Our team provide independent, cost effective, realistic and achievable sustainability advice to building owners and managers. Our comprehensive suite of services includes:

GREEN ADVOCACY

The fundamental thought process needed to produce sustainable design requires a whole-of-life approach. We provide strong leadership as a ‘Green Advocate’ of processes that integrate sustainability with lifecycle goals.

We report directly to clients, providing guidance which champions their environmental interests. We act as a single point of contact that coordinates and collates the input of the whole project team, from initial concept to final commissioning. Our role includes establishing environmentally sustainable key performance indicators and monitoring compliance through a cohesive and collaborative approach.

Robust `Green Advocacy’ governance and our assessment techniques offer a different approach to traditional procurement and delivery methods. They help clarify the strategies needed to design, construct and operate a successful and environmentally sustainable development.

CERTIFICATION

NABERS is a performance-based system which awards a rating of 1 to 6 stars for existing buildings. The stars awarded are a measurement of the impact a building has on the environment, and provides a simple indication of how well the building owner or manager is handling these environmental impacts in comparison to similar buildings.

An increasing number of tenants are choosing spaces with a high NABERS rating.

Along with our initial assessment of a building’s energy rating, we provide expert advice and guidance to help clients develop strategies, which may significantly improve their rating.

Under the Australian Commercial Building Disclosure Act, most sellers or leasers of office space over 2,000 m² are obliged to obtain and disclose an up-to-date energy efficiency rating. The rating combines a NABERS base building assessment with an assessment of lighting, and generic energy efficiency guidance.

We can prepare BEEC3 for compliance with CBD Legislation and provide advice on optimising affected buildings to improve their efficiency and market desirability.

GreenStar is an environmental rating system that evaluates the environmental impact of buildings at design phase, and awards a rating of 4 to 6 stars based on a number of criteria.

Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) is also an environmental rating system that evaluates the environmental impact of buildings at design and completion. Originally developed in America, it is used on a range of international projects.

We can provide certification for both GreenStar and LEED. We understand the certification demands on each project and how to manage time and human resources issues that may impact the certification process.

Another of our strengths is designing specific certification methodologies for individual projects with additional sustainability objectives, such as carbon neutral or off-grid developments.

The identification of inefficient energy and water systems in buildings through energy and water auditing is another of our capabilities. We can then assist with the development of energy and water improvement planning and management services, including user education.

Our professional staff are well versed in delivering effective training on a range of sustainability issues. On behalf of scheme administrators, we provide NABERS training through Australia and in New Zealand. We can also provide LEED training, as well as tailored training modules to a variety of commercial and institutional clients, covering a wide range of energy, water and sustainability topics.

We help businesses quantify and report on their corporate greenhouse and carbon emissions and assist in the development of reduction programmes.

We provide project management services for the ‘greening’ of existing buildings to assist building owners and managers meet current Government regulations and improve their position in a competitive rental market.

We offer comprehensive lifecycle costing analysis services for public and private Clients.

We utilise ‘whole of life’ cost analysis models to anticipate expenditure required by property owners from inception through to functional use and final destruction, allowing them to understand the whole financial and environmental cost of their buildings. We then help them develop cost minimisation strategies which embrace sustainable solutions.

The role of an independent commissioning agent (ICA) is to provide an unbiased perspective of the commissioning process. ICAs are independent of the design team as they report directly to the client. The principal objective of an ICA is to assist the project team in undertaking the commissioning of the system, so that the building functions in a safe and efficient manner.

Acting as ICA, we manage, oversee and review the commissioning of building services such as electrical, HVAC, hydraulic, fire control, vertical transportation, acoustic and trigeneration systems.

We help develop tailored commissioning plans which form the basis of the commissioning process. These plans assist in the:

Identification of commissioning standards and strategies to measure the performance of the systems

Definition and drafting of the commissioning processes and requirements to help the timely commissioning of the systems.

We are involved from the initial stages of design development through to the end of the defects liability period.

An ICA can improve or maintain the NABERS rating of a building.

Our team has a long history of helping clients optimise their building’s performance over the design life of its building services systems. Our soft landings service can play an important role in ensuring the building services to live up to expectations.

To facilitate a `soft landing’, our team of operations specialists becomes involved at an early stage of the design process. This ensures that all important operations and maintenance documentation and procedures are in place, commissioning data is up to date, energy targets have been appropriately established, and that the designers are satisfied that their design intent is adequately documented.

During handover, the team (designers and operations specialists) assist the client’s facilities managers to familiarise themselves with the new building services.

Our professional building maintenance management service can assist property managers with assessment of their current building systems and the development of sustainable maintenance strategies, which reduce base building impact and budgets.