It all adds up
Professor John “Dad” Dumay: “It’s not a matter of if but when we’re going to go to a low carbon economy. That’s the way it is.”
Berry Good
The door swings open and a man dressed in arctic gear, including a parka jacket and fur boots, walks in. It’s Mike, the warehouse manager at wholesale frozen fruit supplier The Berry Man, rugged up for -20′ C temperatures in their state-of-the-art freezer facility.
A better way to work
Q. Where is Australia’s first 5 Star NABERS strata commercial building?
A. In Brookvale!
Lifestyle Working on Old Pittwater Road sets the benchmark in sustainable design. Designed by the award-winning development and property services company Stable, it features airy breezeways, natural light, a swimming pool, indoor and outdoor working spaces, rainwater harvesting and, on the roof, 770 solar panels.
Lifestyle Working opened in 2007. The owners corporation made the decision to install solar panels a few years later, approaching Energy Trade to design a community electricity network which could pass on savings to the tenants. The solar panels were installed in September 2016 by Case Statewide Solar, with Energy Trade managing the project and providing ongoing maintenance and oversight.
Q. Hang on. What is a community electricity network?
A. An ingenious way to share the benefits of a 200kW solar installation fairly between everyone using energy in the building. It’s a great solution for a commercial building with multiple strata owners and / or tenants who have differing energy needs. Energy Trade explains it best, here.
Lifestyle Working Brookvale is an impressive example of what can be done in a shared roof situation, whether it is a strata building or owned and tenanted. Everyone benefits, enjoying much smaller power bills as well as feeling good about coming to work in a beautiful, sustainable work place.
Do you have solar on your business?
Join the Solar Champions to tell your story here.