Christchurch’s new Civic Building is the greenest building in New Zealand, having been awarded the highest possible rating for environmental design by the New Zealand Green Building Council.
The building has been given a 6 Green Star rating with a record 83 points.
It is the first renovated building and only second building in New Zealand to achieve 6 Green Star – the first was Samson Corporation’s Geyser Building in Parnell, Auckland (this building has yet to be built).
Green Star is a national, voluntary environmental rating scheme that evaluates the environmental attributes and performance of New Zealand’s buildings.
Sustainability was a prime consideration for the new building. It represents significant cost savings for ratepayers and reflects Council’s commitment to creating a sustainable future for our community and the region.
One of the outstanding features of the new Civic Building is the installation of a tri-generation plant which means the building generates its own electricity from a renewable energy source – biogas. This is piped from the Council’s Burwood landfill site, and in future years the city’s Wastewater Treatment Plant. Waste heat in this process is used to heat and cool the building, representing annual energy savings of about $1.3 million.
Additional energy savings come from energy-efficient light fittings, automatic daylight dimming, occupancy controls and sensors on the escalators which activate only when people approach.
The northern double skin façade is a thermal solar buffering zone, a monitoring system detects when carbon dioxide (CO2) has reached a certain level and fresh air is automatically introduced through floor vents and rainwater harvesting is expected to provide one million litres of water annually, to be used to flush toilets, for landscape irrigation and the water feature.
