The new $129 million Melbourne School of Design – the Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning building has achieved a 6 star and 10 innovation point outcome through the Green Star LCA Innovation Challenge.

Through use of the eTool LCD software, ESD consultant Umow Lai and John Wardle Architects can boast to have one of the earliest projects to have successfully utilised the new Green Star Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) Innovation Credit system.

The 15,700sqm project obtained a challenging 6 Star Green Star Rating and 10 innovation points, five of which came from a joint effort from Umow Lai and eTool.

“The 6 star certified rating was largely achieved through the high degree of design integration and innovation incorporated through the design process,” Umow Lai principal sustainability consultant Shane Ensmore said.

Richard Stokes from Umow Lai also agrees, explaining  that using eTool LCD simplified the otherwise very complex process while also adding valuable information to the project.

“It was great to be able to put together the full life cycle model of the design and get a detailed understanding of the embodied and operational environmental impacts across a range of metrics,” said Stokes.

The other five credits were given for the projects cross laminated timber concrete composite slab (1 credit),  it’s performing marketing intelligence (1 credit), it’s removal of all car parking on the project site (2 credits) and it’s preservation and integration of the existing Joseph Reed façade (1 credit).

eTool Co-founder and Business Development Director Alex Bruce commented that eTool LCD’s ability to provide a complete picture of a design’s environmental impacts and enable project teams to make quantifiable improvements, is ensuring the software remains the best tool of choice for LCA. eTool is also EN15978-compliant. 

See the University of Melbourne’s building performance video with John Wardle Architects below: