720 Bourke Street

Cbus Property had an ambitious vision for sustainability for this new development. The design brief had core goals of hardwiring the building for health and wellbeing, while also contributing to the Docklands community and limiting any negative environmental impacts. They wanted to include parks, gardens and greenery to soften the built environment and improve the amenity for the building’s occupants.

Sustainable design

We designed a tri-generation system that produces electricity and heat using a single fuel source, in this instance natural gas. The production of electricity through this system produces chilled water and waste heat as by-products, which are then used for heating and cooling.

When we conducted energy modelling and compared the amount of carbon dioxide produced by the building with and without the tri-generation plant, we could prove that the plant produced an equivalent saving of 1,486,588 kg of carbon dioxide per annum. The biophilia on the building also contributes towards lowering greenhouse gas emissions naturally.

We also equipped the Building Management System (BMS) with an increased number of meters (in comparison to previous commercial building design). Located throughout the building, the meters included ones for thermal energy, gas, power and water. The building operator can analyse, diagnose and fine-tune the BMS based on the meter reading results. This ensures the building is running at its optimum efficiency.

Key achievements

It can truly be said that 720 Bourke Street has sustainability embedded in its walls. The sustainability initiatives meant the building achieved a maximum 6 Star Green Star rating and NABERS rating of 5, making it one of the most sustainable buildings in the city.

In 2017 the building achieved Australia’s first ever WELL Certified™ Gold rating for the shell and core.

720 Bourke Street, is the first existing building in Australia to be awarded the coveted WELL Gold certification for core and shell. It has also earnt a 6 Star Green Star – Office As Built V3 rating from the Green Building Council of Australia and 5 Star NABERS Energy rating.

WSP provided design and construction services and fit-out review services, including mechanical, electrical, communications, fire protection, hydraulics, environmentally sustainable design (ESD), acoustics and fire, civil and structural engineering. We also provided comprehensive base-building acoustic advice, with key achievements including control of noise through a central open atrium and mitigation of impact noise from a basketball court above a medical tenancy.

We developed an innovative trigeneration energy system that enables the production of electricity and heat with a single power source. The system uses natural gas to produce low carbon electricity, chilled water and hot water.