Office Buildings

Veolia works closely with office building owners / managers to create more efficient buildings that reduce energy and water consumption. Our end-to-end solutions not only ensure a comfortable operating environment for staff and the public, but also generate lower operating costs, higher rental returns and occupancy rates.

 

Office Building Challenges

 Office building owners today are faced with multiple challenges including:

  • Environmental: Improving NABERS rating, reducing their energy consumption and environmental footprint and complying with regulations.
  • Property Value and Rental Yields: Achieving optimal rental yields, improving property valuations, remaining competitive, sourcing low cost financing solutions and modernising property assets and facilities.
  • Rising Costs: Rising energy and utilities costs, access to less capital and managing budgets.
  • Tenant needs: Mindful of their environmental objectives, improving comfort for tenants, generate bills for tenants based on an accurate record of their energy usage and informing users of their building about eco-friendly practices.
  • Managing Risk: Estimating the optimal upgrade investment, outsourcing multi-technical services to a provider that will sustain or improve the buildings performance and managing environmental and health risks.

 

Benefits to Your Business

Building owners

  • NABERs rating improvement guarantee
  • Energy performance guarantee
  • Uplift in building valuation
  • Improved lettability of the building (more sustainable)
  • Reduced carbon footprint
  • Reporting ensures that costs are transferred transparently to tenants, minimising risk and disputes
  • Guarantees provide certainty in avoiding energy savings erosion thereby maximising ROI
  • Both asset management and energy efficiency are optimised through an end-to-end solution
  • Reduced water consumption
  • Improved waste management
  • Full and immediate recovery of cost of capital and amortisation and access to cheaper funding

Tenants

  • Improved tenancy sustainability
  • Improved building comfort
  • Reduced energy bills

 

Veolia's office building solutions

In office buildings, our teams' primary concern is to provide thousands of employees with a comfortable environment in which they can turn out quality work. No matter the size or number of offices involved, we offer customers an array of skills and quality service through a single point of contact.

Waste Management Solutions

  • Waste management and resource recovery, including handling of process waste for recovery, general waste and recyclables, hazardous liquid and sludge waste collection
  • Site assessments, including NABERS Audit
  • Greenfield design/ development of waste/recycling facilities
  • Service re-engineering – collection systems, on-site processing
  • Assistance in planning and approvals
  • Product destruction
  • Training and education
  • Environmental and efficiency reporting 

Water Management Solutions

  • Water filtration and purification
  • Bespoke system designs
  • Integrated heat cleaning cycles ensure maintenance of hygienic pathways
  • Potable water systems
  • Exceed regulatory requirements with consistently high water quality
  • Minimise your environmental footprint

Energy Management Solutions

  • District Energy networks, Combined Heat and Power (CHP), Biomass systems to provide electricity and heating/cooling
  • Energy Performance Contracts (EPCs) for building upgrades and O&M performance guarantees
  • Preventative and corrective energy asset maintenance contracts
  • Installation, design, development and upgrading of energy systems and equipment, including heating, ventilation and air-conditioning
  • Managing energy performance of facilities and equipment
  • Remote management
  • Reporting on clients energy usage and reductions
  • Energy Performance Contracts (EPCs) for building upgrades and O&M performance guarantees that optimise operating costs by managing HVAC systems, communication networks, lighting, lifts, emergency and safety systems, cleaning and other services.
  • Environmental Upgrade Agreements (EUA’s) - enabling building owners to upgrade facilities using attractive financing structures to provide a cash-flow positive project, enabling energy, water or waste efficiency upgrades
  • Energy audits, including NABERS assessment
  • Preventative and corrective energy asset maintenance contracts
  • Installation, design, development and upgrading of energy systems and equipment, including heating, ventilation and air-conditioning
  • Managing energy performance of facilities and equipment
  • Remote management
  • Reporting on clients energy usage and reductions
  • Demand-side reduction
  • Carbon footprint management

Environmental Upgrade Agreements

NABERS is the National Australian Built Environment Rating System and it used to measure the environmental performance of Australian buildings and homes. It is used to measure and rate energy efficiency, water usage, waste management, and the indoor environment quality of your building or home and its overall impact on the environment.
 

Government program for upgrading your assets

There is a program supported by the Federal Government that enables building owners to upgrade their buildings using a highly attractive financing structure that can, in many cases, provide a cash flow positive project that will enable the implementation of an energy, water or waste efficiency upgrade.
 
