ABSTRACT
More than half of the central business district (CBD) building stock in Australian cities comprises ageing office blocks. The majority of this existing commercial high-rise building stock in Australia is found to be carrying a high level of unrealised, cost-effective, energy efficiency opportunity, posing more pressures on the existing energy supply market (Warren Centre, 2009). The Warren Centre study found that the average annual energy consumption in these buildings falls between 230–270 kWh/m2. With a large proportion of existing commercial buildings in CBD office markets being over 20 years old (LaSalle, 2010), and with high energy consumption patterns, the majority of commercial properties are approaching both physical and environmental obsolescence, which poses a serious threat to global attempts to meet emission reduction targets. The LaSalle study found that the focus would need to be on at least 80 per cent of the older stock, where retrofits provide greater opportunity to achieve meaningful emission reductions.
