Green is not only a colour in the camouflage of the Australian Defence Force. Warren McLaren reports on how it has also become an integral element of how they approach the design and refurbishment of their facilities.

The military have a love affair with acronyms and earlier this decade added another to their arsenal in the form of ecologically sustainable develop ment (ESD), a design discipline which has since embedded itself with in the military’s property strategy.

We take a retrospective peek at just a few of their accomplishments to date.

One such facility is considered one of the most secure in Australia, yet still scores a 5 star Australian Building Greenhouse Rating (ABGR), one of the first commonwealth buildings to do so (ABGR is now National Australian Built Environment Rating Scheme (NABERS) Office).

There is a pleasing symmetry to the concept of an ultra-high security building that also defers to sustainable design — both aspects emphasise the concept of self reliance. And that’s certainly the case with the Australian Defence Forces (ADF) new Headquarters Joint Operations Command (HJOC), which Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, opened in March this year.

The $300 million dollar establish ment is the control centre for all ADF actions throughout the world, be they warfare, peacekeeping or natural dis aster relief. The complex is the first major public private partnership (PPP) joint venture that the Australian commonwealth govern ment has entered into, in this case with a consortium known as Praeco, which includes infrastructure contrac tor Leighton, which will provide the facility to the ADF for 30 years, after which it will revert to government ownership. The HJOC, known for mally as the General John Baker Complex (and colloquially as ‘Bungendore’ due to its proximity to the town of the same name), accom modates about 750 military and civil ian staff.

On that aforementioned notion of self sufficiency, the HJOC proves it green credentials by managing all its water needs on-site — there’s a water bore, rainwater collection systems and in-house water and sewerage treatment systems. One could easily imagine the command centre at Bungendore receiving high profile support from the government as it’s under the nose of politicians, being only about 25 kilometres from Canberra.

You might not expect that further flung facilities would get the same level of green detailing, but they do.

The Australian Defence Force is the government’s largest property manager and one of the largest across the country, responsible for some $12.6 billion worth of land and build ings. That’s not a static figure, for in the past couple of years it has put up 18 major projects for parliamentary clearance, with the total spend on major capital facilities being close to $570 million in 2007 to 2008.

Squeeze in just shy of 70,000 staff to such facilities and you begin to see why the military is well aware that it is our government’s single largest departmental contributor to green house pollution — a whopping 45 per cent of the Commonwealth’s total emissions, with an annual electricity bill of about $74 million. This is to be expected, given it has 25,000 facilities to manage spread across 64 major bases and 3.4 million hectares of land.

The Department of Defence was a founding member of the Green Building Council of Australia (GBCA) in 2002, and as part of its ESD strategy, proclaim that “Defence is committed to pursuing the applica tion of ESD principles in its built environment, including the develop ment of new facilities and the refur bishment of older properties,” plan ning to cut its energy use by 10 per cent.

Defence has identified a range of benefits that operating and/or leasing green buildings will afford it. These include, in part: improving the pro ductivity and health of occupants; reducing energy and water costs (and exposure to rising utility costs); reduc ing environmental risks through appropriate ESD measures (e.g. utilis ing natural ventilation to maintain indoor environment quality during air- conditioning power shut-downs); and producing better buildings by adopt ing an integrated design approach.

The army’s Lavarack Barracks in Townsville, Queensland, includes around 80 buildings of around 60,000 sqm floor area. The office facilities for the site achieve the equivalence to a 4.5 star ABGR. Water consumption is 20 per cent lower than building code requirements, which has been accomplished with waterless urinals, AAA rated fixtures and electronic metered appliances.

Although the facilities are mostly non-air-conditioned to aid staff accli matisation for comparable tropical conditions, green design was employed to provide some comfort via the orientation of buildings to enhance cross flow ventilation, along with solar shading, thermal reflecting cladding and good insulation. Practitioners like Bligh Voller Nield and Theiss have had long involve ment with the architecture and deliv ery of these green buildings, which have been recognised by AIA awards, as was the multi-award win ning eco development at Victoria Barracks in Paddington, NSW, by Bates Smart.

Award winning is something that the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) is also familiar with, particu larly through its Headquarters Building at Richmond in NSW. This is the first building in Australia to be award the GBCA 5 star Green Star rating for both design and build. The design, by Bligh Voller Nield, also resulted in it being the first Defence building to achieve a Green Star rat ing. Another high security building hidden away from the general public, it nevertheless picked up numerous AIA awards for ecologically sustain able design and energy efficiency, as well as the coveted NSW Sir John Sulman Award for outstanding archi tecture in public buildings.

The Richmond Headquarters incorporates 65 per cent recycled timber, including blackbutt cladding, exposed thermal mass and double- glazing. Ventilation stacks help ensure fresh air is provided at a rate 150 per cent above the Australian standard. Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plumbing was avoided through the use of high density polyethylene (HDPE) instead. Water waste was minimised with rainwater collection and reticulation employed for toilet flushing. A modular interior fitout allows for easy modification and eventual deconstruction, and the building has reduced its energy con sumption by 25 per cent, compared with previous facilities.

The RAAF Base at Amberley has also been redeveloped, with water and energy efficiency designs folded into around $70 million worth of facilities. Showers are supplied with solar hot water, buildings use recy cled concrete and steel and max imise daylighting, artificial lighting is minimised through the application of occupancy sensors, while rainwa ter is harvested from roofs and paved areas to feed a vehicle wash facility.

A 4.5 star ABGR was attained by the RAAF’s new training college at Wagga Wagga, NSW, when the RAAF relocated its training facilities from Point Cook and Edinburgh to 40,000 sqm worth of new buildings at both Wagga and East Sale, Victoria. The latter also provided its own environmental challenges, with buildings having to be designed to fit in and around a site that held 66 trees.

The Department of Defence’s Green Building Policy points out that our military have “the opportunity to demonstrate environmental leadership in the design, procurement and operation of green buildings”.

The John Holland company acknowledges the accuracy of this statement when describing its work to refurbish parts of the Canungra Military Base in Queensland. “Having met the waste reduction tar get, the key environmental benefit will come when the lessons learned through this project are applied across our business to save on waste management costs and reduce envi ronmental impacts.” The targets it is referring to are Defence’s stipulation that 70 per cent of construction and demolition waste must be diverted from landfill on all of its projects.

The Green Building Policy goes on to say: “Defence also has the poten tial to play a key role in assisting the development of new and smarter building technologies, and, through its procurement/leasing decisions, to increase the sustainability skills/expe rience of the Australian building industry. These can have far reaching benefits which transcend the Defence portfolio.”

Architecture & Design Team

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