Council House 2

Story

Council House 2, is an office building located at 240 Little Collins Street in the CBD of Melbourne, Australia. It is used by the City of Melbourne council, and in April 2005, became the first purpose-built office building in Australia to achieve a maximum Six Green Star rating, certified by the Green Building Council of Australia. CH2 officially opened in August 2006.Environmental featuresComparing to a building with a Five Green Star rating, CH2's emissions will be 64% lower. When compared to the existing Council House next door, it is expected to: reduce electricity consumption by 85% reduce gas consumption by 87% produce only 13% of the emissions reduce water mains supply by 72% Features include new LCD computer monitors, which will consume 77% less energy, and new T5 light fittings which should consume 65% less energy. The building also houses 48 m2 of solar panels, which provide 60% of hot water, as well as a gas-fired cogeneration plant which provides 40% of the building's overall electricity, with reduced carbon emissions.Of the total construction cost of $51 million, $12 million were invested in energy, water and waste innovation. The time for payback is expected to be less than ten years.DesignCH2 is meant to be a 'lighthouse project' for new building developments, aiming to influence future design to be more sustainable and efficient. Some objectives when designing the building were to be greenhouse neutral and improve the overall employee wellbeing. Different strategies were used when doing this but all were focused around a sustainability aspect.