COUNCIL HOUSE 2 (CH2) NEW MUNICIPAL OFFICE BUILDING: ECO-BUILDING CUTS CO2 87%, ELECTRICITY 82%, GAS 87% AND WATER 72% (continued...)

BUILDING COSTS
Total building costs $51.045 million, including:

• $29.9 million for the base building (2,334$/m2 or 58.5% of cost)
• $11.3 million for sustainability features (884$/m² or 22.1% of cost).
• $2.8 million on education and demonstration (218$/m² or 5.5% of cost).
• $7.1 million on requirements specific to Council use, such as special design and communications (553$/m² or 13.9%of cost).

FINACIAL SAVINGS
Total financial savings of $1.45 million annually, including:

• $1.12 million through effectiveness and wellbeing improvement.
• $330,000 in electricity, gas and water

CH2 will pay for its sustainability features, worth $11.3 million, in a decade.

ENERGY EFFICIENCY
The building consumes 373,012 kWh of electricity and 65,963kWh of gas annually. Compared to the previous Council building (c1970), this equals savings of:

• 82% electricity consumption
• 87% gas consumption
• 72% mains water supply
• 4.9% improvement in staff effectiveness as a result of the healthier building (clean fresh air and non-toxic finishes)

APPLICATION
CH2 has been successful because it has taken a ‘ground up’ green design approach, for example:

• designers considered the best environmental options and solutions
• recycled products such as concrete, cement, steel and timber were used in construction
• sustainable and energy savings products were used at every point a formal accreditation system was set up requiring all contractors, service providers and companies supplying products, to meet strict standards of sustainability in their products and services.

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