Australian independent engineering consultancy, Floth, has been awarded WELL certification for its innovative Brisbane headquarters.
The prestigious distinction was awarded through WELL v2, the latest version of the WELL Building Standard (WELL) from the International WELL Building Institute (IWBI).
The announcement marks Queensland’s first WELL v2 certification, while Floth has also received the highest level of certification – Platinum.
An independently-verified, performance-based system for measuring, certifying and monitoring features of buildings that impact human health and wellbeing, WELL uses metrics such as air, water, nourishment, light, movement, thermal comfort, sound, materials, mind and community.
WELL is grounded in a body of evidence-based research that explores the connection between the buildings where we spend approximately 90 per cent of our time, and the health and wellness impacts on the people inside these buildings.
Floth’s head office, located at 69 Robertson Street in Brisbane’s vibrant suburb of Fortitude Valley, incorporates an optimised building design and construction that places it among the most sustainable buildings in the world.
The architectural design consists of three storeys of office space, which were developed by the company during 2015, with the building services engineering and sustainability design undertaken in-house.
Key features that have contributed to 69 Robertson Street’s recognition by the IWBI include green trellis walls, drought-tolerant plantings, sustainable material selection, indoor air quality initiatives, low carbon electrical systems, water conservation and energy efficiency measures.
Floth Group Managing Director, Glenn Ralph, said buildings have a profound impact on health, wellbeing and productivity, and that’s why the existence of the WELL standards, as a way of measuring this, are so important.
“WELL is the first and most robust building standard to focus exclusively on human health and wellness,” Mr Ralph said.
“When we set out to design and construct this building in 2015, we wanted to create a showcase for our role as sustainable building consultants – and certifications such as this confirm that we’ve delivered what we set out to achieve.”
In order to receive WELL certification from the IWBI, 69 Robertson Street underwent a rigorous review carried out by Green Business Certification Inc. (GBCI), which is the third-party certification body for WELL, to ensure it met all WELL certification performance requirements.
WELL certification is an optional step in the certification process for WELL projects, which allows registered projects to review the work already completed and confirm that they are on the correct path towards achieving certification.
Today’s announcement follows 69 Robertson Street’s recognition in early 2020 as the only building in Australia, and one of only three in the world, nominated as a ‘Game Changer’ in the World Green Building Council (WorldGBC) Online Case Study Library.
The WorldGBC Library showcases the most cutting-edge examples of sustainable building from around the world, with each case study demonstrating a building that has enhanced performance in relation to health benefits and net-zero operational carbon, as verified by established certification schemes, rating tools or other verification systems.
The building is also famed for achieving a hat-trick of firsts in Australia, including the first six-star Green Star Design and As-Built v1.1 certified rating in the country and the first six-star National Australian Built Environment Rating System (NABERS) indoor environment rating.
69 Robertson Street has been recognised as the first building to publicly adopt the Australian Sustainable Built Environment Council (ASBEC) Zero Carbon Standard Building definition by virtue of highly energy-efficient design, 28 per cent on-site renewable energy contribution from a roof-mounted photovoltaic system and 100 per cent ‘greenpower’ purchase to offset remaining operational emissions.
The building has also been recognised as the first Climate Active Carbon Neutral building in Queensland, in conjunction with the achievement of 5.5-star NABERS Energy (without GreenPower) rating and 6-Star (with Green Power) rating, as well as a 6-star NABERS Water rating.