Parramatta Square is one of Australia’s largest commercial precincts integrating four premium A-grade commercial towers with 240,000 square metres of office and retail wrapped around a public domain. The vision for the precinct is that “Parramatta Square always was, and always will be, a gathering place. A place for inspiration, discovery, and connection – the world’s gateway to the fascinating mosaic that is Parramatta.”

A vibrant green community

Adopting the Green Star Communities rating tool has steered the sustainable development of the precinct, facilitating collaboration across multiple organisations and landholders under the umbrella of the Parramatta Square Alliance, tasked with a charter to develop a new heart of the CBD.

Led by LCI Consultants, the 5 Star Green Star certification of the precinct called for cooperation between the Alliance’s diverse representatives from the City of Parramatta, Walker Corporation, Charter Hall, Western Sydney University, Sydney Water, AREF/JLL, NAB, the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences, NSW Department of Industry and Environment (DPIE) and on behalf of NSW Department of Customer Service.

“The Green Star Communities tool provided the project team with a useful framework to focus attention and initiatives towards the achievement of sustainability targets. It has incentivised cooperation and innovation amongst project partners,” explains Chris Patfield, Parramatta Square and Centenary Square Place Manager at the City of Parramatta.

The precinct benefits the businesses and 24,000 operational workers that work within Parramatta Square and is freely accessible for the enjoyment of the wider Parramatta community – residents, students and visitors. Across these tiers, the Green Star Communities rating recognises best practice strategy formulation, engagement and delivery of sustainability initiatives, including:

• Implementation of the local government area’s only public place recycling scheme
• Collaboration between Walker and the City of Parramatta to implement a formulated strategy that appropriately engages on a defined community vision, including the provision of public space and facilities for community use
• Initiatives to reduce waste and pollution, whilst promoting sustainable initiatives relating to active transport and disability access
• High social sustainability supported by community use and facilities in PHIVE and educational opportunities at Western Sydney University.

Working within the constraints of a large-scale project with a long delivery timeframe required a certain tenacity to achieve the rating. “The biggest challenge was working through the requirements of the submission to see how they apply retrospectively to design decisions already implemented, whilst ensuring that new initiatives could still be enabled upon operation of the precinct,” explains Mr Patfield.

“The biggest achievement has been the collaboration across organisations to achieve the 5 Star Green Star communities rating, that reflects the key sustainability features of the project,” he says. Looking ahead the project team is following the ongoing development and refinement of the Green Star Communities tool and will review updates in consideration of continuing sustainability efforts to achieve a 6 Star rating.

PHIVE: the red building that’s green inside

Delivered by Built for the City of Parramatta, PHIVE is a six-level building home to the Parramatta library, Council Chambers and community facilities, as well light-filled event spaces. It is crowned with striking red roof, inspired by the colours of Australia’s fauna, and includes 549 tessellated panels that cover building’s façade.

As lead contractor, Built modified the concept design to ensure the project was 100% electric and achieved net zero operations from day one. Joe Karten, Head of Sustainability and Social Impact at Built, said that early on, the Built team identified ways to enhance energy savings, and embrace technology.

“For PHIVE, we saw opportunities to optimise the building’s design to include natural ventilation, reduce energy demand and remove the need for gas for building operations. Electrification was not part of the design for the building but was a perfect fit for the City of Parramatta’s net zero goals, so it quickly became one of our goals for the build too,” shared Joe.

Here are some of the features that helped the team reach their goal:

• A variable refrigerant flow system and rooftop condensers instead of gas boilers and chillers removed the need for gas and cooling towers. No cooling towers means potable water consumption was lowered by 60 percent
• A smart, mixed mode ventilation system which uses a combination of natural ventilation from operable windows and mechanical heating and cooling. An energy recovery ventilation heat exchanger pre-heats or pre-cools air coming in and out of the building, reducing PHIVE’s total energy by 35 percent
• The building management system is linked to the Bureau of Meteorology and two local weather sensors to ensure optimal operation of the mixed mode ventilation system and the energy recovery ventilation system
• An electric domestic hot water system and thermal storage provides the hot water needed for the building’s end of trip facilities and kitchenettes
• To reduce the energy demand for domestic hot water, a hot water ring main delivery system was not included in the design, meaning water will not be continuously heated and pumped around the building. Instead, local electric units generate hot water to taps that are rarely turned to hot.
• A 13-kW solar PV system

Parramatta’s iconic PHIVE building was first recognised for its world leading sustainable design and construction with a 6-Star Green Star rating in 2024. Davina Rooney, CEO at GBCA said PHIVE’s global recognition broadened when it was highly commended for the World Green Building Council's prestigious Leadership in Sustainable Design and Performance Award for an institutional project on November 13.

"If Parramatta Square is the heart of Parramatta’s CBD, PHIVE is the heartbeat. Underneath its striking red roof is a smart building with a low environmental impact, all thanks to the City of Parramatta's vision. The people of Parramatta already know PHIVE is a special place, now the world does too.”

Green Building Council of Australia congratulates all involved with the project including City of Parramatta, architect Manuelle Gautrand Architecture, Australian architecture firms Lacoste+Stevenson Architects, DesignInc Sydney, and Built.