Addressing water use in green business precinct
A joint venture between developer Axiom Properties and leading engineering firm Coffey International, WorldPark 01 Adelaide is designed to revolutionize working environments by facilitating and encouraging interaction, innovation and communication between individuals and across companies.
According to Paul Rouvray, Axiom general manager for South Australia and the Northern Territory, this environmentally sustainable development is aimed at setting new benchmarks for world’s best practice in relation to the environment and working concepts. “This project will be sympathetic to the environment by addressing water and energy use, carbon emissions and recycling,” Rouvray said.
“The three hectare site can accommodate in excess of 30,000 square metres of environmentally sustainable office accommodation, built in a campus style setting including cafes, gymnasium, childcare centre, car parking and secure bike storage.
“The precinct will be water self-sufficient with minimal demand on the Adelaide mains water supply. WorldPark 01 Adelaide will have on-site blackwater and greywater treatment plants as well as rainwater and stormwater collection, waterless urinals, and low flow fixtures and fittings that will assist to create a business environment that is 100% water efficient.
“The mains water for drinking that is required by regulation will be offset by the export of Class A water from the site. In fact, we expect the amount exported will more than offset the volume of water drawn from the mains.”
Glen Simpson, CEO Coffey International Development and executive director of Coffey International Limited, says all precipitation on the site – both on buildings and open areas – will be collected, filtered and treated.
“WorldPark 01 Adelaide will achieve water neutrality through the use of on-site blackwater and greywater treatment plants. Rainwater and stormwater will be directed through vegetation swales and collected in the site detention pond for use within the blackwater treatment plant. Similarly, wastewater from air conditioning systems, showers, hand basins and toilets will be treated by the greywater and blackwater treatment plants to provide Class ‘A’ water that can be used for toilet flushing, air conditioning units and irrigation purposes,” he said.
“Rainwater will be harvested from roof areas via a siphonic roof drainage system. It will then be disinfected by UV sterilisation in accordance with SA Water requirements to achieve a potable standard to serve basins, showers and tenancy requirements. The water will be stored in centralised rainwater tanks.
“A UPVC sanitary drainage system will be provided throughout the buildings and the wastewater will run by gravity to a pumping pit and then to a central bio-reactor blackwater treatment plant for eventual reuse within the building for toilet flushing and cooling towers. It is anticipated that all the treated water will be recycled on-site. Any excess will discharge to SA Water’s sewer.
“Trade waste will drain to 2,400 litre grease arrestors with a suction line to enable remote pump-out of the grease arrestors. The remaining waste will bypass the central blackwater treatment plant and discharge to the water authority’s sewer connection.”
It is planned that stormwater from the large car parking area will drain to an oil plate separator where oil from the car park will be removed. The water will then be stored in reed bed swales and used for irrigation of gardens.
Simpson emphasises that WorldPark 01 Adelaide has been designed to be extremely efficient in its water usage and will feature a range of low-flow fixtures and fittings including waterless urinals.
“A standard building uses over 77,000 litres of water per day, and even a low demand building uses approximately 30,000 litres per day. The entire 3 hectare precinct will incorporate three office buildings capable of housing more than 3,000 employees, yet use only 7,500 litres of water a day.
“This represents a saving of 90% of mains water consumption per year or 25 million litres – enough water to fill 10 Olympic-sized swimming pools each year. An additional benefit is that these initiatives will cut sewage discharge from WorldPark 01 Adelaide by 96%, significantly reducing the load on municipal treatment plants.
“The WorldPark 01 Adelaide site will be landscaped and revegetated with specially selected Adelaide Plains species that have been lost to the area. This will encourage the return of native birds and small animals.
“Other green initiatives include monitoring of energy and water consumption and implementation of waste management systems, together with installation of solar hot water systems and a thermal energy storage system to reduce peak energy demand on the grid system.
“Recycled materials will be utilised in construction of the buildings, which will incorporate extensive insulation, and use will be made of cooling tower refrigerants with zero ozone depleting potential. Showers will be provided together with secure bike storage to encourage employees to cycle to work, thereby reducing carbon emissions even further.”
Strong support
The SA Water Corporation has involvement in many successful water saving initiatives throughout South Australia and fully supports water efficient and sustainable plumbing systems.
The Corporation’s plumbing services and compliance manager, Jeff Clark, says the WorldPark project in Adelaide demonstrates the cutting edge of plumbing design and water saving innovation.
“This project is akin to the recycled water scheme at Adelaide’s Mawson Lakes where an alternative water supply service is provided to each individual residential and commercial building. The WorldPark project will be able to deliver recycled water to each building in the development where it will be used for such purposes as toilet flushing, cooling towers and irrigation. An on-site wastewater treatment plant will be installed to treat the water to Class A level,” Clark said.
“To maximise the water reuse potential for this project, the hydraulic services have been designed to encompass all available water supplies, taking full advantage of collected roof rainwater and stormwater run-off.
“SA Water’s involvement with this project, as the technical regulator for plumbing and the network utility operator, is to provide it with water and wastewater services. Our customer technical services branch, in consultation with the Department of Health, will approve the wastewater treatment plant and hydraulic plumbing systems design.
“Prior to the project’s commencement, discussions have been held with the hydraulic design consultant and plumbing contractor to ensure the recycled water systems are designed and installed in accordance with AS/NZS 3500:2003, the Australian Plumbing Standard. During the project’s construction, SA Water will perform regular on-site audits of the plumbing installation to ensure compliance with these standards.
“Developments such as these will assist South Australia’s efforts in providing sustainable developments to help conserve the State’s precious water resources.”
Coffey International will anchor the first of three stages of WorldPark 01 Adelaide with a commitment to occupy 7,000 square metres in Stage 1, out of a total 9,000 square metres. Coffey companies to co-locate will include Coffey Geotechnics, Coffey Environments, Coffey International Development, Coffey Mining, Coffey Training, Coffey Projects and Coffey Natural Systems.
Second WorldPark
A second Australian WorldPark green business precinct is due to commence construction in Melbourne in late 2008.
Coffey’s Glen Simpson advises that, at an estimated end value of AU$180 million, the total development is expected to comprise 25,000 to 30,000 square metres of campus-style ‘green’ office accommodation.
“Like the Adelaide project, the WorldPark in Melbourne will be environmentally friendly, people friendly and space friendly, and will be carefully designed using the latest in green building technology. Significant interest in the concept is being shown by the business community and could result in the development of similar precincts in other capital cities around Australia,” he said.