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GIW has expanded our service offering to include the Existing Building Sector: NABERS Assessments and BEEC Ratings for commercial office buildings.

We recognise the demand from the existing building sector with a number of building owners and facility managers now asking the question, “How well does my building perform relative to other stock on the market?”

Operational efficiencies have come under a microscope of late and we are well placed to determine your initial NABERS Star rating and identify upgrade initiatives and associated return on investment.

GIW is pleased to announce that we have expanded our service offering to include the following:

  • NABERS Assessments
  • NABERS Energy Commitment Agreements
  • Post Occupancy Evaluations
  • Energy Audits & Retrofitting for Energy Efficiency

NABERS Assessments

NABERS (National Australian Built Environmental Ratings System) allows building owners, managers and tenants of offices, commercial buildings and hotels to rate the energy and water efficiency, waste management and indoor environment health of their building.NABERS provides a rating of the building on the basis of its measured operational impacts on the environment. A Star Rating is used as an indicator of how well or poorly the building performs compared to other building stock.

From November 1, 2011, it will be mandatory for commercial office buildings over 2000 square meters to have an annual NABERS assessment as part of an overall Building Energy Efficiency Certificate (BEEC) under the Commercial Building Scheme (CBD).

NABERS Energy Commitment Agreements

This offering provides our developer and owner clients with the opportunity to “badge” the environmental performance of their new office development from the outset (ie. Prior to construction). This will help to provide a competitive advantage in securing prospective tenants of the commercial office space. The Commitment Agreement will typically state a commitment to design, build and commission the premises to a 4, 4.5 or 5 star level.

Tip: Consider a combined packaged of BCA Section J Compliance and NABERS Energy Commitment Agreements. Energy modelling can be run concurrently for both assessments providing a savings in consulting costs.

Post Occupancy Evaluations

A post occupancy evaluation (POE) is provided after 12 months operation of the new building asset. This assessment provides owners, building managers and tenants an insight into the assets annual performance. Measurements include comfort and air quality, energy and water use, levels of artificial and natural light. This allows for a comparison between the planned versus actual operational costs and reporting of this information to relevant stakeholders. The process provides the identification and documentation of opportunities for improvement in design, maintenance and operation. The reporting includes outputs of life cycle costing. Often a comprehensive audit and theoretical modelling will be used to verify all data.

A POE can result in an improvement in the specifications and in the briefing requirements for future building projects. Stakeholders need to consider this as an opportunity to improve service delivery by identifying shortcomings. The standards may be:

  • Too high (with initial cost implications) or
  • Too low (with maintenance cost or safety implications) for the purpose of the project.

The information can be of financial benefit to a client and therefore it becomes an investment, not a cost, particularly when a roll out of this type of projects is envisaged over coming decades.

Energy Audits & Retrofitting For Energy Efficiency

Energy audits provide building owners, landlords, commercial real estate agents and facility managers formalised reporting of operational energy performance.

This involves  a strategic review of architectural elements and building systems by qualified engineers. The aim of the review is to identify opportunities to improve building performance across areas such as lighting, heating, cooling, seepage, and reduce electricity and other service costs.

This audit in undertaken in accordance with AS3598 to the required level as follows:

  • Level 1 – “Overview Audit”, site walk through
  • Level 2 – “Energy Use Audit”, includes brief recommendations
  • Level 3 – “Detailed Analysis Audit”, designed to extract the maximum possible energy savings available from your site.

Stakeholders are provided with the information critical to selecting suitable improvement measures. Reporting includes building retrofit measures, budgeted costs and associated pay back periods. Operational energy efficiency improvements will be directly reflected in actual operating costs and in the building’s NABERS Star Ratings. This will also be valuable in attracting potential tenants to a building as their outgoings are reduced. GIW have vast experience in project management and can oversee the implementation of retrofitting works on behalf of our clients.

For more information please see the following brochure: DOWNLOAD PDF