Electro-Retrofit Masterclass
How to take your existing buildings into the A-League
1 July, 12-5.30 pm
Future-proofing your assets isn’t optional – it’s essential. With tenants demanding lower emissions and higher performance, and investors rewarding buildings that deliver, the case for electrification has never been stronger.
Join the Electro-Retrofit Masterclass to unlock the proven strategies behind some of Australia’s highest-performing buildings – 101 Collins Street and 111 Bourke Street, Melbourne.
Learn how electrification and smart retrofits are driving better NABERS and Green Star ratings, slashing energy use, and elevating asset value.
Whether you’re a building owner, architect, engineer, facilities manager, sustainability manager or mechanical contractor.
Don’t let your buildings fall behind. Step up to the A-League. Book your spot now and earn CPD points.
- Kickstart with Confidence – Learn how Australia’s top retrofits got moving and won early buy-in
- Avoid the Pitfalls – Real world barriers and how expert teams overcame them
- Tenant Engagement Strategies – How to plan around occupancy, manage disruptions, and keep stakeholders onside during retrofit works
- Tech That Delivers – What works, what doesn’t, and where the real value lies
- Boardroom-Ready Business Cases – Speak the language of the C-suite to give projects the green light
- Owner Insights – What motivates investors to back bold moves – and what makes them hesitate
Meet the speakers and learn what they’ll be sharing with you
Monique Alfris, head of market transformation, NABERS
A systemic retrofit of how performance is measured in the built environment. The July 2025 NABERS benchmark update will reflect the latest National Greenhouse Accounts emissions factors, ensuring continued accuracy and relevance of NABERS Energy ratings. As grid emissions drop—particularly in states with high renewable penetration—emissions-based ratings will no longer be a reliable indicator of performance. Proposed solutions may include transitioning to energy-based metrics that treat electricity and gas equally in megajoules. A suite of prediction tools allows stakeholders to model how their building ratings will evolve under the 2025 update and two possible 2030 scenarios.
Alex Sear, Director (Electrification & ESG), ADP Consulting
The next level of design for electrification has arrived. It’s way less painful and far cheaper than ever, thanks to a load of tricks, tips and checks that can minimise the impact on architecture costs, infrastructure costs and tenant convenience. What’s within easier reach now are major uplifts in NABERS and electrification, and the brand profile of your building.
Julian Bott, Director, Cundall
Julian will discuss the electrification of a two-storey office building in regional Western Australia, occupied by state government tenants. Originally constructed in the 1980s, the building relied on a gas-fired hot water boiler housed in a dedicated plant room, which required regular bulk gas deliveries, a logistical challenge due to the site’s remote location. As the boiler approached the end of its service life, Cundall was engaged to identify a cost-effective, reliable, and sustainable replacement. The solution involved transitioning to an all-electric heating system, significantly improving energy efficiency and eliminating fossil fuels.
Wayne Lobo, Senior Sustainability & Mechanical Engineer, Arup
The electrification and retrofit of Charter Hall and Brookfield’s 111 Bourke Street, Melbourne, East End Place. A deep retrofit to attract new tenants: Complete electrification of services, including heating, hot water, and cooktops; smart controls and BMS upgrades for efficiency and comfort; Rooftop solar installations, EV infrastructure, and envelope improvements; ambitious performance goals: 6 Star Green Star Buildings v1, 5.5 Star NABERS, and Climate Active Carbon Neutral. Ernst & Young secured as new anchor tenant, demonstrating that retrofit excellence attracts high-profile tenants.
Eoin Loughnane, Manager (NSW/ACT), A.G. Coombs Advisory
In terms of retrofits and electrification, the 101 Collins Street, Melbourne project is hailed as a national standout. The building is now fully commissioned and operational. Here is how the team replaced the gas-powered plant with electric heat pumps. At T1 Sydney airport, new controls saved 1377 tonnes of CO2 a year or $400,000 and in London an optimisation project (no new infrastructure or CAPEX, just smarter use of the existing plant) won an international CIBSE award.
Samuel Marks, Chief Executive Officer, Setmetrics
Technology plays a key role in the decarbonisation of commercial buildings; from individual projects through to portfolio and city scale sustainability efforts. This session will explore how a new generation of engineering grade design tools are transforming the delivery of capital upgrades and energy efficiency solutions in the built environment. How can commercial real estate ecosystem use collaborative tools to decarbonise building assets with “energy twins” that deliver smart, efficient and sustainable buildings from design to operations.
Leaders panels
In this capital constrained, carbon challenged property world, they’ll be particularly keen to learn how to do more with less. Productivity. It’s the name of the game. Learn about the mechanics of doing these projects – how they’re managed from a tenant perspective, how they’re financed, what the motivations are from leaseholders or valuers.
In this era of tighter than normal capex, take a peek into the lease structures of major tenancies and ponder how real life experiences might vary the outcomes presented in the document’s black and white clarity.
Chewy Chang, National Sustainability Operations Manager, Charter Hall
Chewy is the National Sustainability Operations Manager for Charter Hall’s Office portfolio, responsible for the implementation and monitoring of environmental, social and governance (ESG) related activities that support the ESG strategy of Charter Hall’s wholesale office funds.
He has previously held sustainability and ESG roles at Dexus, Lendlease, GPT Group, CBRE and Stockland.
Chewy holds a Bachelor of Architecture (Hons) and a Master of Property Development from UNSW Sydney.
Steve Ford, Former Head of Sustainability, GPT
Steve has been at the forefront of delivering sustainability changes in the property industry for 20 years. He is reputed as an industry leader in energy and decarbonisation, resilience, resource circularity and nature impacts. In this session he will draw on his previous experience as Head of Sustainability at GPT and a strong advocate on the Property Council’s Sustainability Roundtable leadership forum to share his insights into opportunities and challenges in electrifying buildings (beyond the technical aspects) to ensure a fully integrated strategy.
Tim Wheeler, Manager, Strategic Research Programs, CEFC
Tim Wheeler is the Manager of Strategic Research Programs at the Clean Energy Finance Corporation. He is a senior built environment sustainability leader with a passion for developing and advocating for ambitious public policy to support the transition to net zero emissions. His career includes working for the Federal Government, the International Energy Agency, the Green Building Council and the Property Council of Australia.
David Palin, Director — ESG, Mirvac
Dave is a skilled ESG leader and business co-founder with 20+ years background in developing and delivering all elements of ESG strategy including resource efficiency, carbon reduction, circular economy, social procurement and the fundamental data and reporting systems. Dave is a technologist and Chartered Engineer and member of the Better Building Partnership’s Leadership Panel and is a former Chair of their Waste Technical Working Group. He is a member of the Property Council’s Sustainability Roundtable, Energy Working Group and has contributed to several NABERS and Green Star technical groups.
Tickets
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