Better Buildings Partnership celebrates members' $25 million saving

The Better Buildings Partnership (BBP), established by the City of Sydney, has announced that it is saving its members over $25 million a year on their electricity bills thanks to more energy-efficient buildings. The partnership aims to develop collaborative solutions to overcome the barriers involved in improving the environmental performance of commercial buildings.

BBP celebrates energy-efficiency win at Centennial Plaza. (L to R: Beck Dawson of Investa Office, Jamie Loader of Brookfield, Emlyn Keane of AMP Capital (and BBP co-chair), James Freeman of Investa Office, Lord Mayor Clover Moore, Tanya Cox of DEXUS Property Group and Jason Leong of Investa Property Group.)

Lord Mayor Clover Moore noted that half the city’s greenhouse gas emissions come from its commercial buildings. With the owners of more than half the commercial office space in the city centre members of the BBP, their environmental impact has been massively reduced.

Data shows that members have reduced their building emissions by an average of 3% each year since 2005-06, despite a 14% increase in the amount of space leased over the same period. Some of the buildings have seen cuts of up to 70% due to measures such as high-efficiency lighting, plant upgrades and cogeneration/trigeneration schemes that produce low-carbon electricity and hot water for heating and cooling.

The co-chairs of the BBP, Emlyn Keane from AMP Capital and Paul Edwards from Mirvac, are delighted with the energy savings so far. Edwards gave the example of 10-20 Bond Street, owned by Investa and Mirvac, where savings of more than 60% have resulted from “upgrading the lifts, updating the air conditioning and installing a trigeneration plant, which significantly reduced demand for heating and cooling while supplying low-carbon electricity”.

Investa has achieved similar results at the 24-year-old Centennial Plaza complex, where emissions have been reduced by over 70% with the help of sophisticated building management and air-conditioning systems that deliver services as and when required to minimise energy wastage.

Keane said he now wants the BBP to focus on broader issues to help the rest of the sector, stating, “We need to educate tenants on how they can reduce their energy use and adopt best practice leases that encourage landlords and tenants to work together to make major energy savings.”

The partnership will also continue to work with the City of Sydney “on the development of the renewable energy and energy-efficiency master plans that will help to transform the city into a low-carbon society”, he said.

Keane noted that his members have been able to make energy savings with the help of a range of government programs delivering support and financial incentives - thus, “It is vital that governments continue to support innovation in our industry, so all buildings can make the 70% reductions that some of our buildings have already achieved and share our energy-saving lessons.”