Green Square North Tower has become the first commercial building in Australia with a cogeneration plant to be awarded a 5 Star NABERS Energy whole building rating.

Floth Sustainable Building Consultants was appointed to develop environmentally sustainable designs in mechanical and electrical services, environmentally sustainable development (ESD) and energy modeling for the Fortitude Valley development.

Floth project manager Ian Osborne said a number of design options were considered in the initial stages, however Floth’s co-generation technology proved to be the most space and cost efficient option.

“Floth’s has achieved a building emission rating of 129 CO2/m2 per annum, which is the lowest emission figure for a building of its size in Australia,” Mr Osborne said.

Implementing its co-generation technology, Floth eliminated the use of solar panels and the need for purchasing green power, resulting in a cost effective alternative.

“Currently the North Tower generates 770kW of electricity as a result of the co-generation plant. To generate the same amount of peak electricity using solar panels we would need an area three to four times the size of the building’s available roof.

“Our primary objective was to reduce the buildings’ carbon footprint by adopting good design principles.”

Floth has also incorporated the use of a central air handling plant and a low temperature variable air volume (VAV) system, to assist with minimising the CO2 emissions from the North Tower.

“Our philosophy has always been that the future of building services must be cost effective and integrate sustainability with practicality,” Mr Osborne said.

With 78 employees in Sydney, Brisbane and Jakarta, Floth’s engineers are fast earning reputations as experts in ESD.

Floth has provided engineering and sustainability services on a number of high profile projects including Green Square, HQ, 400 George Street and King George Central in Brisbane.