Green Star rating
5 Star Green Star – Fitouts
Location
Gadigal land
NSW
Certification
2026
Type
Commercial project
5 Star Green Star – Fitouts
As part of the early access program, Dexus has become the first to receive a Green Star rating under the brand-new Fitouts tool. 1 Bligh Street is a premium commercial project towering over Sydney’s financial district but it’s what’s inside this contemporary building that has us talking.
Standing on Gadigal Country, 1 Bligh Street is home to an office fitout that represents a complete rethink of how workplaces are delivered, used and adapted over time. By discarding the traditional cycle of “design, build, demolish and rebuild”, this project is a modular workplace that allows new tenants to evolve the space without construction or waste.
On average, the lifespan of a fitout is 5-7 years, with 368.6 tonnes of waste per fit out, accounting for up to 40% of a building’s lifecycle carbon emissions. Addressing this huge impact through projects like Dexus’ Forever Fitout model is a critical piece of the larger puzzle if we are to create a better built environment for people and the planet.
For the team at Dexus it was the fundamental alignment between Green Star Fitouts and Forever Fitout that led to them joining the early access program with GBCA. From the outset, the Forever Fitout method was designed to reduce waste, lower embodied carbon and support customers as they move toward more sustainable occupancy.
The Forever Fitout model
In partnership with Woods Bagot, whose workplace design expertise gave form and experience to the modular platform, the team at Dexus have delivered a ‘Forever Fitout’, which represents a complete rethinking of a workplace’s lifecycle.
“Historically, each new lease meant starting again: extensive design decisions, long construction periods, significant make‑good costs and unnecessary demolition of workplaces. This approach was costly for customers, carbon‑intensive for the environment, and contributed to long vacancy periods while the works took place,” said Fleury.
Forever Fitout changes that model entirely. It uses a customisable kit‑of‑parts, supported by a sophisticated planning logic, that can quickly adapt from whole‑floor to part‑floor, dense to light, collaborative to focused – allowing customers to step into a premium Green Star workplace from day one.
“It’s an owner-led workplace platform that can adapt as customers evolve, without construction, disruption or waste. It’s built for what’s next, not just now,” explained Fleury.
“For our team, Forever Fitout means delivering workplaces that are effortless to occupy, sustainable by design, and genuinely future‑ready. It reflects the culmination of years of learning about customer needs, leasing friction points and embodied‑carbon reduction opportunities, and translates those into a smarter, circular model for office fitouts.”
The partnership
Woods Bagot brought the Forever Fitout to life through a clear design philosophy grounded in three principles: nature, place and aesthetic longevity. This created a calm and comfortable environment designed to promote both focus and collaboration.
This design-led approach was central to the fitout’s success. Rather than simply mapping a modular kit-of-parts onto a floor plate, Woods Bagot worked with Dexus to ensure the planning grid, room configurations and material palette felt considered, timeless and genuinely premium. The result is a workplace that is flexible and sustainable by design, and a space people actually want to be in.
Aesthetic longevity was a deliberate sustainability strategy. By selecting timeless finishes and durable materials, the fitout is designed to remain relevant, reducing the likelihood of premature replacement and supporting the core circular ambition of the Forever Fitout model.
The broader project team also included MPA for delivery, NDY for sustainability services, and Slattery for carbon and lifecycle analysis.
A workplace with sustainability, efficiency, and health at its core
With Australia’s climate disclosures requiring large organisations to report on Scope 3 emissions from 2026, including emissions in materials and waste, fitouts and the emissions they create each turnover is firmly in the spotlight.
For customers, sustainable fitouts mean healthier, more comfortable environments for people through natural light, ergonomic furniture, better acoustics, and access to different work areas to support personal workstyles. While at a portfolio level, Green Star Fitouts complement Dexus’ base building achievements, allowing the team to deliver a more holistic and efficient space that begins not just at the façade, but within the day-to-day experience of the workspace.
The combination of modular design, responsible materials and thoughtful spatial planning has a clear positive influence on tenant wellbeing. By using its planning grid, the 1 Bligh Street fitout supports a high-quality workplace with an abundance of natural light, improved acoustic control and ergonomic zoning. This was particularly evident in the design drivers used by tenant Woods Bagot at 1 Bligh Street where they incorporated principles of nature, place and aesthetic longevity to create calm and comfortable environments that promote focus and collaboration amongst staff.
For the team at Dexus, the Green Star Fitouts tool reinforced these outcomes by rewarding healthy materials, acoustic performance, lighting quality and comfort conditions. These initiatives created workplaces that feel premium, calm and supportive. Customers have better experiences in spaces that are easier to be in and more intuitively designed, which was reflected in early tenant feedback and ongoing interest in the model.
By embedding modularity, durability and material reuse into their Green Star Fitout, Dexus is significantly reducing waste and embodied emissions when compared to traditional fitouts and creating spaces that contribute positively to the people in them along the way.
While formal retention data will strengthen as more second generation leases transition, early signals to Dexus indicate that customers value the combination of reduced make good obligations, adaptable workplace layouts and verified sustainability credentials.
Sustainable non-negotiables
Design for reconfiguration and reuse:
Forever Fitout is a kit‑of‑parts model, so adaptability is baked in. From planning grids to modular rooms, the fitout is designed to reduce demolition, disruption and waste throughout the lease.
Circularity enabled:
Dexus has embedded circularity into product and material selection to retain value at end‑of‑use, supported by supplier take‑back and product stewardship wherever possible.
