Fed Square awarded for carbon neutrality

As the host of more than 2000 events and 10 million visitors annually, Melbourne’s Federation Square faces a range of environmental challenges. Nevertheless, the venue has managed to maintain its commitment to sustainability, last month taking home the Sustainability & Environmental Impact Award at the 2016 FM (Facilities Management) Industry Awards for Excellence.

Fed Square has spent several years dedicated to a sustainability management plan focused on the areas of water, waste and energy. To this end, a number of steps have been taken to achieve carbon neutrality in 2015 and become a sustainable public precinct; it was this initiative that won the team the FM award. These steps included the following:

• Water-saving initiatives including installation of sensor taps in public toilets, an upgrade of cooling towers, the installation of 85 rainwater tank, the installation of a 40,000 L stormwater tank and diligent monitoring of water usage by the operations team.
• A rain garden that filters runoff from the carpark, removing pollutants and heavy metals from flowing into the Yarra River.
• Major mechanical initiatives including a cogeneration plant, a biogas plant and an air-conditioning control strategy.
• The installation of 10 beehives on the roof of the Australian Centre for Moving Image in partnership with Melbourne City Rooftop Honey, producing an excess of 350 kg of honey annually.

These results have come about through close collaboration with tenancies, partners and public stakeholders. For instance, via their partnership with Siemens, Fed Square continues to measure and verify the monthly energy savings generated by the cogeneration plant and the introduction of solar cells.

The award was presented by the Facilities Management Association of Australia as part of a sellout gala dinner recognising the hard work and dedication of the designers, creators and managers of the built environment. In addition to the sustainability award, Fed Square also won the Occupant Safety & Wellbeing Award for its Online OH&S Warden Training initiative.

“For 15 years, Fed Square has been at the forefront of unique and innovative environmental practices and these two awards recognise our team’s sustained efforts,” said Fed Square CEO Jonathan Tribe. “Our future vision is to go one step further and achieve ‘carbon negative’ status, and whilst challenging, I believe we have the team, expertise and passion to make it happen. Watch this space.”