Flinders Street in Adelaide is now home to what is claimed to be South Australia’s first building to achieve the top six star NABERS Energy rating and the first NABERS Indoor Environment rating.

Developed by Cbus Property and managed by CBRE, the 50 Flinders Street office tower was designed to achieve a 5 star NABERS Energy rating but thanks to ongoing improvements to the property’s building management controls system, it has edged upwards to a 6 star NABERS Energy rating.

The 6 star rating this year follows two consecutive 5.5 star ratings.

Recent sustainability upgrades include the installation of a 66kW solar PV system, which had been up and running since December last year and generated around 40,000kWh of electricity since it was installed.

The office building has also achieved a 6 star NABERS Indoor Environment rating – which it claims represents another first for the state.

“A NABERS Indoor Environment Rating has also been undertaken at 50 Flinders for the first time, representing the first published Indoor Environment rating for a South Australian property,” CBRE property management senior director Michael Hall said.

“A score of 6 stars for NABERS IE was achieved, demonstrating Cbus Property’s and CBRE’s commitment to maintaining best-in-class air quality and thermal comfort conditions while pursuing sustainability and energy management targets.”

The Flinders street property has also improved on its 4 star NABERS Water rating from last year by 0.5 stars.

The building also has a 6 star Green Star rating.

The office tower, designed by Adelaide-based architects JPE Design, has a net lettable area of 21,744.9 square metres that is leased to People’s Choice Credit Union, the South Australian government, BUPA, Cbus Super, Fiefy’s Café, among other tenants such as Adelaide’s only office building CBD childcare facility.

According to Cbus Property chief executive officer Adrian Pozzo, the focus on environmental performance and tenant wellbeing results in both higher occupancy rates and rental levels.

“Our aspiration is to create one of the greenest Green Star and NABERS-rated portfolios in Australia and the recent 6 star NABERS Energy rating awarded to our market-leading 50 Flinders Street tower in Adelaide is an impressive step towards this goal,” he said.

The developer also now has 14 Green Star projects under its belt – amounting to 400,000 sqm of commercial space nationally.

Recent Green Star projects include the 5 Star Green Star rating for 5 Martin Place in Sydney. The developer has another five Green Star projects in the works.

According to Cbus Property’s executive manager – asset management, Chris Hardy, “the real estate market in Australia has undoubtedly shifted over the last five years.

“Tenants are faced with the increasing challenge of staff retention within a slowly shrinking workforce and a growing younger employee profile demanding sustainable and healthy workplaces as part of their corporate and cultural expectations.

“Cbus Property understands that our commercial buildings shape the culture and personality of our partners and the tenants occupying our buildings, hence aligning with tenancy management teams who are very aware of Green Star when making decisions on the occupancy of new office accommodation.”

(Visited 1 times, 1 visits today)