The program is called "Environmental Upgrade Agreements" (EUAs) and is a loan from an authorised funding provider that is forwarded to an energy service provider, such as Veolia. The loan is payable to the financier by the property owner but the mechanism for doing so is through a statutory charge levied by the Council. The benefits of this structure include:

  • Lower cost, fixed, and long dated loan (currently 10 years fixed);
  • No security registered on title, protecting other lines of credit;
  • Capital costs can be shared with tenants without burdening tenants with out of pocket costs;
  • Lower compliance costs compared to traditional loans;
  • If the ownership of the land transfers, the financing remains with the land.
  • In general, equity yields should be maintained or increased with improved financial returns on the asset, and protection from energy price rises.

 

Veolia's approach: Greener buildings

Veolia has developed a complete, turnkey approach to delivering EUAs that includes design, build, asset management and guarantees. This maximises return on investment, ensures tenant satisfaction and minimises owner’s risk. Essentially, Veolia guarantees an improved NABERS rating and building energy efficiency through an Energy Performance Contract employing a EUA financing mechanism.
 

Benefits to this approach

An EUA is ideal for property owners and property managers as it minimises risk and potential disputes. With a EUA, property owners are able pass on the costs of the upgrades to a tenant in a net lease scenario, but only if costs are less than or equal to the reduction in their energy bills.
 
With Veolia, this is strengthened by our NABERS and energy performance guarantees and reporting, ensuring that costs can be transparently transferred to tenants. In a typical energy efficiency upgrade project, there is a natural erosion of savings over time due to operational degradation, design attrition or equipment disrepair. With Veolia we guarantee that there will be no savings erosion thereby maximising return on investment while minimising risk of a decreasing yield.
 
Although a EUA is a loan, security attaches to the land and not the building owner. This means that if the building is sold the loan is passed on with the building. With a EUA with Veolia, potential new owners have the security to know that the project return, reporting and costs are all completely assured.

In the heart of Sydney one of Australia’s most progressive property developers required a comprehensive, low risk building upgrade to a 17-storey commercial building.

Veolia initiated the first building refurbishment under an Environmental Upgrade Agreement (EUA) in Sydney’s CBD, delivering a unique turnkey solution that consisted of systems, products and services to achieve an optimal balance of building performance and sustainability.

The upgrade included the identification of multiple Energy Conservation Measures, reducing energy consumption by 36%, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 35% through innovative systems including:
 
  • A new and more efficient chilled water and heating hot water system
  • Improvement of the existing building management system
  • Replacement of existing lighting with new high efficient LED lighting
  • Installation of new air handling units
  • A long term maintenance contract
Polaris Data Centre is a mission critical $212 million technological facility in Greater Springfield, Queensland. The largest Data Centre of its type in Queensland at 7,000 square metres, the plant required a complete asset management service that would reliably and effectively support the data performance demands of its users.

Veolia established a strategic alliance with the owner, assuming responsibility for the operations and maintenance of Polaris’ building and utilities, through a 15-year Comprehensive Multi-Technical Asset Management contract, driven by KPIs and user service levels. We ensured the overall energy efficiency of the centre, and managed staff, subcontractors, administration, policy and procedures.

Veolia improved the facility’s competitiveness through optimised power usage effectiveness (PUE), operating conditions and energy costs, extending the life of energy infrastructure. This multi-technical asset management solution provided the client with greater energy efficiency, controlled costs, improved PUE and enhanced ICT sustainability.

 
The Barangaroo South Precinct is a 7.5 hectare site on Sydney’s harbourfront and aims to become the first large-scale, carbon-neutral precinct in Australia. With a mix of uses including three commercial towers, more than 800 apartments, retail and dining along with a hotel and casino complex, it will be home to around 1,200 residents, 23,000 office workers and more than 2.9 hectares of public space.

Lendlease selected Veolia to provide comprehensive environmental services to ensure a carbon neutral and water positive outcome for this landmark commercial precinct. The centralised district-wide chiller plant will be cooled by seawater from Sydney Harbour, reducing electrical demand and greenhouse gas emissions. The site will also provide recycled water from Barangaroo to Sydney’s CBD.

At Barangaroo, Veolia will operate and maintain one of Australia’s largest district energy, cooling and water treatment schemes, creating optimal thermal comfort for residents, tenants and visitors and a new industry benchmark of performance and reliability. We will be responsible for operating and maintaining:
  • A 62 megawatt district cooling network
  • High voltage embedded electrical network
  • A recycled water treatment plant