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CIBSE Facilities Management Team Award
Recognising the achievements of a facilities management team delivering outstanding building performance.
Sirius Building, Canberra, Australia - Mirvac Group
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Mirvac has the unique distinction of being the first organisation ever to attain an Australian six star NABERS Energy rating without the use of GreenPower. The rating was achieved for a large grade A office building called the Sirius Building in Canberra, Australia, which Mirvac owns and operates.
The 46,147m2 building opened in 2010 and, over the first four full years of operation, achieved a consistent year-on-year reduction in gas and electricity use of more than 20%. This level of performance improvement requires outstanding focus and complete commitment.
The facilities management (FM) team have not only maintained the six star rating over three rating years, but have also further improved the performance over that time. The judges were particularly impressed with the range of FM measures taken to maintain consistently high levels of performance.
While the NABERS energy rating focuses on energy, achieving a high star rating also requires a great deal of effort to provide an effective and comfortable overall working environment for the building occupiers.
To reduce electricity consumption, Mirvac has invested in the latest technology including LED lights with integrated microwave occupancy sensors and a chiller plant optimisation system to enhance chilled water plant performance. An 80KW solar photovoltaic array has also been installed.
These modifications are expected to reduce the property's greenhouse emissions by 100 tonnes a year and achieve a simple payback period of six years with current electricity prices, while also providing a buffer against future energy price hikes.
Operationally, several initiatives have been implemented to assist the FM team to monitor building performance actively. These include daily building usage profiles emailed to the FM team, and night audits undertaken to minimise out-of-hours energy consumption and to identify new initiatives. This approach has pinpointed scheduling inefficiencies, helped optimise sensor lighting periods and highlighted opportunities for lighting upgrades.
Energy consumption has been cut by a remarkable 32% from the first full year of operation in FY2011 to FY2014. This equates to an enormous $107,844 per year saving in energy costs using current energy pricing and a potential capital value uplift of $1.467 million if the full impact of energy cost savings and outgoings reduction is realised in the property valuation (using the capital rate of 7.35% from June 2014).
Over the remaining 10 years of the lease, the energy efficiency work should represent a saving of $1.078 million before factoring in any forecast energy cost escalations.
Project Team:
Building owner: Mirvac Property Trust
Building occupier: Commonwealth of Australia Government Department of Health and Ageing
Mechanical / electrical engineer: ACES Air
Investment / property company/ facilities manager: Mirvac