Sustainable Development

As we look to the future of retail, we see an increasing need to focus our developments and tenancy design on human-centred aspects so that we can deliver market-leading destinations.

In May 2018, we established a Design Centre of Excellence to ensure this focus is maintained across all of our projects.

We also developed and rolled out a sustainable design brief, which sets out a consistent set of guidelines and minimum requirements for integrating the long-term objectives of our Sustainability strategy into our major construction, asset refurbishment and capital upgrade projects.

The sustainable design brief guides our development project managers and contractors on how to implement all elements of our Sustainability strategy across the conception, design, planning and delivery stages of a project.

It additionally includes key elements of the Green Star Design & As Built framework, identifying a range of best practice solutions relating to energy, water, waste, building materials, transport and biodiversity, as well as enhanced health, wellbeing and social inclusion outcomes for implementation. Vicinity uses our Green Star ratings to demonstrate our commitment to sustainability leadership as we create market-leading destinations for our communities.

The Glen has undergone a significant transformation with a $430m redevelopment, taking over two years to deliver with the final stage opening in August 2019. The redevelopment includes a new indoor-outdoor dining precinct, two-storey David Jones and new fashion and lifestyle stores.

The development was certified 4 Star Green Star Design & As Built v1.1 in October 2019. Sustainable practices were implemented throughout the building process and a number of best practice sustainable design features have been included, such as:

• Construction practices which resulted in 95 per cent of all construction and demolition waste being recycled;

• Low impact construction materials such as sustainably sourced steel and certified timber, informed by Life Cycle Assessment analysis;

• Superior indoor environment quality that provides a comfortable space with access to natural light and minimises pollutants from paints and glues for our retailers and consumers;

• Enhanced resilience to climate risks such as extreme heat and increased rainfall and wind events, informed by the centres’ Climate Resilience and Adaptation Plan; and

• Highly efficient and waterless fixtures and fittings, recapture and reuse of water from fire systems testing, and rainwater storage tanks for provision of landscape irrigation.

Vicinity’s ‘Tower One’ at Chadstone is the home of our National corporate office and has been designed and constructed to be a high quality and operationally efficient office asset, achieving a 5 Star Green Star Design & As Built rating (Office v3), representing Australian Excellence.

The development focused on a number of sustainability initiatives, both integrated into the building’s design and construction as well as our office tenancy fit out that make a measurable and positive impact on the environment and local community, while delivering value back to Vicinity, our tenants and our people.

The building additionally received a 5 Star Green Star Design/As-Built rating in 2017, and the office fit-out – OneWorkplace – was awarded a 5 Star Green Star Interiors v1.1 certified rating at a ceremony at our National Chadstone Office in January 2019.

The fit-out was designed to promote collaboration, employee engagement reduce environmental impacts and place a significant focus on health and wellbeing.

To promote both physical and mental wellbeing our entire office fit-out includes sit-to-stand ergonomic work stations, an internal stairway connecting all Vicinity floors, high-quality end-of-trip facilities, a wellness room, and a table tennis table.

The office also provides exceptional indoor environment quality including: thermal comfort; fresh air and ventilation; carbon dioxide sensors and controls; glare controls; acoustic controls and reduced volatile organic compounds (VOCs) pollutants.

Our office space includes plenty of greenery and natural light – factors that enhance employee productivity – with all workstations located within three meters of an external window.

Vicinity has also implemented a new waste and recycling program for our office, including a paper minimal workplace. Our internal café, The Loop Café, encourages our people to opt for their coffees in reusable mugs and consolidated recycling and waste stations, organics, and coffee cup recycling facilities are also installed on all floors and kitchen areas to promote higher recycling rates.

Hotel Chadstone opened in November 2019 and is currently undergoing Green Star As-Built certification. The $130 million hotel is located adjacent to Chadstone’s retail centre and includes 250 rooms, conference facilities, a ballroom, two restaurants, spa facilities, and a rooftop bar and lounge. The hotel is operated as MGallery by Sofitel and caters to business travelers to the busy Monash region and visitors to Chadstone.

Some of the key sustainability features of the building include:

• Implementation of a Climate Adaptation Plan for the building

• Implementation of a building management system that includes energy, gas and water sub-metering for monitoring and driving efficiency;

• Water use reduction through the use of high-efficiency fixtures and fittings and a large rainwater harvesting system providing water for toilet flushing and landscape irrigation;

• The use of low impact building materials; and

• A comprehensive waste management plan that provided appropriate capacity for recycling infrastructure, reducing waste from landfill.