A sustainable council

Buildings | Transport | Waste | Communicating about sustainability

Buildings

Quality buildings

With a large number of buildings including administration offices, swimming pools and community centres, Auckland City Council has a major part to play in promoting sustainable buildings across the city.

Council's new buildings and major refits are more focused on their environmental rating than ever before. The green star rating system is a tool used to asses the environmental design and achievements of a building. However, there is currently only a scheme in place to assess new office buildings. Although there is not yet an appropriate rating tool to use for our wide range of projects, our current projects are designed to be equivalent to the standards of a four-star rating.

One arm of council that has taken a proactive approach to sustainable buildings is the Auckland Zoo. Sustainable building practices are now specified for any new developments ensuring efficiency, future operating costs, environmental impact, and waste minimisation are considered at the design stage.

Green star rating system (www.nzgbc.org.nz)
Auckland Zoo (www.aucklandzoo.co.nz)
 

Energy-saving initiatives

Aside from the larger re-fit and development projects, there have been a number of smaller initiatives to further reduce our energy consumption in our existing buildings. These are things that can be done relatively easily by a professional and do not come at a high cost or greatly disrupt the working environment.

Initiatives include:

• setting up a monitoring and reporting system to improve information around our energy consumption
• installing occupancy sensors in administration buildings to turn lights off when they are not needed
• measuring lighting levels and removing bulbs in areas that are over-lit
• installing timer switches on some appliances and equipment such as the hot water urns in the staff tea rooms
• making the most of the natural light coming in from the windows by positioning desks and using shading equipment in such a way that maximises existing light.
   

Reduce the juice

A large amount of energy that is used in council owned buildings each year is controlled directly by the way staff use lights, appliances and equipment. We want to reduce the staff consumption by about 10 per cent through learning to work smarter.

Some of the things we tell our staff are:

• turn off your monitor at the switch when you are away from your desk for more than 15 minutes
• find out where the light switches are on your floor and use them
• shut down your computer at the end of the day
• turn off your phone charger at the wall when you're not using it
• take the stairs - up one, down two!
• dress according to the weather - that goes for inside as well as outside!

Published October 2008