Sustainability
Sustainable Building Innovation: From Strategic Refurbishment to Low-Carbon Construction
GDI has established its sustainability credentials through its long track record of upgrade and refurbishment of existing buildings to significantly improve NABERS ratings.
Energy ratings and efficiency gains are made by replacing lighting with LEDs, upgrading air conditioning systems to reduce the environmental impacts of refrigerants, and upgrading lift systems for improved operational efficiency. This approach reduces environmental impacts but also outgoings, making economic sense and ensuring property resilience.
Most environmental standards used by the property sector measure the operational phase of properties life. Existing properties have embodied carbon – the carbon created during their construction phase – and this carbon is generally 30% of carbon emissions over its life cycle (for a typical office building) excluding demolition phase.
Through refurbishment and improvement, GDI conserves embodied carbon, therefore, where carbon conservation is concerned, our historic asset strategy of continual improvement is demonstrably effective.
Our Commitment to Sustainablity
Approx. 70%
Carbon reduction strategy implemented at WS2
PCA WA 2024 Award Winner
WS2 Best Innovation Award
Powered by over 25% renewable energy
WS2 is built with sustainability in mind.
Innovative
WS2 is Perth’s first steel and timber hybrid office building
WS2
In 2023, GDI completed construction of a new office building, WS2, in Perth. WS2 is a 9,468sqm, premium office building constructed from a combination of steel and cross laminated timber above the existing car park at Westralia Square.
The first of its kind in the Perth CBD, the project introduced a step change approach to minimising embodied carbon across a portfolio, and importantly in our built environment.
The three key innovations were; to replace the maximum amount of concrete with cross laminated timber, to borrow structural support from the existing concrete car park structure and to harness service capacity from an adjoining office building (Westralia Square).
The key factors in combination have driven an effective embodied carbon reduction strategy of approximately 80% compared to the construction of an equivalent contemporary reinforced concrete building.
WS2
WS2 is a 9,468sqm, premium office building constructed from a combination of steel and cross laminated timber above the existing car park at Westralia Square.