Sustainability

 Our team are passionate about sustainability and actively seek sustainable solutions in all projects.

Bateup Consulting is a carbon neutral company and is experienced in implementing sustainable solutions and features in buildings and workplaces and, when opportunities arise, use green project management principles aligned with the Global Goals for Sustainability. These principles are outlined in the GPM P5 standard and cover the following:

  • People,

  • Planet,

  • Prosperity,

  • Process and

  • Products.

The diagram below provides an understanding of what can be implemented as sustainable features into buildings and workplaces, aligning with meeting Sustainable Development Goals.

Ways to make a building green.

There are many examples of how we can make our buildings greener. The tips and links below highlight useful and free resources that can be applied as part of a building project or in your current environment;

Considering all stages of a building's life-cycle.

  • Seeking to lower environmental impacts and maximise social and economic value over a building's whole life-cycle (from design, construction, operation and maintenance, through to renovation and eventual demolition).

  • Ensuring that embodied resources, such as the energy or water used to produce and transport the materials in the building are minimised so that buildings are truly low impact.

Minimising waste and maximising reuse

  • GreenChair™ is a furniture repurposing program helping businesses in the construction industry to transfer furniture to NFPs, charities and community groups. This repurposing program reduces waste to landfill and is a part of the circular economy.

  • Using fewer, more durable materials and generating less waste, as well as accounting for a building’s end of life stage by designing for demolition waste recovery and reuse. 

  • Engaging building users in reuse and recycling. In WA the way we manage waste is now standardised, and can be easily integrated into your processes the basics are:

    • Red - Landfill

    • Yellow - Co-mingled Recycling

    • Blue - Cardboard / Paper

    • Green - Organics

    Approximately 88% of the energy is saved by producing plastic from plastic as opposed to plastic from the raw materials of oil and gas.

Creating Flexible structures.

  • Designing flexible and dynamic spaces, anticipating changes in their use over time, and avoiding the need to demolish, rebuild or significantly renovate buildings or workplaces to prevent them becoming obsolete.

An approach to energy.

  • Minimising energy use in all stages of a building’s life-cycle, making new and renovated buildings more comfortable and less expensive to run, and helping building users learn to be efficient too. Implementing NABERS ratings and becoming part of programmes like CitySwitch can have positive impacts.

  • Integrating renewable and low-carbon technologies to supply buildings’ energy needs, once their design has maximised inbuilt and natural efficiencies. 

Protecting our water resources.

  • Exploring ways to improve drinking and waste water efficiency and management, harvesting water for safe indoor use in innovative ways, and generally minimising water use in buildings. These can be benchmarked using the Water Corporation resources.

  • Considering the impact of buildings and their surroundings on stormwater and drainage infrastructure, ensuring these are not put under undue stress or prevented from doing their job. 

Promoting health and wellbeing.

  • Bringing fresh air inside, delivering good indoor air quality through ventilation, and avoiding materials and chemicals that create harmful or toxic emissions.

  • Incorporating natural light and views to ensure building users’ comfort and enjoyment of their surroundings, and reducing lighting energy needs in the process.

  • Designing for ears as well as eyes. Acoustics and proper sound insulation play important roles in helping concentration, recuperation, and peaceful enjoyment of a building in educational, health and residential buildings.

  • Ensuring people are comfortable in their everyday environments, creating the right indoor design or building management and monitoring systems, tools that can assist this can include the WELL rating.

  • Implementing programme that offer healthier offices, like the local programme of healthier workplaces WA.

Connecting communities and people.  

  • Creating diverse environments that connect and enhance communities, asking what a building will add to its context in terms of positive economic and social effects, and engaging local communities in planning.

  • Ensuring transport and distance to amenities are considered in design, reducing the impact of personal transport on the environment, and encouraging environmentally friendly options such as walking or cycling.

  • Exploring the potential of both ‘smart’ and information communications technologies to communicate better with the world around us, for example through smart electricity grids that understand how to transport energy where and when it is needed.

Bateup Consulting strongly believes that the project management profession should promote Sustainable Development Goals by developing objectives and plans for their projects and being active in the role to increase the success for all involved in projects, programmes and portfolios.