LOCAL GOVERNMENT SUMMIT: The technical sessions in the Local Government, Net Zero and Sustainable Communities summit focused on cost savings for councils – first and foremost.
In the case of Nick Tassigiannakis from Bridgeford it was the opportunity to be selective and plan programs that would achieve the best returns both financially and in terms of emissions reductions.
Ben Slee from Blacktown City Council shared a unique solution when needing to deliver 11 new major projects. The council eschewed available ratings systems in favour of creating a set of principles for sustainable buildings that can now be shared far and wide. And Rod Kington of City of Sydney, ran through some of the most demanding transition projects in the council’s asset portfolio, driven by a very ambitious sustainability agenda.
Do more with less
Nick Tassigiannakis of Bridgeford (a lead sponsor) launched his part in the technical sessions with a clear message to the audience. When it comes to the linked ambitions of electrification and net zero, “don’t let the perfect get in the way of the good”.
Great results could be achieved even without 100 per cent electrification, he said.
“Every business can achieve net zero” Tassigiannakis said, but many were failing to “even address their scope 1 and scope 2 emissions.” In fact, just 30 per cent of businesses were on target to achieve their net zero targets, he said.
Without getting caught up in the consulting cycle, councils could transition from planning and design into real emissions reductions with their assets, he said.
“The real challenge is actually implementing something, seeing the results, measuring benefits,” Tassigiannakis said.
“You need to plan. Plan for all electric, look at auditing and a portfolio of approach. How do you prioritise? I’ve got a case study we did the City of Melbourne, where we looked at 40 of their facilities that prioritised which building should be done and when there were opportunities for others.”
Keeping an eye on available grants or green finance was critical, he said.
Future proofing involves planning for asset life cycles, and without this the facilities manager might be forced to replace like for like which might mean paying more than needed.
“You need to plan. Plan for all electric, look at auditing and a portfolio of approach. How do you prioritise?
“Heat pumps are expensive, and if you can reduce the load, you can save a lot of capex (capital expenditure) and also improve the optics.”
There’s also the potential to create big savings by load shifting energy generation and storage.
“How can you decouple the time of need from the time of generation … and offsetting at the end with whatever’s remaining [in terms of need]?
“And then continue to loop back around with measuring and reporting. What did you achieve? How can you capture that value?”
Ideally, the savings can create a revolving fund so that councils could continue to generate more improvements.
Using energy audits and reducing loads is a great way to reduce the size of equipment needed – expensive heat pumps included – as well as achieving ongoing emissions reduction.
When it comes to aquatic centres they can contribute up to 80 per cent of scope 1 emissions.
Blacktown ambitious for sustainability – but with a tight budget
Ben Slee, City Architect with Blacktown City Council, opened his presentation with a large-scale view of a painting by Dharug artist Leanne Tobin, Are You Listening Now? to pay homage to the Indigenous people of the area.
Blacktown, said Slee, comprised one of the most culturally diverse populations in Australia. It was now experiencing climate change, with the number of days over 35 degrees set to significantly increase under a low emissions scenario and more under a high emissions scenario. “It can get quite scary,” he noted.
Which is why the sustainable design objectives “are really, really important.”
Council has a policy to respond to climate change, and part of that policy is to demonstrate leadership by building sustainable buildings, Slee said. “And at the moment, we’re building 11 major civic projects.”
As part of the need to be both sustainable and highly fiscally conservative Slee’s job was to tread the line between both. His team examined several of the major sustainability ratings systems for buildings globally, from Green Star to Passive House.
“We need people to draw things and explain how things are going to work, not write endless reports that no one wants to read.”
Green Building Council of Australia’s Green Star requires “very significant administration, and the associated costs of that administration, and quite frankly, in Blacktown, that money is better spent on shelves in the library, or an extra swimming pool.” In addition, because Green Star is designed to hold clients to account, there’s considerable consultants’ fees to incorporate.
