Australia has signed on to the Paris Climate Change Agreement, committing to keep global warming to below 1.5C to 2C. The buildings industry has made a lot of progress in understanding the solutions for operational energy, and inevitably the proportion of impacts that is from embodied energy is increasing.
One of the outcomes of the GBCA roadmap to achieving this goal is to adopt zero carbon materials, products and services. The highest proportion of embodied energy is typically found in structural materials specified by the Structural Engineer.
To take this next step forward, Sustainability Consultants can benefit from understanding the Engineer’s options to ask the right questions and influence better outcomes.
Adam Jones, Future Green Leader for 2019, is a Structural Engineer passionate about design for reducing embodied energy and have lead the webinar on:
- Trends of operational vs embodied energy
- Influencing Structural Engineer’s culture
- Efficient design
- Solutions with concrete
- Solutions with steel
- Design for adaptability and resilience
- Reuse of existing buildings
- Solutions with timber
Calculating Cool is a free online rating tool to benchmark performance against best practice to help improve the design, installation and operation of HVAC systems. It provides quantitative and qualitative ratings for Base Building HVAC systems in Australian office buildings with more than 2,000 m2 NLA. It is currently being considered for inclusion in the Performance rating tool.
Calculating Cool has been developed in collaboration with industry bodies including
- the Australian Institute of Refrigeration,
- Air-conditioning and Heating (AIRAH),
- the Property Council of Australia (PCA),
- the Facilities Management Association of Australia (FMAA), and
- the Air-conditioning and Mechanical Contractors’ Association (AMCA).
The project was managed by Sustainability Victoria (SV) on behalf of the Council of Australian Government (COAG) Commercial Buildings Committee with joint funding from the Commonwealth, States and Territories, and delivered by Team Catalyst.
Calculating Cool can be accessed at www.calculatingcool.com.au
PC Thomas will introduce you to the tool and take you through a live practice: Introduction to Calculating Cool Presentation of a case study building example and it’s HVAC system Application of the online rating system using the above example Q&A session.
What is passive house? And what impacts can it have?
During this webinar, learn the latest from a leading expert in passive house with an opportunity for live Q&A with the presenter Andy Marlow, an accomplished architect and a Director at Australian Passive House Association.
Key learning areas include:
- High Performance Windows: How low-emissivity double or triple glazing with thermally broken or non-metal frames can allow solar radiation to penetrate during the winter months (free heating!) but limit during the summer.
- Thermal Insulation: Sufficient insulation is what’s needed within the building’s envelope, providing enough thermal separation between the inside environment and the outdoors.
- Mechanical Ventilation Heat Recovery: How ventilation recovers heat and cool that would otherwise be wasted whilst also filtering the air that’s coming into the building.
- Airtightness: Ensuring there are only a very limited amount of gaps and cracks within your envelope, giving you full control over your internal environment
- Thermal Bridge Free Construction: using materials that are less conductive to heat (i.e. timber in place of metal) and/or incorporating thermal breaks.
The term ‘biophilic design’ is being both increasingly used and increasingly misunderstood. In this webinar, Stephen Choi will take you through an introduction to biophilic design, including identification of the patterns and elements that can be incorporated into a project and how they impact both end-users and the project teams. He shares examples of how biophilic design has been successfully applied in projects around the world.
The move towards more energy efficient and tighter buildings might lead to increased consumer exposure to the thousands of chemicals embedded in building materials.
This seminar will present new high throughput methods to characterize the population exposure to tens of thousands chemical-product combinations used in building materials and cleaning products, using method of lines and other modeling approaches.
We demonstrate the application of these tools via a comparison of potential human health impacts associated with different alternatives to phthalates (DEHP) as plasticizer in vinyl flooring over its life cycle.
We will also shortly look at an advanced tool presently developed for modelling both chemicals mass balance and energy balance, and how it can inform building and ventilation design and strategies.
We finally discuss how this works, and provide a scientific basis for the international management of chemical in products in a life cycle perspective, in the frame of the UN environment Global Chemical Outlook II.
