From NZ Herald, “The Truth Behind Eco-Buildings” Business, 16 November, 2012

The first building in New Zealand to get 6 Green Stars, the top level in the rating system, was Samson Corporation’s Geyser building in Parnell. Adapted from the Australian Green Star rating system, the system here evaluates projects against eight environmental impact categories such as energy and water use, indoor environment quality and materials.

“The brief to our architect was we wanted a non-air conditioned, green-rated office building with a central courtyard and tenancies of various sizes to cater for most of the business sizes in New Zealand,” says Samson Corporation’s Marco Creemers, pointing out that 86 per cent of businesses employ six people or fewer.

The most significant feature is its double skin glass facade, creating an air gap between the two skins which is used to both passively heat and cool the building. Other features to gain Green Star points include low-energy sensor-controlled lighting, staff bicycle storage and showering facilities, rain water collection and reuse in bathroom flushing and irrigation, “Hungry Bins” for composting organic waste, and car stacking machines which enable cars to be parked in a smaller basement space that doesn’t need lighting or air conditioning.

But even with all these features, the building was still coming up a few points short of 6 Stars during the design phase. The solution was to introduce a small internal courtyard into the floor plan of the largest building in the complex, providing extra fresh air ventilation. Creemers says the green features added 7 per cent to the cost of the build but points out that the payback through energy savings is seven to 10 years. The building claims to use 27 per cent of the energy of a typical retail/office building of its size. That equates to around $90,000 of electricity a year for common areas in the standard building, whereas Geyser, when it’s fully tenanted, is expected to cost just $30,000.

“Tenants make immediate savings, not to mention they can reduce their company’s carbon footprint straight away by being in a building that doesn’t waste energy. So they are making ethical decisions,” says Creemers. “We have a green lease, so you have to commit to green philosophies. You have to recycle and if you are doing a fit-out you have to use sustainable materials.”

Walking the talk, Samson Corporation has taken up residence. “We have moved our business from an air conditioned building into this natural environment and we have noticed a huge difference with our staff,” says Creemers. “You feel much better and also people are more self-regulating. In an air conditioned environment you have always got this constant battle with people too hot and too cold and people keep adjusting the heating. You can’t really do that in green building. You have got to adjust yourself.”

From this developer’s point of view, sustainable building makes good business sense. “We take a long term view. We like building assets that will be around for generations,” says Creemers. “We always design for a recession. When you’ve got this building to choose from and a standard building that maximises the floor area of the site, and one is giving you more amenity that the other, which one are you going to choose for the same rent?”

Creemers says the Green Star rating, despite being expensive, bureaucratic and heavy on paperwork, provides a useful service. “It’s the only means in New Zealand where you can compare buildings.” But he’d like to see a greater emphasis on the “as built” rather than the design rating. “There is a lot of misrepresentation. The ‘as built’ rating proves you’ve got the same rating as your design. It is a lot more difficult to get.”

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