In Australia, commercial buildings are major users of energy and water, with demand for these utilities increasing everyday.

It is predicated that commercial buildings will account for 20% of Australia's greenhouse emissions by 2010.

This unsustainable level of demand creates the need for costly investment in additional base-load and peak energy infrastructure resulting in even more GHG emissions.

Consequently we face immediate environmental and financial pressure due to this rising demand.

Clearly, the challenge is to investigate and invent practical and affordable solutions which are replicable.

The Challenge

Building "green" is an opportunity to use our resources efficiently while creating healthier buildings that improve human health, build a better environment, incorporate local ecology, a sense of place and provide cost savings.

The green^t building seeks to achieve a level of best practice in environmental sustainable design for a commercial building in a tropical environment.

The Vision

The vision of the green^t building is to feature design elements that set new standards in environmental sustainability, imagination and innovation in a tropical environment.

The green^t project recognises the competing issues in energy and water management as well as the competing issues of interaction between building, the living, appropriate working space for users, and residential requirements.

The green^t building will strive for a greater balance of the natural, the social and the economic environments in which the project is sited.

The ^greent Building

The green^t building design seeks to minimise the total environmental impact of its materials, construction, operation and deconstruction while maximising opportunities for indoor environmental quality and performance.

The green^t building endeavours to be constructed and operated so to create an internal micro-climate, contributing to a reduction in energy consumption and produce more appropriate commercial ands social conditions in the tropics.

The projects outcomes are to be benchmarked against government and private rating tools with the optimistic anticipation that it will become a research and development model for sustainability with a green star rating.

Possible Key Features being explored for the green^t building

Water - water conservation and innovative tropically appropriate water reuse systems

Energy - improvements, tenancy sub-metering, peak energy demand reduction, verandas, operational screens for shading, roof top integrated with photovoltaic's solar harvesting, thermal storage, passive light supply, systems to feedback into energy generation, environmental interface

Air - more efficient mechanical systems, monitoring localised target delivery, indoor spaces, communal spaces, roof gardens, passive ventilation

People - external views, thermal comfort, individual comfort control, maximise natural ventilation and air change effectiveness (i.e. use natural breezes and climate to enhance clean air and reduce internal pollution), daylight/electric lighting levels

Ecology - local native shrubs and greenery to encourage local native birds such as sunbirds, figbirds and honeyeaters and to soften building structure and provide shade and ambience

Materials - workstations, lighting, lightweight construction materials for roof, introduced landscaped walls and edges

Transport - provision of car parking, cyclist facilities, commuting public transport, shuttle services, city loop service to connect parking and CBD workplace (possibly electric)

The future

The vision of the green^t building endeavours to work towards becoming the living proof that energy hungry commercial buildings can become productive healthy places to work and live, as well as a great place to lay foundations for sustainable business well into the future.