Building Futures helps slash greenhouse gas emissions in the Waverley LGA

^{Mayor Paula Masselos (in red) with representatives from the Astra Retirement Village, Bondi Beach. The Astra was one of the participant buildings in Round Three of the Building Futures program.}

The program has won a slew of awards to date, most recently including the Local Government Federation Award for Environmental and Sustainability Leadership in November 2020 and the NSW Local Government Award in the Towards Net Zero Emissions category in 2019.

Round Three participant buildings helped achieve the energy and cost-savings by:

• Replacing common area fluorescent lights with LED lights and step dimmer controls, for example in carparks and fire stairs
• Optimising the performance of the centralised air-conditioning system.
• Ensuring major HVAC equipment did not run outside office hours.

Mayor of Waverley, Paula Masselos, said having these measures in place means participant buildings will be able to enjoy their new-found energy and cost savings year after year.

"Building Futures is just one of the ways the Council is helping the community achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2035, a target declared by the Council in March this year,” Mayor Masselos said.

“It's a great example of how easy it is to make sustainability second nature on a large scale in an area as populous as Bondi Junction and Bondi Beach.

“Residents who live in our participant buildings should be very proud of the being a ‘Building Futures’ building and what that means for the planet.”

Participant buildings in this latest round of the program were:

• Berkley Court, Beach Rd, Bondi Beach
• 136 Curlewis St, Bondi Beach
• Princess Gardens, Princess St, Rose Bay
• 17-23 Victoria St, Queens Park
• Bondi Beach Astra Retirement Village, Bondi Beach
• Boheme, Hall St, Bondi Beach
• Park Place, Waverley St, Bondi Junction
• Encore, Oxford St, Bondi Junction
• The Beach House, Campbell St, Bondi Beach

The energy savings recorded equate to an electricity saving of 325,861 kWhs per annum and cost savings of more than $67,000 (excluding GST) each year. Participant buildings also saved on average $1,400 per site by moving onto the correct electricity and gas tariffs.

Generally, the cost to implement the various energy saving measures is recouped within two-a-half years, with some projects paying off in as little as a few months.