Building for the future
Building for the future
We are focussed on ensuring that our new developments represent sustainable and resilient communities. In approaching development, we not only consider the creation of the community but, as we continue to own and operate the completed development, the longer-term impacts related to ongoing ownership and operation.
A key focus has been targeting carbon neutral outcomes and this has seen us implement a range of different initiatives in FY 22, including:
- All electric homes at current projects including Ballarat, Lara, Bob’s Farm, Freshwater, Queensland projects and planned at all future communities.
- Battery installation at Seachange Toowoomba and Hervey Bay
- Our community hub at Ingenia Lifestyle Nature’s Edge will use geothermal heating and cooling for the pool as well as air-conditioning of the facilities. We are investigating the further roll-out of geothermal in our future communities
- Electric charging stations at all future communities, electric cars and/or E-bikes for resident use at Ballarat and Lara
- Registering Fullerton Cove and Beveridge for a Green Star – Communities rating
- At Ballarat, NCC Energy Efficiency Compliance for all homes (6-star rating). The homes will have 2 kW solar, heat pumps and will be future proofed for battery installation
- Ongoing training for our team to enhance their knowledge of new technologies and generate consistencies in approach across diverse projects.
New developments will have waterwise landscaping and drought tolerant planting. At Ballarat, to capture and reuse water, a 400m3 Tank has been installed under the bowling green in the Clubhouse precinct. The Lara community hub bathrooms are planned to
have intelligent tapware and fixtures that provide real time data on water consumption, use and alerts. This additional layer of management will provide efficiency improvements in terms of consumption and maintenance. Water storage is also present at Ingenia Lifestyle Hervey Bay and we plan to have water retention initiatives in all future communities.
Recycled water will also be utilised for toilet flushing (with supplementary treatment as
appropriate) and irrigation at the community hub.
Our planned community at Bargara is targeting the recycling and reuse of 60% of all construction and demolition waste. Also, composting will be provided in the community garden. All communities will have measures for effective recycling of waste.
During the year, we engaged energy infrastructure consultants to help us build an energy model that we can build into our future community designs. The aim of the model is to ensure we can achieve our carbon neutral ambitions in our new developments, maximise customer benefit through reduced cost and green energy provision whilst ensuring reliability. The model considers capacity requirements for DER (Distributed Energy Resources) inclusions such as solar, batteries, future EV charging and more efficient home designs. We will complete this work in 2023 before reviewing applicability to existing assets.
We are building on the initiatives we have in place and strive to constantly improve our approach as we learn from these initiatives and commence new developments. Over FY23 we will further standardise a range of sustainability elements and processes across future developments.