Sustainability
Sustainable building innovation: from strategic refurbishment to low-carbon construction
GDI has established its sustainability credentials through its long track record of upgrade and refurbishment of existing buildings to significantly improve NABERS ratings.
Energy ratings and efficiency gains are made by replacing lighting with LEDs, upgrading air conditioning systems to reduce the environmental impacts of refrigerants, and upgrading lift systems for improved operational efficiency. This approach reduces environmental impacts but also outgoings, making economic sense and ensuring property resilience.
Most environmental standards used by the property sector measure the operational phase of a property’s life. Existing properties have embodied carbon – the carbon created during their construction phase.
This carbon can be up to 30% of a typical office property’s carbon emissions over its lifecycle, and that does not include a demolition phase. By repurposing and repositioning existing buildings, we conserve the embodied carbon. As far as carbon conservation
is concerned our historic asset strategy of continual improvement is effective.
In FY25, these initiatives resulted in following key achievements:
★ Portfolio NABERS energy rating increasing
to 5.08 stars (FY24: 4.96 stars)
★ 5 Mill Street NABERS energy rating increasing
to 5.0 stars (FY24: 4.5 stars)
★ 1 Adelaide Terrace NABERS rating increasing
to 5.5 stars (FY24: 5.0 stars)
★ Westralia Square completing its inaugural
NABERS waste rating and achieving 3.0 stars
★ WS2 completing its inaugural NABERS waste
rating and achieving 3.0 stars
★ WS2 base building being 100% covered by
renewable energy for FY25
Our Commitment to Sustainablity
Approx. 70%
Carbon reduction strategy implemented at WS2
Innovation & Excellence PCA National 2025 Award
WS2 Best Sustainable Development
Powered by over 25% renewable energy
WS2 is built with sustainability in mind.
Innovative
WS2 is the first steel and timber hybrid office building in Perth.
WS2
In 2023, GDI completed construction of a new office building, WS2, in Perth. WS2 is a 9,468sqm, premium office building constructed from a combination of steel and cross laminated timber above the existing car park at Westralia Square.
The first of its kind in the Perth CBD, the project introduced a step change approach to minimising embodied carbon across a portfolio, and importantly in our built environment.
The three key innovations were; to replace the maximum amount of concrete with cross laminated timber, to borrow structural support from the existing concrete car park structure and to harness service capacity from an adjoining office building (Westralia Square).
The key factors in combination have driven an effective embodied carbon reduction strategy of approximately 70% compared to the construction of an equivalent contemporary reinforced concrete building.
WS2
WS2 is a 9,468sqm, premium office building constructed from a combination of steel and cross laminated timber above the existing car park at Westralia Square.