Mulpha’s Tim Spencer  – how to go the extra green mile when you’re a giant property developer 

INTERVIEW: When The Bond – a wellness-focused office and retail building in Mulpha’s Norwest Business Park – officially opens its doors on 27 April it will represent a milestone on many fronts.

The seven-story, 10,800 square metre construction is Mulpha’s first commercial building in the Circa precinct of the business park, and the second and largest one fabricated from timber. 

More importantly, it is the culmination of the Malaysian developer’s eight-year sustainability journey which began in 2014 when the focus was squarely on “time, cost and quality,” says head of development Tim Spencer.

“For us, the psychological aspect of sustainability was initially very important to us. We were interested in the ‘feel’ of being in a timber building,” because the look and smell of raw timber helps to make the medical spaces within the building feel more inviting and less clinical, Spencer tells The Fifth Estate ahead of his appearance on the developers’ panel at Urban Greening 2023. 

Located beside Norwest Private Hospital, The Bond will be tenanted by a cancer treatment centre and an IVF clinic, among others. 

The cross-laminated timber frame emerges out of a two-storey concrete podium that was originally a brick pit but now houses retail, a café and childcare facilities. Offices on the higher stories have coworking spaces and breakout zones. 

Spencer says it was initially difficult to persuade clients to pay for sustainable features in buildings. “The sustainability movement only turned on its head just before COVID-19 – this was when people were prepared to pay more for sustainable features. Prior to that they were nice things to have.”

Fast forward two or three years and “now [sustainability] is the number one factor in a sale. Buyers ask: ‘what is the carbon footprint of the home?’ They are looking for the ability to live on zero carbon.”

Spencer says achieving zero carbon is not going to be a magic bullet solution. Rather, it’s going to be more akin to the Japanese concept of “kaizen” which is a process of continuous, incremental progress over time. 

“There are lots of tiny little initiatives. But the three major ones are getting rid of gas and committing to buying renewable energy, passive design and committing to ‘load sharing technology’ – using a digital application which monitors which part of your building needs electricity.”

Smaller wins can be achieved through target setting – such as including sustainability performance targets as part of the architectural excellence brief. 

When Mulpha undertakes a development, the sustainability consultant initially sets all the targets that other consultants such as architects must then achieve or beat. Car share schemes and EV charging are also part of the developer’s evolving sustainability arsenal. 

Now for biodiversity and the urban heat island effect

Now that the low-hanging fruit has been picked, Mulpha is tackling stickier aspects of the sustainability conundrum – biodiversity and the urban heat island effect. However, Spencer says he is still hitting walls when it comes to nature-based solutions. “People say ‘we love what you’re doing’ in terms of organic waste management with worm farms, and [attracting pollinators with] bee hotels but they’re still not willing to pay for it.”

“It can be difficult to establish a direct value connection.” 

Flora, fauna and heat: the next frontiers 

Mulpha and the University of New South Wales have developed an urban heat island framework for the entire Norwest site, following a two-year study into how the precinct manages heat and assessing building and landscape designs to help mitigate it. 

The research team monitored and analysed Norwest’s microclimate using 15 environmental sensors located around the precinct. UNSW developed a thermal map showing of the precinct showing the relative heat and coolness of buildings, car parks and green spaces. 

Last November the team released an urban cooling guide that illustrates the heat-prone areas of the precinct and offers strategies to cool them. 

Some of the solutions include rewilding hard surfaces using deep soil plantings and canopy cover, and installing water features

The goal of the program is to reduce the local UHI effect by two degrees. Some of the solutions include rewilding hard surfaces using deep soil plantings and canopy cover, and installing water features. Private landholders are being encouraged to grow their own trees.

The next step for Norwest is to improve biodiversity. Spencer says he is working on a flora and fauna strategy to decide which animals they would like to attract to the area and what native habitat they will need. The company’s future developments will be set and measured against biodiversity performance targets. 

Sustainable funding partners expected to jump aboard

Norwest’s focus on sustainability attracted the attention of two sustainable funding partners for half of the $160 million construction loan for the Norwest Quarter zero-carbon apartment development, expected to be announced soon. 

When built, the two apartment buildings will have rooftop solar panels, electric vehicle charging as well as the usual energy efficiency mod cons such as lighting, appliances and airconditioning. 

All 864 apartments will consume two-thirds less energy than a typical apartment that adheres to the existing building code. 

Beehives, worm farms, composting and natural landscapes will also be in the mix.

Governance is changing

Mulpha now has a corporate-level ESG committee and a sustainability framework and is securing green loans from its commercial banks. Rather than being tied to a particular project, Mulpha are also pursuing general corporate lending facilities with sustainability-based performance targets. 

As ever, governance is paramount when it comes to pushing the envelope with sustainability – especially in a precinct with as many landholders as Norwest. 

Fortunately, Mulpha controls the Norwest Business Association – a community title scheme, which has purview over all development applications (DA)s that owners put forward before they are submitted to the council. It is here that the developer can challenge owners to go that extra mile on sustainability to ensure its objectives are met.