Workzone East

Workzone East at at 1 Nash Street, Perth is a 7-storey commercial office building spanning approximately 12,356 sqm and 83 car bays. The 5-star Greenstar building was constructed in 2013.

As the Building Manager (Knight Frank Australia), we worked closely with the building’s owner, RF Corval and Cundall to create a 5-year sustainability roadmap. The plan allowed us to achieve Carbon Neutral certification in 2021 under the Australian Government’s Climate Active Carbon Neutral Standard for Buildings.

Workzone East became a 6-star NABERS Energy building with carbon neutrality by implementing energy-saving initiatives that have reduced energy use by 57% in five years.

“We were really proud to be the first commercial office building to achieve carbon neutrality in 2021. But we didn’t stop there, we’ve continued with upgrades and improvements to make the building even more sustainable," Janitha Kaushal, Senior Facilities Manager, Knight Frank Australia.

The Workzone East building has achieved impressive sustainability and water savings. 

How we did it

We installed an energy and water management reporting package, Grosvenor Energy Management System (GEMS). The system was purchased to help us manage our 6-star NABERS rating. We receive daily, weekly, and monthly NABERS performance reports that benchmark current building performance against the target NABERS rating of the building. More than 20 submeters also help us detect excess water use and faults. Within 9 months of the new system being installed, we’d saved 840,000 litres of water. 

Cooling towers accounted for around 40% of the building’s total water usage. New sets of float valves have reduced the overflows from the tower basins. The old backwash filtration pump was also replaced with a newer model. The extensive roof area supports a 99 kW Solar PV system capable of generating 150,000 kWh of electricity per annum, equivalent to 105 tonnes of CO2.

We completed a trial of waterless urinals on one floor and estimated a 20% water reduction in the washrooms' water consumption by upgrading urinals on the remaining floors. We also replaced two 275-litre gas boilers with energy-efficient heat pump systems in the End of Trip Facilities.

What's next? 

We have now completed stage 1 of works that contribute to our commitment to the building’s electrification over the next 10 years. We will continue demonstrating to the community and industry how Workzone is meeting science-based targets for reducing water and energy use.