EcoMix® contributes to first 6 Green Star industrial development
The very first New Zealand industrial development to nail a world-leading 6 Green Star certified rating from the New Zealand Green Star Building Council (NZBC) is the Tāwharau Lane Project for Goodman Property Trust, built in East Tamaki, Auckland. The three completed buildings encompass a whopping 8,315m2 of floor space which required large volumes of Firth EcoMix® Low Carbon Concrete, poured by specialist concrete construction company Conset Construction, contributing to this significant milestone.
This multi-warehouse project in Highbook Business Park has been awarded the 6 Green Star rating to recognise the development’s exceptional sustainability features and resource efficiency with numerous factors contributing to the overall result.
Alan Ross, General Manager for Conset Construction who were tasked with pouring the vast concrete floors for the new buildings says, “we were asked about 18 months ago to provide Global Warming Potential (GWP) calculations for the concrete to be used to SMC Construction, the main contractor for the build. The concrete component is part of the overall calculation as everything is taken into consideration, even the orientation and profile of the buildings were carefully designed to make the best use of the site."
Partnering with Firth for all their concrete needs is something Alan is very grateful for. “The technical team at Firth are second to none. For this project, and many others, I can call on Dene Cook, Divisional Technical Manager Concrete Division for Fletcher Building or Rob McKinnon, Materials Manager (Northern) for Firth - actually any of the technical team - knowing that they know their stuff.”
Alan says that the pours began for the Tāwharau Lane Project in June 2022 and went through to December of that year. “Typically the pours were between 120 - 200m3 at a time with the total floor area for both the internal slabs and the exterior hard surfaces being about 12,400m2.”
“As always, the Firth teams were fantastic to deal with for this and other work we do with them. We have been navigating the Low Carbon Concrete journey together as all the concrete we now use for our projects include Golden Bay’s EcoSure® cement to produce Firth’s EcoMix® Low Carbon Concrete.”
“This project is a great example of when the combined skills of the contractor and ready-mix supplier work together to achieve a great end result for both the property owner and the planet,” says Dene Cook, National Technical Manager for Firth. “Both Conset and Firth pride themselves in using a holistic approach to proving cost effective, innovative low carbon solutions.”
Carbon-reducing features include:
- Passive design via optimised orientation, shading strategies and use of natural light
- Energy efficiency through design, rooftop solar, lighting and operation
- Materials selected for their environmental certification – including EcoMix® from Firth
- Water efficiency– 80% less water used compared to a standard building
- Waste reduction and recycling– 88% of total construction waste recycled, resulting in less than 1kg per m2 of construction waste
- Ecology– 12,809 m2 of planting – more than the gross floor area of the development
- EV charging stations to promote sustainable commuting and reduce carbon emissions.