating college. For these kids to get exposed to it at such a young age is awesome. They may not know what they can do to help their environment yet, but just getting an introduction is a very important first step, so that as they get older and these issues become more and more prevalent, they won’t be working off a blank slate.

Thursday, January 6

On our way back from Rotorua, Dr. Forgey had a speaking engagement at a conference in Hamilton. While he was giving his speech, the rest of the group went to the Hamilton Gardens. It is in the top seven largest publicly owned gardens in the world. The main focus of our visit was to the Productive Garden Collection. This area focused on plant that either produced edible fruits and vegetables or were used in day-to-day life for a farmer (compost piles, worm farms, etc.). While we were walking through this section, people were working in the gardens tilling the soil and trimming the plants, such as would be done as if it were in their back yard.  Due to the lack of time available, we weren’t able to explore much of the other areas of the garden.

When we arrived back in Auckland, we met up with Sara Ballantyne (Cooper Companies) and Terry Buchan (Hawkins Construction) to do a site visit through Cooper Companies new Britomart development. This phase of the project consists of three buildings on 5 hectacres of land across the street from the Auckland harbor. The east building was built on top of an existing train station, so the architects and structural engineers had to be real careful about the loading they could place above the station. Sara also mentioned that when the train stations were constructed, concrete columns were pre-installed for the Britomart building that was to go over top of it, which created an additional constraint for the new buildings. The site is also adjacent to the main bus hub for the entire city of Auckland. The three buildings are planned to have first floor retail with commercial space above that. It was originally intended to have the top three floors of the east and west building as residential penthouses, starting at $3M+, but after the economy crashed, they decided to convert that space to commercial as well. The two prime tenants for the two main towers are Earnst and Young in the East 1 building, and Westpac Bank in the East 2 building. Overall, the commercial space is 100% pre-leased and the retail is 70% pre-leased. The overall budget for the building is about $210,000,000 and has a total of about 40,000 m² (which is about 400,000 sf²). The project is slated for completion in March 2011.

Of the three buildings, only one building has the available space to utilized rainwater harvesting systems. Much to our disappointment, there wasn’t much further discussion about the sustainable aspects of the projects (except for the close proximity to all the public transportation systems).

Wednesday, January 5

Today we rented two minivans and are driving down to Rotorua (home of a huge hot spring). It’s about three hours south of Auckland and we travel through amazing country sides.

After we get to Rotorua and check into our hotel, we walk over to the Rotorua Aquatic Center to look at the many ways that they manage and conserve water. As typical for everywhere we try to go this week, most of the management staff is on vacation, so we talk to one of the mid-level managers. She had a somewhat limited knowledge of their sustainable implementations, but was still very helpful. About five years ago, they proactively started to monitor their water usage to determine ways to conserve water and energy consumptions. They started to turn down pumps at night, installed light sensors controls, and shut down domestic water services at night. The center also identified that they had a water leak in one of their domestic water lines. Repair of this leak resulted in a water savings of about $6,500. The manager also took us out to see their “garden”, which turned out to be two boxes with about 10 plans in it. She was super excited about it too. Haha. It’s a good thing that she took us out back though, because someone asked about a big silver pipe running along a fence line. It turns out that the entire center’s hot water is heated from a geothermal well, which makes total sense because they are about 200 feet from an active hot spring.

Tuesday, January 4

Today we headed over to Waiheke Island and let me tell you, I landed in heaven.. At dinner, we sat around and discussed Loretta’s and Nicole’s Beacon articles. The key discussion points that came out of them are:

·         The best way to get sustainability to gain traction with the general public is through education.

·         Educating kids is the easiest way to get to a group of the population before they have preconceived notions about how things are done and before they get “corrupted” by the naysayers of sustainability.

·         Local and federal governments mandating LEED or Green initiatives are actually counterproductive to encouraging sustainability. Instead of designers and developers actually wanting to incorporate green products and designs into their facilities, it is construed as just more red tape that they must go through to obtain a building permit.

I personally believe that government intervention is necessary to get the ball rolling on incorporating sustainable measures into a new/renovated building. Most building owner and developers these days are looking to make a quick buck by building a new building, leasing it up and selling it off for a profit. In their mind, including these green measures into their building is decreasing their margins. So if it was up to them, they would throw up the cheapest building they could that still meets the minimum code requirements. By the government mandating a certain degree of sustainable aspects into a design, there is at least SOME energy saving measures that will be installed no matter what the owner’s prerogative is.