There is growing evidence that facility cleaning services can have a big impact on a building’s air quality, and occupant wellbeing. The implementation of green cleaning protocols can directly help your organisation achieve up to four Green Star Performance credits, and improve your landfill and energy targets. Yet the challenge of engaging with contracted services and an after-hours workforce, means that many opportunities for training, measuring and improving performance are lost.
In this 45 minutes webinar, Bridget will explain how to influence existing contractor agreements and embed stronger controls into future procurement process.
Learning outcomes:
- Understand which cleaning service requirements can directly and indirectly help your organisation to achieve Green Star Performance credits.
- Learn how to identify the leverage points within existing cleaning contracts and how to use them to engage with after-hours cleaning personnel and managers. Receive a practical guide to the five key aspects of the procurement process necessary for building stronger and more measurable future agreements.
About the presenter: Bridget Gardner is considered the Australian authority on sustainable cleaning practices. She was the technical expert in cleaning during the development of Green Star-Performance, a Director on the former Construction and Property Sector Industry Skills Council (CPSISC), and is a frequent contributor to industry journals. As Director of Fresh Green Clean, Bridget has provided training, auditing and contract documentation since 2006, and has worked in the cleaning industry for 17 years. She is skilled at researching and translating complex information into practical and actionable information, is a qualified trainer and facilitator and an experienced and dynamic presenter.
Learning from those already excelling in our industry is a great way to gain valuable insights for your own career. Whether just starting out or a few years into the industry, knowing which path to take and the direction different career moves may lead to is often a challenge.
Join this webinar to learn from three exciting industry professionals. Each has taken a very different path to their current role and look forward to sharing their journey. Bring your questions to them and gain tips and inspiration for your own career decisions.
Speakers include:
- Matt Williams, Principal, ESD, LCI Consultants
- Janaki Dhagat, Sustainability Manager, Charter Hall
- Karen Greaves, Sustainability Manager – QLD and Yarrabilba Development, Lendlease
- Nick Baker, Green Star Special Projects Lead, GBCA
COP26 and the Cities, Regions and Built Environment Day, on the 11 November, marks an exciting move within sustainability and a focus upon the role our industry plays. In recognition of the significance of this event, the GBCA is excited to host a series of two webinars, in which we hope to the share insights and learnings about what COP26 can mean for our region. We are thrilled to welcome our esteemed panels to these sessions.
Join our thought leaders at this critical time for our industry. Our second webinar will share learnings and discussions from COP26 itself. We will explore what this means for our industry, the policy landscape and how we unpack the implications.
Panelists:
- Tanya Cox, Chair of the World Green Building Council and a Director of the GBCA
- Ken Morrison, Chief Executive, Property Council of Australia
- Davina Rooney, CEO, Green Building Council Australia
Our first webinar will set the scene for what we hope to see at COP26 and the potential to accelerate our climate positive future. We will examine the role and importance of the built environment and what needs to change. We will also share our latest report “Closing the performance gap in Australia’s commercial office sector’’ and discuss how this can enable us to take high level ambitions and draw these down into practical change now.
Panelists:
- Cristina Gamboa, CEO, World Green Building Council
- Davina Rooney, CEO, Green Building Council Australia
- Michael Li, Senior Project Manager (Cities), Climate Works Australia
- Helen Bell, Research Director, Green Building Council Australia
- Carlos Flores, Director, NABERS
The WELL Building Standard global rating system for healthy buildings has exploded in Australia in the last four years, with about 10 per cent of the total occupied office footprint now registered or certified. With WELL v2, the program has also expanded to include modules on diversity, inclusion, affordable house and gender equity. And in locations far beyond traditional offices, now including hospitals, universities, retail and residential. But what do recent WELL projects show us?
Join WELL Accredited Professional and WELL Faculty, Jessica Bennett, as she takes us through some of the most inspirational projects and examines what lessons can be learnt from recent case studies.
From One Malop Street, Geelong, to 25 King Street, Brisbane and SMU Connexion, Singapore, Jessica shares key outcomes of using the WELL tool, and what you can learn for your own projects.
Key topics include:
- Air Quality
- Tips for successful Performance Verification V1, V2 and Crosswalks
- People are key to success – how do we bring the end user on the journey?
- Beauty, biophilia and the Mind & Community categories