“Councils tend towards compliance,” Slee said, “but Blacktown is different. We set out to be a leader and an exemplary client and a transformational design directorate, of which I am a part, exists to work with our consultant team and to hold them to account.
“And so we set out to create a framework, and it’s in the name. We set out to enable transformational design and when the director doesn’t think we’re enabling and pushing our teams, our consultants, he comes and tells us.”
Consultants were useful and some were in the room, he said.
“We need people to draw things and explain how things are going to work, not write endless reports that no one wants to read.”
The fixed budget means the team was constrained and had to make choices. Embodied carbon for instance was considered “really, really difficult”.
“Most of the buildings are not going to achieve the objective that we’ve set for embodied carbon.”
The final step and perhaps the critical question is when the team goes to the builders to get a price on the projects.
“When we go to the builders, [will] they come back with prices that we can actually afford and we can build these things … do we need to compromise? And will those compromises affect the sustainable outcomes?”
City of Sydney tackles complexity with integration
Technical services manager for the City of Sydney Rod Kington also paid homage to the Indigenous people of the area.
“As an engineer, I’m inspired by the ingenuity and deep knowledge Aboriginal peoples have applied to country for tens of thousands of years, from sophisticated agricultural aquaculture systems to sustainable land and water practices that embody principles that we still – and I like to – strive to embed in modern engineering.”
“The City of Sydney has actually done lots and lots of work over the years on developing net zero. We’ve actually been carbon neutral for a very long time. We’ve been offsetting all of our carbon. We’ve actually got a PPA [power purchase agreement] in place. But … we’re not happy to call ourselves net zero, unless we truly are.”
“The City of Sydney has actually done lots and lots of work over the years on developing net zero. We’ve actually been carbon neutral for a very long time. We’ve been offsetting all of our carbon. We’ve actually got a PPA [power purchase agreement] in place. But … we’re not happy to call ourselves net zero, unless we truly are.”
Kington’s job is to translate the City’s new environmental strategy into tangible outcomes for its own operations. “I’m talking about ourselves, our own operation, the carbon we generate.” There was a “whole other piece” the City did in its local government area.
The plan he was sharing had been freshly released. It included the complete elimination of fossil fuel gas between now and 2030 and a 30 per cent reduction in energy use, with a baseline of FY 2023.
“The City of Sydney has actually done lots and lots of work over the years on developing net zero. We’ve actually been carbon neutral for a very long time. We’ve been offsetting all of our carbon. We’ve actually got a PPA [power purchase agreement] in place. But … we’re not happy to call ourselves net zero, unless we truly are.”
The City is very strong on that and felt it was missing “two specific elements” to achieve its ambitions – electrification and switching to low emissions technologies, and the other to improving energy efficiency.
“You have to figure out how to get rid of gas out of your portfolio, because [often] when you get rid of gas, you add electricity, and then you’ve got to figure out where you’re adding electricity.”
With electric vehicles you may be converting petrol into electric energy, but that then can hurt your energy efficiency target.
In ranging through the work, Kington and his team decided to “internalise” the knowledge they were absorbing and to create better outcomes by closer collaboration, precisely because of the cumulative impact one action might have on another or the entire portfolio.
Electrification projects, he said, are “really difficult” and involve a range of people – from electrical, hydraulic and mechanical engineers to specialists in space ventilation.
And because engineers can tend to work in silos, he was particularly keen to get a team based approach. Consolidating operational assets was also part of the strategy.
It meant “you can get better utilisation, you reduce maintenance costs. You have these opportunities if you can line asset replacement effectively, where you can actually make it a better outcome for the future of the buildings.”
“Everyone’s speaking to each other, everyone understands that if I change something over here and electricity increases, I’ve now got a peak demand problem, and I don’t have a transformer big enough to deliver that, and you have to stay on top of that through the whole process.”
When it came to electrifying heritage buildings – it was another entire set of challenges emerging.