6 Green Stars for BHP Billiton fit-out

BHP Billiton was presented with a 6 Star Green Star Interiors rating for its Perth fit-out at Brookfield Place, which represents world leadership in green building outcomes.

On hand to accept the certification on behalf of BHP Billiton at an industry function during recent World Green Building Week celebrations was BHP Billiton Iron Ore VP Health Safety Environment and Community Brett Swayn.

Brett Swayn, VP health, safety, environment and community, BHP Billiton Iron Ore, accepting the 6 Star Green Star certification from Tony Arnel, NDY Global.

“Sustainability is the first of BHP Billiton’s six Charter Values, and being environmentally responsible is something we are committed to in all of our operations,” he said.

“Our building fit-out was designed not only with sustainability in mind, but also to provide a modern, open and flexible workspace for our employees.”

Covering in excess of 60,000 m², the BHP Billiton certification is the first 6 Star Green Star interiors rating in Western Australia and one of the very few to achieve such a rating for a project of this scale in Australia.

Consulting engineers Norman Disney & Young (NDY) provided building and sustainability services for the fit-out and played a key role in the certification of the Green Star Rating.

“In the 11-year history of Green Star in Australia, very few projects have achieved what’s been achieved at the BHP Billiton fit-out,” says NDY global director of sustainability and GBCA board member Tony Arnel. “Originally registered for a 5 Star Interiors rating, it’s the innovation points achieved on this project which have lifted the rating to a 6 Star rating and which make this a truly unique outcome. This represents world leadership at the highest level in Green Star certification.”

Already established as an iconic landmark on the Perth skyline, the 45-level Brookfield Place development is also home to PWC (8500 m²) and Barrick Gold (5000 m²) and boasts some clever design elements. The tower is the tallest side core building in the Southern Hemisphere - this design offsets the large concrete core to the north of the project and in effect provides an enormous concrete heat shield which absorbs much of the sunlight and therefore reduces the cost of cooling the building, leading to strong passive ESD credentials.

BHP Billiton occupies 34 of the 45 floors and as its fit-out of 60,000 m² was fully integrated in to the base building works, this greatly contributed to ESD and green star by minimising waste and maximising efficiencies. The building design, construction and fit-out are built on the strong foundations of indoor environment quality, occupant amenity and operational efficiency. The building’s design features support worker productivity, occupant health and energy and water efficiency across its 45 levels of office space.

The building has 400 meeting rooms with multiple facilities to enable increased engagement with BHP Billiton’s WA regional or remote sites. Transport emissions will be reduced through the use of ‘virtual meeting’ facilities - with 41 videoconferencing facilities throughout the fit-out and two Halo collaboration suites.

“One of the most impressive features has been the number of innovation points achieved during the Green Star certification process - a much higher number when compared to other projects in the 6 Star category,” said Arnell.

Energy modelling has resulted in a 20% improvement on a 5 Star NABERs rating, benchmarked at a savings of $1m/annum compared to a 3 Star industry benchmark fit-out of the same size. The energy-efficient features of the fit-out include: energy-efficient automatic controls strategies for tenant equipment, including workstation computers, meeting room equipment etc; energy-efficient Power-over-Ethernet telephone network system; 250 LED LCDs; demand-based supplementary HVAC with control of ventilation rates integrated with the base-building CO₂ monitoring HVAC system, allowing the system to respond to changes in occupancy over the day; fully automated lighting control to open office and meeting rooms and perimeter daylight harvesting.