Responsible materials and procurement:
The team preferenced low‑carbon, durable finishes and products with EPDs, stewardship schemes and verified indoor‑air credentials.
Waste performance:
Contractors must plan for high diversion from landfill and provide transparent reporting; Dexus has set clear expectations for recovery pathways during construction and future de‑fit.
People and performance:
Dexus insists on workplaces that are supportive of wellbeing, acoustic comfort, ergonomics and zoning, enabling sustainability and experience to reinforce each other.
Green Star Fitout credits
A central concept of the project and the Forever Fitout program is normalizing reuse and extending the life of the fitout well beyond a typical tenant cycle. Therefore the ‘Enabling Future Reuse’ credit was key to their strategy.
Circularity starts on day one
As a resource efficient, low-carbon and people-centric office fitout, the project excels in all the standard pillars of sustainable design. However, what sets the project apart is its focus on long term circularity.
“Through the Forever Fitout model, we’ve moved away from the ‘lease-demolish-repeat’ cycle, setting a new benchmark for circularity in fitouts. Ultimately this represents an important shift in perspective, seeing fitouts not as isolated, temporary installations but as long-term adaptable assets. I hope the project encourages the industry to rethink traditional models in favor of smarter, more sustainable circular approaches that benefit tenants, landlords and the planet,” said Peperdy.
This focus on circularity has been built into the core of Forever Fitouts and Dexus’ early access Green Star project, 1 Bligh Street.
“We specify modular systems and durable finishes so spaces can be reconfigured when needed, not rebuilt. This planning logic minimises embodied carbon from recurring works and keeps materials in service longer,” said Fleury.
At the product and material level, the team prioritised stewardship‑backed components with replaceable parts and verified environmental credentials to make refurbishment the default, not the exception.
Operational manuals and schedules carry through maintenance instructions to extend life and protect value. Together, these steps shift the market from fitout churn to retain, refresh and re‑use – the essence of a circular workplace.
Performance data
The strongest performance outcomes for the Green Star rated 1 Bligh Street, related to carbon reduction and waste avoidance. Traditional fitouts create large amounts of waste from demolition and refresh cycles – typically occurring every 5 to 7 years and embedding around 200kgCO2/m2.
This project 1 Bligh Street’s Green Star certification required digital asset registers, stewardship pathways and retention of materials between tenancies. This principle was reinforced in the work with Slattery who modelled embodied carbon scenarios for the project and established an upfront carbon baseline that allows Dexus to demonstrate improvement opportunities over time.
Circularity is not the only benefit delivered by this project, performance was also considered throughout this fitout.
Operationally, customers also benefit from reduced disruption and lower ongoing costs associated with change. While energy and water efficiency are primarily delivered at the base building level, Green Star Fitouts embeds commissioning, maintainability and indoor environment quality requirements that contribute to improved operational performance. These outcomes, when combined, demonstrate that Forever Fitout performs better than a traditional fitout from both a carbon and lifecycle perspective.
Challenges overcome
The biggest challenge at 1 Bligh Street was also the project’s defining opportunity: integrating true modularity with existing base-building services.
“To solve this, we coordinated adaptable AV/IT and room systems so modules can move without re-engineering cores and risers. This preserves design intent while enabling rapid reconfiguration — essential to circular outcomes under Green Star Fitouts. Early and ongoing customer engagement allows requirements to be documented and integrated into planning, so operational changes don’t compromise performance evidence at certification,” said Fleury.
The resulting project is a high-quality workplace that remains modular, demonstrating that flexibility and compliance don’t have to come at the cost of design or quality.
Lessons learned, and practices to share
When asked about their biggest piece of advice, the Dexus team was confident that the best lesson to learn is that certification success begins early in the project’s story.
“The most efficient projects build Green Star Fitouts requirements directly into their design and procurement processes rather than treating certification as a parallel activity. Early alignment ensures that documentation such as asset registers, material evidence, commissioning plans and de fit pathways are captured as part of standard delivery,” explained Fleury.
Another key learning for Dexus was the critical link between sustainability and modularity.
“Designing for reconfiguration rather than demolition significantly improves circularity outcomes and simplifies the evidence required for credit achievement. This approach also protects design intent and improves customer experience, which supports the commercial case for certification,” said Fleury.
Finally, the team solidified how important collaboration with partners is, including bringing everyone together on the ride. By working closely from the outset not only with the team at GBCA, but MPA, NDY, Slattery and Woods Bagot, the team ensured technical requirements were integrated with architectural vision. The end result is a smoother Green Star submission and stronger final workplace.
For NDY, the Green Star Fitout certification was a pivotal moment.
“Being the Green Star Accredited Professional (GSAP), on the first ever Green Star Fitouts certified project is a career highlight. It’s both exciting and motivating – this result validates our approach and provides an example to the industry of what the next generation of sustainable fitouts can look like. Certification is vital because it turns ‘good intentions’ into verified outcomes, ensuring that sustainability isn’t just a design footnote but a delivered reality,” concluded NDY’s Justin Peperdy.
1 Bligh Street is a landmark first. It’s not just the inaugural Green Star Fitouts certified project, it’s also a proof of concept for a smarter, more sustainable model of workplace delivery. By moving beyond the lease-demolish-repeat cycle, Dexus and Woods Bagot have set a new benchmark for circularity in Australia’s office market.
