The 123 Queen Street agreement, signed between the City of Melbourne, National Australia Bank, Low Carbon Australia Limited and the building owner is the first privately funded environmental upgrade agreement through the 1200 Buildings Program.

The $1.3 million retrofit of 123 Queen Street will include the installation of a trigeneration system to generate electricity, heating and cooling, as well as occupancy sensors and double glazing.

The Kings Technology Park (KTP) agreement, signed between the City of Melbourne, Sustainable Melbourne Fund and the building owner, will provide funding towards a $3.2 million retrofit of the business precinct at 100 Dorcas Street, South Melbourne.

The upgrade of KTP will see four of the five precinct buildings fitted with high efficiency chillers, cooling towers, lighting system upgrades and heating and air conditioning units and controls.

Researching white roofs in Melbourne

The City of Melbourne has also launched research in collaboration with the University of Melbourne, which will give buildings owners across Melbourne access to information that can help their buildings absorb less heat and stay cooler during hot days.

The research assesses the benefits of white roofs – roofs painted white that are able to reflect heat away from the building rather than absorbing it – and aims to help residential, commercial and industrial building owners determine if white roofs are suitable for their buildings and guide them through the best materials to use.

Dr Dominique Hes, a senior lecturer at the University of Melbourne in sustainable architecture and lead author of the research explained that: “Reflective white paint on commercial building roofs reduces the energy used to cool the building. Melbourne’s CBD has over 3,500,000m2 of lettable commercial space. If the roofs of these buildings were painted white, the city could in theory reduce its carbon dioxide emissions by 1.5 million kilos of carbon dioxide.”