19 September 2012 —Investa Property Group has shifted to continuous reporting on the environmental performance of all buildings in its office portfolio.
The reports provide:
- Quarterly figures of the electricity, gas and water use per square metre of the portfolio, nine months earlier than is typical www.investa.com.au/sustainability/results/performance
- Separate building scorecards for buildings within Investa’s office portfolio quarterly, in the public domain; www.investa.com.au/office/portfolio
- A window into the day-to-day tuning of buildings for research purposes and sector improvement. See www.greenbuildingsalive.com/datatools/pulse
Investa sustainability, safety and environment general manager Craig Roussac said Investa had moved to continuous reporting “for our own staff, our customers and our investors”.
“Over a decade of experience in measuring and acting on sustainability has taught us that helping people make smart choices is what keeps the indicators tracking downwards,” he said.
Investa’s public reporting will now be above the current industry norm and overcomes two major limitations of voluntary sustainability reporting in the sector: the delays in action from annual feedback and aggregation of results, which makes it harder to pin-point specific areas that require attention.
“Investa has been testing the impact that frequent, meaningful data can have on the performance of our building managers,” Mr Roussac said.
“Our new building insight tool Pulse, encourages constant system tune-ups and allows the building operators to continue to push the limits of good performance.
“There are still great gains to be made. Our sector can really set a national example, especially with rising prices of electricity from the grid.”
Investa chief operating officer Jason Leong said the market consistently demanded office buildings with strong environmental performance.
“Every year, tenants increasingly ask us for more information and better tools to enable them to create more energy efficient, environmentally friendly workplaces,” he said.
Me Leong said many superannuation funds invested in property, with analysts giving closer scrutiny to governance and sustainability in their portfolios. The Australian property sector has solid, commercial evidence of the benefits of “going green”, he said.
Already, at 120 Collins Street in Melbourne, through Investa’s Pulse building insight tool and new electric duct heater strategies, supply air pressure settings and temperature set point adjustments, the facilities management team has been able to cut energy use by 10 per cent between April and June this year.
The move saved $15,000.
Meanwhile, Investa’s 2011 Sustainability Report , which tracks the environmental performance of the office portfolio, land development activities and business operations, was recently released.
Mr Roussac said Investa was the first in the industry to publish a stand-alone sustainability report and make clear commitments to achieve eco-efficiency targets.
“The group’s 2009 Sustainability Report was the first to incorporate data visualisation giving readers the opportunity to form their own conclusions about how sustainable the business operations are,” he said.
“In 2012, we believe we have raised the bar further by providing the information in a pared back, accessible way, focusing on what matters most to our tenants and investors.”
Key results include;
- Greenhouse gas emission intensity down 6 per cent between 2010-2011 and down 14.5 per cent since 2008
- Electricity use intensity down 6 per cent between 2010-2011, and down 30 per cent since 2003/04
- Gas use intensity remained the same between 2010-2011, but down 49 per cent since 2003/04
- Water use intensity down 4 per cent between 2010 – 2011, and down 43 per cent since 2003/04
- Portfolio NABERS energy 3.99 stars, a 1.39 star improvement from 2003/04. Overall 88 per cent of Investa buildings rated NABERS Energy 3 stars of more.
- Portfolio NABERS water average 3.54 stars, a 0.67 star improvement from 2003/04.
- Commercial and industrial waste (waste predominantly generated by tenants) – recycling rates increased to 76 per cent and total waste sent to landfill reduced by 43 per cent.
- Construction and demolition waste (waste disposed of by contractors, typically during building refurbishment projects often done on behalf of tenants) – 68 per cent of waste recycled and the total waste collected reduced by 31 per cent to 65 tonnes.
- 5 Star Rating on Group Safety from the National Safety Council of Australia with a score of 97.2 per cent.