25 Jul 2018
A carbon positive built environment is on the horizon, with many of our members utilising Green Star – Performance to radically decrease carbon emissions from their buildings.
Dexus is just one of many businesses that has risen to this challenge, with 73 Green Star – Performance ratings under its belt.
For Dexus, Head of Group Sustainability and Energy, Paul Wall, says this is all part of the organisation’s individual initiatives towards a carbon positive future.
“Our goal is to achieve a net zero position for carbon emissions across Dexus’s managed property portfolio by 2030. This comprises all emissions sources within our operational control, including upstream and downstream emissions,” he explains.
Across its portfolio, Dexus has implemented a number of methods to drastically reduce emissions, such as investing in energy efficiency through its strategic upgrade program, as well as the virtual engineering project that applies complex analytics to optimise the performance of assets.
“Our pathway to achieving net zero emissions is both exciting and complex. We will achieve net zero emissions by 2030 through a prioritised approach that avoids, reduces or re-sources, offsetting our impact on the environment,” says Paul.
“We have a deep understanding of the effect of our operations on the environment and recognise that decarbonising our portfolio makes good business sense.”
More recently, Dexus came on board to support the GBCA’s Carbon Positive Roadmap as a partner, to help drive deliverables.
As Australia’s built environment currently contributes to around 25 per cent of carbon emissions, Paul believes thought leadership around these issues, like the Roadmap, will enable us to collaborate on advocacy and innovation.
“The pace of transformation of the National Energy market and successful implementation of the National Energy Guarantee is critical to providing market certainty and creating new energy opportunities.
It’s important that all government stakeholders put politics aside and support this goal as one of national importance,” Paul says.
At a performance level, Dexus is looking at how it can embrace new technologies to enhance its operations with low impact on the environment.
“Technology is reinventing the way we use power and driving the creation of smart buildings, transforming the use of our assets and resources from wasteful to convenient and efficient.
By driving the next phase of energy efficiency through a targeted, future focused building refurbishment program, we will identify, trial and deploy innovative products into our lifecycle planning to deliver the best experience for our customers, optimise energy performance and reduce costs,” Paul explains.
“Through using our scale to ensure that renewable energy opportunities are deployed within our assets and off-site, we will secure a reliable, responsible and cost effective energy supply for our customers.
Our holistic approach to sustainability targets includes long term certainty in energy pricing from renewable energy sources , supported by traditional grid energy during the transition.”
As Dexus charters its course towards a net zero future, bolstered by a long term strategy and investment in technology, Paul encourages other businesses to get on board with finding ways to diminish the impacts of building performance.
“New energy technology is rapidly evolving and energy markets are transforming to unlock years of advancements that, to date, have been restricted by uncertainty.
“With barriers now being removed, there are emerging opportunities for big business benefits.
Some of these benefits can be realised immediately, while others support long term strategic and environmental ambitions.”