Goodman : Property Trust wins national energy efficiency award

Goodman Property Trust's energy efficiency initiatives have won plaudits at the prestigious Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority Business Awards 2018.

The Trust won the Energy and Emissions Reduction Project Award and was highly commended in the Large Energy User of the Year Award.

John Dakin, Chief Executive Officer of Goodman (NZ) Limited, the Manager of the Trust, said the most pleasing elements of the project were the impact it had on both the bottom line for our customers as well as reducing our impact on the environment.

'These awards recognise the efforts we have made to be industry leaders in energy efficiency. The winning project has saved our customers more than $1.1 million in operating costs since 2014,' he said.

The Project involved Goodman's VXV Office Portfolio, located in downtown Auckland adjoining the Viaduct and Wynyard Quarters, which was recently sold to funds associated with Blackstone as part of Goodman's repositioning to focus on industrial property. (The sale is expected to settle later in the year subject to OIO).

The portfolio of seven buildings has more than 88,000 sqm of rentable space with a daily workforce of around 7,000 people. Businesses located there include Air New Zealand, KPMG, Microsoft/HP, Auckland Transport, Fonterra, Datacom and Bayleys.

The energy project aimed to benchmark and improve the buildings' energy efficiency to lower operating costs. It initially focused on mechanical services but was extended to encompass all aspects of the buildings.

Key components included:

• Installing energy monitoring systems and establishing benchmarks
• Developing an alert service to detect anomalies in energy consumption
• Implementing a service programme to fix faults and continually review the heating, ventilation, air conditioning and lighting systems
• Securing appropriate resourcing and technical capability
• Capital upgrades to improve performance even further.

The NABERSNZ rating tool was used to assess the buildings' performance, with a target rating of 4.5 stars across the portfolio.

The project saved more than 7.5 million kWh of electricity, a reduction of 775 tonnes in carbon emissions and more than $1.1 million in operating costs for customers.

Energy consumption has been reduced from an average cost of $310 per sqm a year to a forecast $180 per sqm by 2019.

Mr Dakin said the project had continued to raise environmental responsibility among the businesses located at VXV Precinct too.

'Initiatives around waste, transport, and health and wellbeing are being shared and actively promoted across the many companies that occupy this portfolio of buildings,' he said.

'Energy efficient offices improve workplace quality and help us attract and retain corporate customers. Together with energy efficiency and water consumption, the property decisions of large corporates are increasingly recognising the importance of indoor air quality, lighting levels, waste systems, transport links and workplace amenities.'

Future initiatives planned for the VXV Precinct property portfolio include LED lighting upgrades and façade improvements to provide shade and reduce air conditioning loads.

Goodman Property Trust has been a participant in the Carbon Disclosure Project since 2009.