This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
COLLIERS has helped WIN IPG Adelaide to achieve a 6 Star NABERS Waste rating and the highest verified recycling rate for a commercial building in the country, at its flagship 77 Grenfell Street property.
Along with the highest possible waste rating available in Australia, with only current 6 Star NABERS waste rated sites in the country, Colliers’ end-to-end waste strategy was also employed to achieve a 94% recycling rating, beating out the previous and already exemplary rate of 80%.
“As an organisation and owner of 77 Grenfell Street, WIN IPG Adelaide is motivated to have a positive environmental impact,” said Chris Lock, founder and managing director of IP Generation.
Colliers’ end-to-end waste strategy emphasised data accuracy, waste streams, monitoring waste data, resource recovery, the recycling rate and tenant engagement.
“On the back of attaining a 4.5 Star result from the 2020 NABERS Waste rating cycle, we were keen to achieve further improvements on the building’s waste rating, even though at the time, this rating was already the second highest score in Australia.”
The new ratings were achieved after Colliers’ Himadri Chatterjee, director of facilities management and real estate management services and Lisa Trigg, director and property manager at 77 Grenfell Street established a team to address challenges at the site.
The team met each week over the last 18 months, reviewing status, data collection, staff training requirements and hurdles put up by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The quality of data integrity for operational waste is still an emerging space which makes data verification very important. Waste data is often not as accurate and trusted as typical data sources such as energy and water, therefore it is important to have a high overall data quality score,” said Chatterjee.
Chatterjee underlined the importance of using both scientific and verifiable methods for data accuracy, with industrial scales used for onsite weight management, the cleaning staff at the site given new training and the undertaking of monthly visual audits.
The process also included beefing up waste streams to include the seven major waste streams: general waste, mixed recycling, secure paper, paper, cardboard, organics and e-waste. Which helped in the reduction of general waste from 20% to 10%.
“The tenant at 77 Grenfell Street, the Department of Transport, was very supportive of sustainability related initiatives and had strong enthusiasm thanks to the 2020 NABERS waste success,” concluded Chatterjee.
Recent assets to achieve a 6 Star NABERS Waste rating all four Walker Corporation owned and operated towers at Collins Square in Melbourne, as well as Cbus Property and Charter Hall’s development on the same street at 171 Collins Street.