Fact sheets highlight building retrofit savings

The City of Melbourne and Sustainable Melbourne Fund have released a series of fact sheets on multimillion-dollar building retrofits funded through environmental upgrade finance. The fact sheets highlight targeted energy and emissions savings and other key project details.

The retrofits have a total value of $4.9 million and are projected to save 5350 tonnes of CO₂-e emissions per year, equivalent to taking more than 1200 cars off the road annually. The projects include installation of a trigeneration system, high-efficiency chillers, cooling towers, lighting system upgrades, heating and air-conditioning units and controls, occupancy sensors and double glazing.

Sustainable Melbourne Fund Chief Executive Scott Bocskay said the fact sheets demonstrated the financial and environmental benefits of retrofitting through an environmental upgrade agreement and would be produced for retrofit projects funded through the financial mechanism going forward.

“The fact sheets illustrate the types of buildings and retrofits that can be financed under an environmental upgrade agreement and provide information on service providers working in the commercial sustainability sector. They are a useful resource for building owners looking at opportunities to improve their own buildings,” Bocskay said.

“The key missing ingredient for building owners making their buildings energy- and water-efficient to date has been access to capital. Environmental upgrade finance overcomes this barrier through a major rethink of how to approach financing a building upgrade - making it a powerful tool for cutting energy and water use, and therefore costs.

“Building owners can now look beyond traditional sources of funding to make their buildings higher performing and share the costs and benefits with their tenants. Environmental upgrade finance puts energy and water efficiency within the reach of more building owners and occupiers.

“Melbourne City Council has long been at the forefront of sustainability and this financial mechanism, the first of its kind by a local council in Australia, reinforces Melbourne’s commitment to achieving the best possible outcomes for the commercial building sector and the environment.”

The fact sheets are available at http://www.sustainablemelbournefund.com.au/euf/1200/casestudies.