Barangaroo showcases sustainability in business

The Australia’s Sustainability in Business Conference & Exhibition, to be held from 15-16 October in Melbourne, is all about the benefits that sustainability can bring to businesses. The event will feature a range of speakers, one of whom is Ro Coroneos - manager community and social strategy, Barangaroo, Lend Lease.

The Barangaroo project is quite literally built around the premise of sustainability, with the goal of being Australia’s first carbon-neutral community. Located on the shores of Sydney Harbour, the precinct will include six hectares of a new headland park, busy public waterfront walks and parks, commercial office towers and apartments. It will also feature new innovations in environmental sustainability, including:

• a chilled water and harbour cooling system, recycled water service and waste recycling service;
• solar energy generation on-site, which will be enough to service the public areas;
• renewable energy generation off-site, including a solar farm in regional NSW, big enough to generate the amount of electricity required to power approximately 5000 homes;
• the provision of recycled water from Barangaroo to the CBD;
• green travel options, including strong public transport links, walking and cycling networks and electric car power stations in carparks.

Coroneos explained that there are both financial and non-financial drivers for implementing sustainability strategies into a development such as Barangaroo. Major corporates are attracted by the link between leading-edge design and workplace productivity, she said; thus, the site “lends itself to attracting premium tenancies”.

“Achieving 6-Star Green Star for office, for example, is what major corporates are now expecting,” Coroneos said. “They recognise the productivity payoff and like to associate themselves with a future-forward development that is a desirable place to work for employees.”

An urban regeneration project such as Barangaroo also reinforces trust in the brand associated with it - in this case, Lend Lease - and provides it with a competitive advantage. Coroneos said, “No business operates in a vacuum, and those who survive and thrive recognise and leverage the strategic opportunity of understanding stakeholders and impacts. Get it right and you simply get the jump on everyone else in your sector.”

But despite the benefits, the implementation of sustainability measures still faces its challenges - in particular, that of genuine executive-level leadership. Coroneos stated that “sustainability managers often have a tough gig” - one which involves explaining the business case of sustainability in order to coax their colleagues towards the idea.

“Essentially, you have to take time to build a bridge and help them get over it,” she said.

Perhaps Barangaroo will provide the motivation needed for other businesses to incorporate sustainability into their own projects. Coroneos said Lend Lease is helping to create a precinct which is, among other things, welcoming for its visitors, energising for its workers, boundary-breaking for its designers and valuable for its investors. The company has also enabled employment, skills and training initiatives through the Barangaroo Skills Exchange (BSX) - an award-winning industry collaboration partnership to create a better-skilled on-site workforce. This provides ongoing benefits to Lend Lease, the construction industry and, of course, the individual construction workers.

As for Lend Lease itself, Coroneos said the company has set “a world-class benchmark for the development and construction industry in sustainable urban regeneration” and is now recognised as “the world-leading ‘go to’ experts”. She also revealed that as a result of its work on Barangaroo, “Lend Lease was recently awarded a similar urban regeneration project in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (called Tun Razak Exchange), which is a 30 ha mixed-use site - five times the size of Barangaroo South.”

Coroneos will be speaking as part of the session ‘Profiting from Sustainability - Creating a Shared Value Strategy’ on the first day of Sustainability in Business. Her fellow presenters include Stephanie Hart, executive director, operation, Nestle; Elizabeth Still, head of corporate sustainability and responsibility, Bupa; and David Harrington, group general manager, strategy, IAG. For more information on the event, visit http://www.australiansustainability.com.au.